a16z crypto released Lattice Jolt, a new version of its open-source Jolt zkVM that rebuilds the cryptography on lattices instead of elliptic curves, making it post-quantum without slowing down.

The switch replaces Jolt's old Dory commitment scheme with Akita, a lattice-based scheme built on Module-SIS, the same assumption family behind NIST's ML-DSA and ML-KEM standards, developed with LayerZero, Carnegie Mellon and USC, targeting a full 128 bits of security. Because lattices reach comparable security over 128-bit fields instead of 256-bit ones, the prover and verifier run 2 to 3 times faster: over 2 million RISC-V cycles per second on a laptop CPU, and more than 10 million on a MacBook GPU via Apple Metal. Its proofs are the shortest of any post-quantum zkVM, under 100 KB, which makes onchain verification cheaper.

Most post-quantum SNARKs in production today are hash-based; Lattice Jolt argues lattice-based ones can be both faster and more compact, mirroring how digital signatures have already shifted toward lattices. Jolt stays open-source, letting developers prove ordinary programs rather than hand-crafted circuits.

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