Break through the throughput bottleneck? Understand the SNARK proof mechanism Parallel chain protocol Gigachain | CryptoSeed

Author: Lenaxin, ChainCatcher

Editor: Fairy, ChainCatcher

In the more than ten years of development of the blockchain industry, performance bottlenecks have always been the core problem that limits the implementation of decentralized systems on a large scale. Emerging project Gigachain is trying to break the blockchain throughput bottleneck with the combination of "zero knowledge proof + parallel execution".

The project was incubated by the Telos Foundation and was prototyped on May 1. This article will systematically sort out Gigachain's technical concepts, core team and project progress, and explore its prospects and significance.

What is Gigachain?

Gigachain is a high-performance blockchain execution protocol based on SNARK (concise non-interactive zero-knowledge proof) designed to solve the fundamental bottleneck in scalability of current decentralized blockchain systems.

Gigachain breaks through scalability limitations by introducing a trustless parallel execution mechanism. The core is to divide transactions into non-conflicting batches, hand them over to multiple decentralized executors in parallel, and generate SNARK proofs for each batch; then, these local proofs are recursively aggregated into a concise global proof, thereby verifying the correctness of the entire block.

This architecture can reduce the computational waste of repeated executions, and can also enable distributed processing of execution workloads while maintaining state consistency and network security. Gigachain white paper shows that in the scenario of highly parallel transactions, Gigachain's mainstream blockchain throughput can be increased by more than 10,000 times compared to traditional sequential execution models, and can also be increased by more than 500 times compared to parallel solutions within nodes.

In addition, Gigachain supports higher complexity on-chain computing, opening up possibilities for high-load applications such as AI inference, on-chain gaming, and financial simulation. Its built-in economic incentive mechanism is dynamically adjusted according to computing power demand, encouraging provers to compete in cost efficiency and reliability.

Team background

Alberto Garoffolo is Gigachain's chief technology officer and has deep technical accumulation and practical experience in cryptography and blockchain system architecture. Alberto was formerly the head of Telos Zero Knowledge Certification (ZK), Horizen CTO, and IOHK Engineering Director. He has been engaged in software development since 2000 and has been focusing on applying SNARK and zero-knowledge proof technology to blockchain since 2018 to improve the privacy, scalability and decentralization of the system. While at the Telos Foundation, Alberto led the development of several new agreements.

Other members of the team include senior engineers Ljubisa Isakovic, Marco Olivero, Momcilo Mlasinovic, Applied ZK researcher Daniele Di Tulio, and Chief ZK engineer Paolo Tagliaferri. They come from blockchain infrastructure projects such as Polygon, ConsenSys, and Avail, and have front-line development experience.

Project Progress

In 2024, Gigachain received a $500,000 Pre-Seed investment from Presto Labs and received incubation support from the Telos Foundation. The funding supports Gigalabs in collaboration with several strategic partners, including Horizen Labs Ventures (in charge of token economic model design) and Serotonin (in charge of brand building, website development, PR and marketing). After completing these key inputs, Gigalabs still retains some of the funds to cover development contracting costs and gradually achieve independence from the Telos Foundation incubation system.

At present, the Gigachain prototype has been completed on May 1, 2025, and the core technology solution has achieved preliminary verification of key functions. The project's next development roadmap is as follows:

• Summer 2025: Launching the staking incentive program on the Telos chain
• End of 2026: Online test network, open community participation verification
• 2027: The main network is online and the introduction of decentralized governance mechanism

Gigachain said that in the future, more details will be announced about how community members can participate in network construction as stakers, developers, node operators, etc., and further implement their commitment to "both openness and decentralization".

(This article only introduces early projects and is not used as investment advice.)