A Verifiable Data Processing Environment (VDPE) is a platform that enables the processing of data in a manner that can be verified by a third-party verifier system, typically a destination system within the context of a data pipeline. The term “VDPE” specifies an environment for verifiable computation aimed at data processing.

Verity supports two types of VDPEs to ensure compatibility with a wide range of destination systems, particularly diverse blockchains, from EVM, SVM to Move:

  1. RiscZero’s zkVM
  2. The Internet Computer (IC)

However, it is entirely up to the developer to determine how data processing is facilitated in their data pipeline. In some cases, certain blockchains may be capable of receiving raw data for processing without requiring intermediary VDPEs. Specific Move-based or Rust-based blockchains provide a wide array of tooling for processing data, making this viable.

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RiscZero’s zkVM (ZK VDPE)

RiscZero is the most production-grade zkVM, designed for CPUs with smaller workloads. It is the zkVM of choice for Verity, ensuring stateless Rust development to a limit, providing data processing capabilities, and a portable succinct proof format for verification across various environments, whether on- or off-chain.

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The Internet Computer (IC VDPE)

The Internet Computer (IC) is a decentralised and replicated compute platform that enables the processing of data in a way that can be verified by a third-party verifier system, typically a destination system within the context of a data pipeline. It achieves this through Chain-key cryptography, a cryptographic primitive specific to the Internet Computer (IC).

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Verity Data Processor Framework (VDP)

The VDP Framework is designed to support developers building provers of data pipelines with libraries that abstract cryptographic complexities when integrating data with existing prominent blockchains. The VDP streamlines the incorporation of intermediary ZK or IC VDPEs for processing data from its initial state into a new state that blockchains can accept and verify.

Once data has been sourced and proofs attesting to the data sources are in place, the data can be transformed and processed with support from the VDP Framework for compatibility with a destination system, such as a prominent blockchain.

For example, consider a zkTLS-enabled Oracle that proves various data sources indicating the price of an asset. Within the VDP, these sources can be verified and a weighted aggregation performed, which can then be verified by the destination blockchain.

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Developer Requirements

Developers adopting the VDP need a programmatic pure (aka stateless) function capable of verifying the sub-proofs and processing the API response data.

For now, the Rust programming language is required.

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VDPE Purpose

The VDP libraries simplify the process of verifying these TLS proofs and their inner sub-proofs.

  • ZK VDPE: Under the hood, the Verifier is incorporated to share in MPC verification of only public facets of the TLS proof, essentially conducting precompute functions on TLS proofs, minimising ZK proving overhead and time to proof.
  • IC VDPE: The Verifier is called via cross-contract invocation, offering a simple, already deployed interface to ensure TLS proofs are verified and valid within the IC.

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Framework Flexibility

The framework allows developers to choose between:

  • ZK (Zero-Knowledge) Computation: Privacy-preserving computation.
  • IC (Decentralised) Computation: High-speed public decentralised computation powered by the Internet Computer.

Both environments leverage Rust, and the provided libraries are compatible between each environment.

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Cryptographic Proofs

Each supported VDPE can produce a succinct cryptographic proof of the data processing outcome.

  • ZK Computation: Yields a ZK-SNARK based on the Groth16 primitive, directly compatible with blockchains such as Ethereum and other EVM chains.
  • IC Computation: Yields an ECDSA signature powered by TSS (Threshold Signature Scheme), where all parties reach consensus over outcomes to form a single signature.

This proof is highly compatible with various blockchains, making the Internet Computer a viable candidate for versatile pipelines.

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Integration

Finally, the Prover program logic collects the compute outcome and its associated proof of data processing for submission to a destination blockchain of your choice. Typically, the Prover operates in a centralised manner, but obtains the relevant cryptographic certainty from various verifiable components to deliver to the destination system. It’s analogous to the concept of a “zkRollup” in a Layer 2 blockchain architecture - hence the comparison in the “introduction” section of the technical overview.

CryptographyImplementations