Evaluating the Efficiency of zk-SNARK, zk-STARK, and Bulletproof in Real-World Scenarios: A Benchmark Study

This study builds on our previous Systematic Literature Review (SLR) that assessed the applications and performance of zk-SNARK, zk-STARK, and Bulletproof Non-Interactive Zero-Knowledge Proof (NIZKP) protocols. To address identified research gaps, we designed and implemented a benchmark comparing these three protocols using a dynamic MiMC hash application. We evaluated performance across four general-purpose programming libraries and two programming languages. Our results show that zk-SNARK produced the smallest proofs, while zk-STARK generated the largest. In terms of proof generation and verification times, zk-STARK was the fastest, and Bulletproof the slowest. Interestingly, zk-SNARK proofs verified marginally faster than zk-STARK, contrary to other findings. These insights enhance our understanding of the functionality, security, and performance of NIZKP protocols, providing valuable guidance for selecting the most suitable protocol for specific applications.