Big news has recently emerged in the field of cryptography. Stanford University professor and renowned project founder David Tse's team has officially unveiled a brand new zero-knowledge proof verification protocol—BABE (BAbylon-BErkeley), specifically tailored for the Bitcoin ecosystem.
How impressive is this solution? Simply put, the costs for initialization and storage have been reduced by over 99.9% compared to the current optimal solutions.
Technically, BABE combines two cutting-edge cryptographic technologies: The first is witness encryption based on linear pairings. Previously, Groth16 verification required multiple complex pairing computations. Now, with this scheme, it is simplified to a single scalar multiplication on the BN254 elliptic curve. The second leverages the latest Argo MAC obfuscation primitive, transforming this scalar multiplication into a vector homomorphic MAC, significantly boosting computational efficiency.
David Tse revealed that BABE is scheduled to go live on the alpha testnet of the related project in February 2026. The goal is clear—to make zero-knowledge proof verification within the Bitcoin system cheaper and more scalable, opening new possibilities for the next stage of Bitcoin ecosystem development.
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HalfIsEmpty
· 01-18 07:59
Cut 99.9% of the costs? If this really materializes, the Bitcoin ecosystem will take off.
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SmartContractDiver
· 01-18 07:55
99.9% directly cut? That number sounds a bit suspicious; I’ll only believe it after the testnet is out.
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AirdropHunter420
· 01-18 07:54
99.9% cost reduction, this number is a bit outrageous, can you believe it?
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MemeCoinSavant
· 01-18 07:50
99.9% cost reduction sounds based but ngl, show me the peer-reviewed benchmarks fr fr... david tse knows his stuff tho, regression analysis doesn't lie
Big news has recently emerged in the field of cryptography. Stanford University professor and renowned project founder David Tse's team has officially unveiled a brand new zero-knowledge proof verification protocol—BABE (BAbylon-BErkeley), specifically tailored for the Bitcoin ecosystem.
How impressive is this solution? Simply put, the costs for initialization and storage have been reduced by over 99.9% compared to the current optimal solutions.
Technically, BABE combines two cutting-edge cryptographic technologies: The first is witness encryption based on linear pairings. Previously, Groth16 verification required multiple complex pairing computations. Now, with this scheme, it is simplified to a single scalar multiplication on the BN254 elliptic curve. The second leverages the latest Argo MAC obfuscation primitive, transforming this scalar multiplication into a vector homomorphic MAC, significantly boosting computational efficiency.
David Tse revealed that BABE is scheduled to go live on the alpha testnet of the related project in February 2026. The goal is clear—to make zero-knowledge proof verification within the Bitcoin system cheaper and more scalable, opening new possibilities for the next stage of Bitcoin ecosystem development.