Aligned has worked with the best firms in the industry to audit our codebase and will continue to do so. These audits help ensure that Aligned is secure and bulletproof. Read our audit reports below.
Aligned has been audited by multiple independent firms.
Our ERC20 smart contracts have been audited by multiple independent firms.
Our full codebase has undergone a public audit competition with Cantina.
Aligned is related to Ethereum but is not an L2 since it does not produce blocks. It is a decentralized network of verifiers.
Aligned runs the verifier’s code natively. The verification time depends on the proof system, program run, and public input. Generally, most verifiers can be run in the order of ms on consumer-end hardware. We can optimize the code for speed and leverage parallelization by running it natively. Current testnet can verify more than 2500 proofs per second.
Ethereum runs on top of the EVM. Each block is limited to 30,000,000 gas. Since the most efficient proof systems take at least 250,000 gas, Ethereum can verify 120 proofs per block. Aligned runs the code natively and leverages parallelization, reaching 30,000 proofs in the same period.
Verifiable computation allows developers to build applications that help Ethereum scale or even create applications that were not possible before, with enhanced privacy properties. We believe the future of Ethereum will be shaped by zero-knowledge proofs and help it increase its capabilities.
Aligned provides proof aggregation as part of its aggregation mode, a feature shared with all aggregation layers. However, Aligned offers a unique fast mode designed to provide cheap and low-latency proof verification, leveraging the power of restaking. Aligned is a decentralized network designed to verify zero-knowledge proofs and uses recursive proof aggregation as one of its tools.
Aligned is just a network of decentralized verifiers renting security from Ethereum. On the other hand, the Polygon aggregation layer, in essence, is a rollup verifying multiple proofs. That is not the case for Aligned, which just executes a rust binary from different verifiers directly in multiple Ethereum validators.
Aligned is designed to support any proof system. Currently supported ones are Groth16 and Plonk (gnark), SP1 and Risc0.
The fast mode is designed to offer very cheap verification costs and low latency. It uses crypto-economic guarantees provided by restaking; costs can be as low as 2100 gas. The aggregation mode works with proof aggregation, with higher fees and latency, and achieves the complete security of Ethereum. We verify an aggregated BLS signature (around 113,000 gas) in the fast mode. We verify an aggregated proof (around 300,000 gas) in the aggregation mode.
Yes. You can check our repo and other frequently asked questions on our GitHub page below.