zkGolf
Competitive optimization of formally verified circuits
Details
- External ID
- 48763246
- Source
- HN
- Company
- —
- Product
- zkGolf
- Website domain
- zk.golf
- Launched
- July 2, 2026
- Cohort
- —
- Upvotes
- 69
- Upvotes percentile
- 0.8781362007168458
- Tags
- —
- Fetched at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:26 p.m.
- Updated at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:26 p.m.
Description
Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) let an untrusted proved show that computation was executed correctly without revealing the inputs to the verifier. However to prove anything, the computation first has to be expressed as a circuit: a system of polynomial equations (constraints) over a finite field. Circuits are the assembly language of zk and every constraint costs prover (and sometimes verifier) time, so production circuits are aggressively hand-optimized.Over the last months, we have been experimenting with writing formal specifications instead and letting LLMs produce the circuits: as long as they could prove that their implementation was correct. It started with SHA-256: we hand wrote a specification in Lean for SHA-256 compression, and then we asked LLMs to write the circuit, targeting R1CS arithmetization and large fields.It took a few hours of work for Opus 4.7, and some light steering into the right direction, but in the end the model came up with a reasonable implementation. We then asked the LLM to aggressively optimize the circuits, by driving down a cost metric of the circuit (number of constraints). We immediately got very promising results, just by asking to come up with optimization ideas, implement them and prove that the new circuit still satisfies soundness and completeness. Sometimes, it came up with unsound optimizations, however, since it could not prove them, it backtracked and got itself back on to the right approach.The result was a (non-deterministic) circuit beating the current, human optimized, state of the art for SHA256 compression. This experience lead us to create "zk.golf" which is an open competition to produce optimized, formally verified circuits to lower the bar for the use of ZKPs and make their application more efficient.Come play (https://zk.golf/llms.txt) and learn about formal verification.
Enrichment
- Theme
- scientific computing and deep tech tools
- Vertical
- Horizontal
- Function
- Dev tools
- Audience
- Developer
- AI stance
- Not AI
- Project type
- Hobby / open-source project
- Normalized one-liner
- circuit optimization competition
- Manually corrected
- False
Could you build this?
No Requires deep specialized knowledge in formal methods, interactive theorem proving (Lean 4), and zero-knowledge circuit arithmetization constraints.
What it would actually take: A platform like zkGolf requires an automated verification pipeline that checks Lean 4 proofs of circuit correctness against a formal specification, paired with a circuit cost analyzer (e.g. counting R1CS constraints or Plonkish gate allocations). Building this requires deep expertise in Lean 4 metaprogramming/formal verification alongside cryptography domain knowledge for ZK-SNARK circuit design, wrapped in an isolated, sandboxed execution backend for running untrusted proof checks safely.
Discussion
12 comments analyzed.
Concerns raised: Cheating via measuring cost only on best-case inputs with trivial zero cost, Unclear if this is a dataset fishing operation for training LLMs on Lean proofs, Term 'circuit' poorly defined - confusing with silicon design
Feature requests: Define 'circuit' terminology on the landing page
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one — 203 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #20 of 204 (itself plus its competitors, highest first — normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 239 days after the earliest competitor.
- Symbolic Circuit Distillation: prove program to LLM circuit equivalence · hn · 2026-01-06 · 16 upvotes · similarity 0.52
- ZK Visualizer · hn · 2026-01-29 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- llm-compute-allocation-modeling · github · 2026-09-24 · 11 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- ConZF · github · 2026-09-18 · 17 upvotes · similarity 0.47
- Zero-power photonic language model–code · hn · 2025-11-29 · 18 upvotes · similarity 0.47
- Hekate · hn · 2026-01-18 · 8 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- genpark-hoare-logic-wp-calculus-skill · github · 2026-09-10 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.45
- genpark-hoare-logic-axiomatic-verifier-skill · github · 2026-09-28 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.43
Other launches for this product
- No other launches for this product.
Same idea, different domain
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