Boundless mainnet is live. With the release of Proof of Verifiable Work (PoVW) and ZK Coin (ZKC), a new era begins where zero-knowledge proofs can power every ecosystem. Provers earn ZKC as the first token mined by proofs themselves, and blockchains gain the capacity to scale like the internet.
From the beginning, Boundless has been about solving one core problem: blockchains don’t scale like the internet does. Every node re-executes the same transactions, so adding more nodes doesn’t increase capacity. Zero-knowledge proofs change this model.
ZKPs compress execution into tiny proofs, so that one proof can verify the work for all. Instead of scarcity, blockchains gain the same scaling property as the internet: capacity that grows as more prover nodes join.
This breakthrough was first proven by RISC Zero, creators of the first RISC-V zkVM in 2021. Instead of writing custom circuits for every program, developers could simply write in Rust or Solidity and generate proofs directly. For the first time, ZK was usable at scale and is now seen as a path to scaling Ethereum.
But a zkVM alone does not scale ecosystems. Enter Boundless: the universal ZK protocol that brings verifiable compute to L1s, rollups, applications, and infrastructure across chains, making blockchains internet-scale.
In late 2024, the Collaborative Development Program (CDP) was launched on Boundless by early adopters. By July 2025, Mainnet Beta was live: the first decentralized, permissionless protocol for ZK proofs. Part of this launch was ‘The Signal’, with which Boundless has begun proving entire blockchains like Ethereum and Base. Showcasing what was possible with support from 20+ partners like Stellar, Optimism, and Taiko.
The Boundless community grew alongside the tech. More than 2,500 provers joined the network, 411,000 participants took part in Mainnet Beta, and the Boundless Kaito sale was oversubscribed 18x with over $71M pledged.
Each of these milestones brought us to today: the launch of Boundless mainnet.