plonky2/README.md

# Plonky2 & more

This repository was originally for Plonky2, a SNARK implementation based on techniques from PLONK and FRI. It has since expanded to include tools such as Starky, a highly performant STARK implementation.


## Documentation

For more details about the Plonky2 argument system, see this [writeup](plonky2/plonky2.pdf).


## Building

Plonky2 requires a recent nightly toolchain, although we plan to transition to stable in the future.

To use a nightly toolchain for Plonky2 by default, you can run
```
rustup override set nightly
```
in the Plonky2 directory.


## Running

To see recursion performance, one can run this bench, which generates a chain of three recursion proofs:

```sh
RUSTFLAGS=-Ctarget-cpu=native cargo run --release --example bench_recursion -- -vv
```

## Jemalloc

Plonky2 prefers the [Jemalloc](http://jemalloc.net) memory allocator due to its superior performance. To use it, include `jemallocator = "0.3.2"` in`Cargo.toml`and add the following lines
to your `main.rs`:

```rust
use jemallocator::Jemalloc;

#[global_allocator]
static GLOBAL: Jemalloc = Jemalloc;
```

Jemalloc is known to cause crashes when a binary compiled for x86 is run on an Apple silicon-based Mac under [Rosetta 2](https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211861). If you are experiencing crashes on your Apple silicon Mac, run `rustc --print target-libdir`. The output should contain `aarch64-apple-darwin`. If the output contains `x86_64-apple-darwin`, then you are running the Rust toolchain for x86; we recommend switching to the native ARM version.


## Licenses

As this is a monorepo, see the individual crates within for license information.


## Disclaimer

This code has not yet been audited, and should not be used in any production systems.