Catenaa, Sunday, May 11, 2025- Kakarot, a startup backed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and blockchain scalability leader StarkWare, has announced the completion of a new zkEVM implementation.
The project is poised to offer an independent zero-knowledge (ZK) stack to generate Ethereum block proofs in real time by the end of 2025. Kakarot’s solution, based on ZK-STARKs, is set to address Ethereum’s roadmap goal of achieving full ZK-verified blocks by 2028.
The new zkEVM is built in Cairo, StarkWare’s open-source language for generating ZK proofs, and uses the company’s STARK-based prover infrastructure.
Kakarot’s co-founder and CTO, Clement Walter, stated that by the end of 2025, the team plans to prove Ethereum Layer 1 blocks within 8 seconds, surpassing Ethereum’s native block time of 12 seconds.
Kakarot’s development is significant because it offers an alternative to the dominant Ethereum ZK stack, which typically relies on Plonky3, revm, and RISC-V.
The project aims to reduce reliance on a single technology and foster diversity in the ZK-EVM ecosystem. Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake praised Kakarot’s approach for its potential to enhance ZK-EVM robustness and prevent vulnerabilities.
StarkWare co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson lauded Kakarot’s initiative as a crucial step for Ethereum’s scalability, pointing out that client diversity is essential for the success of ZK solutions. Kakarot’s funding round, which includes support from Buterin and StarkWare, has raised $6 million to further its development.
The announcement coincides with Vitalik Buterin’s recent proposal to integrate the RISC-V architecture into Ethereum to enhance scalability.
Kakarot’s Walter emphasized that ZK-native solutions, like Kakarot’s, could offer high performance without rushing into RISC-V adoption.
Kakarot’s alternative stack aims to drive Ethereum toward the goal of full ZK scalability with real-time proof generation.
