Ligero × Risc Zero: Building the Future of Private, Verifiable Compute
In Web3, three words keep colliding: privacy, scalability, verifiability. Until now, projects have managed to deliver one or two, but never all three at once. That changes today. Ligero and Risc Zero are partnering to bring privacy, scalability, and verifiability all at once to blockchain.
For years, blockchains have faced a fundamental trade-off. On the one hand, on-chain verifiability and security require public transparency and strict execution limits, but these constraints slow performance and prevent mainstream adoption. On the other hand, privacy and scalability solutions have often lacked a clear path to secure verification on-chain. The result has been a patchwork of partial solutions, each leaving something to be desired.
Risc Zero’s Boundless platform introduces a breakthrough. By enabling blockchains to verify computations without re-executing them, Boundless establishes a verifiable compute layer that dramatically expands the possibilities for developers and users alike. A single node can perform heavy computations off-chain, and every other node can cheaply verify the result using zero-knowledge proofs. With Boundless, applications are no longer limited by on-chain execution caps, and developers gain seamless access to assets and information across ecosystems, all while inheriting the full security of the underlying chain.
Ligero, meanwhile, has pioneered the most scalable client-side proving technology available today. Our system is capable of handling billions of constraints directly in a browser or on a mobile device, enabling proofs for real-world privacy applications such as digital passports, compliance checks, and privacy-preserving financial transactions. Ligero makes it possible for institutions and individuals to transact privately while meeting regulatory requirements. Until now, however, these proofs were not designed for efficient verification on-chain.
The Collaboration: Private Verifiable Compute
This is where the collaboration comes in. Ligero and Risc Zero together can provide end-to-end private verifiable compute. Ligero makes it possible to prove massive computations privately and efficiently on the client side, while Risc Zero makes it possible to verify those computations quickly and cheaply on-chain. Privacy and on-chain verifiability, often thought to be at odds, can now reinforce one another.
The impact of this union is far-reaching. Enterprises can finally build applications that combine confidentiality with accountability: compliant privacy pools for secure payments, identity solutions that prove credentials without revealing sensitive information, and confidential compliance checks that can still be audited and trusted by regulators. For developers, it means they no longer need to choose between privacy, scalability, and security. They can have all three.
What's Next?
This partnership is just the beginning. Over the coming months, Ligero and Risc Zero will explore technical integrations, SDKs, and pilot projects that demonstrate what’s possible when client-side scalability meets on-chain verifiability.
Our shared vision is to create infrastructure that isn’t just technically advanced, but practical, usable, and trusted by the enterprises and institutions leading the next wave of blockchain adoption.
The future of enterprise-grade privacy isn’t on the horizon anymore. With Ligero and Risc Zero, it’s being built right now: scalable, verifiable, and private by design.
