ICICLE for Gnark

Warning

This is a standalone version of ICICLE specifically meant for integration with the Gnark codebase. It is NOT meant to be used together with the main ICICLE repo.

If you are looking for the main ICICLE repo, you can find it here

ICICLE is a high-performance cryptographic acceleration library designed to optimize cryptographic computations across various hardware platforms, including CPUs, GPUs, and other accelerators.

Background

Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) are considered one of the greatest achievements of modern cryptography. Accordingly, ZKPs are expected to disrupt a number of industries and will usher in an era of trustless and privacy preserving services and infrastructure.

We believe that ICICLE will be a cornerstone in the acceleration of ZKPs:

• Versatility: Supports multiple hardware platforms, making it adaptable to various computational environments.
• Efficiency: Designed to leverage the parallel nature of ZK computations, whether on GPUs, CPUs, or other accelerators.
• Scalability: Provides an easy-to-use and scalable solution for developers, allowing them to optimize cryptographic operations with minimal effort.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Any compatible hardware: CPU or Nvidia GPU.
• CMake, Version 3.18 or above. Latest version recommended
• CUDA Toolkit, Required only if using NVIDIA GPUs (version 12.0 or newer).
• Clang
• User permissions to create directories in GOMODCACHE
• User permissions to install libraries in /usr/local/lib

Note

For older GPUs that only support CUDA 11, ICICLE may still function, but official support is for CUDA 12 onwards.

Building from source

Gnark includes icicle-gnark as a direct dependency. Before gnark can use icicle-gnark, the c++ libraries need to be built. Follow these instructions to build the libs.

1. Run go mod tidy to pull all the dependecies.

2. Navigate to the icicle-gnark dependency in your GOMODCACHE and build the c++ libraries there.

   cd $(go env GOMODCACHE)/github.com/ingonyama-zk/icicle-gnark/v3@<version>/wrappers/golang
   chmod +x build.sh
   ./build.sh -curve=bn254 

3. Double check that the following frontend libs are located in /usr/local/lib.

   1. libicicle_curve_bn254.so
   2. libicicle_field_bn254.so
   3. libicicle_device.so

4. Double check that the following backend libs are located in /usr/local/lib/backend/**.

   1. libicicle_backend_cuda_curve_bn254.so
   2. libicicle_backend_cuda_field_bn254.so
   3. libicicle_backend_cuda_device.so

5. Finally, export the ICICLE_BACKEND_INSTALL_DIR environment variable to the location with the backend libraries

    export ICICLE_BACKEND_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/lib/backend

Tip

By default, the above steps build both the CPU and CUDA backends. You can switch the device by using the CreateDevice API.

Note

To specify a curve, use the flag -curve=<curve>, where <curve> can be one of the following: bn254, bls12_377, bls12_381, or bw6_761.

Currently, Gnark only has support for bn254 with icicle-gnark

Contributions

Join our Discord Server and find us on the ICICLE channel. We will be happy to work together to support your use case, and talk features, bugs and design.

Development Contributions

Please see the main ICICLE repo for contributing.

Help & Support

For help and support talk to our devs in our discord channel #ICICLE or contact us at support@ingonyama.com.

License

This version of ICICLE is distributed under the terms of the MIT License.

See LICENSE-MIT for details.