Jolt, zkVMs, and speeding up blockchains

a16z crypto released the most performant zkVM to date: an open source implementation of Jolt. Jolt is up to 30% to 60% percent faster than the current state of the art, and poised to get much faster still with further optimization. But beyond just the improvement in speed, because Jolt is based on a new design paradigm, it is easier for developers to extend, and is also much easier to audit, leading to greater security. Here, a16z crypto Research Partner Justin Thaler explains what Jolt is and why it’s important.