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#000016 parked: ZK frontier-proof bench plan + wire protocol
Two arborist-side artifacts close the v7 § 16.1 hand-wave without
violating the language constraint (arborist stays pure-Python; ZK
toolchain lives in sibling repo arborist-zk-bench).

docs/zk-frontier-bench.md — bench plan + parked verdict
========================================================

Bench plan covers Plonky3 (or equivalent) circuit at three sizes
(256/1024/4096 affine), measurement targets (prover ms, proof
bytes, verify ms, peak memory), platform pair (Apple M3 + Linux
x86), acceptance thresholds (≤30s prover at 4096; ≤100KB proof;
≤100ms verify; ≤16GB peak).

Preliminary projection from published Plonky3/Halo2 numbers:

  size 256:   0.5–2 s prove  / 30–80 KB / 5–30 ms verify
  size 1024:  5–30 s prove   / 50–120 KB / 10–50 ms verify
  size 4096:  60–600 s prove / 100–300 KB / 30–200 ms verify
                              ↑ likely UNAFFORDABLE at frontier scale

Most-likely outcome: VIABLE at small scales (256/1024 — useful for
distillation models); UNAFFORDABLE at LLaMA-class hidden width
(4096).

Decision tree from real measurement:
  VIABLE       → commission ZK as v8 capability;
                 follow-up tickets for arborist [zk] extra,
                 governance_policy.frontier_proof_mode field,
                 hermes-side activation export.
  UNAFFORDABLE → park ZK; v7-Local stays v7's terminal
                 contribution; answer→model binding stays
                 out of scope.

docs/zk-wire-protocol.md — consumer-side schema
================================================

Specifies the wire format arborist consumes WHEN/IF ZK proofs
become available. The sibling repo emits proofs; arborist
validates schema + signature + delegates ZK verification to a
sibling-repo verifier binary. arborist itself NEVER runs the
prover or verifier — that's the language-constraint contract.

  - Artifact: arborist-zk-proof-v1 JSON with schema_version,
    proof_system, circuit_id, frontier_node, public_inputs,
    public_outputs, proof_bytes_b64, verifier_setup_id, issued_at,
    issuer_pubkey_ed25519, issuer_signature_ed25519.
  - Trigger: governance_policy.frontier_proof_mode ∈
    {"reveal" (default), "zk"}.
  - Binding: model_weights_zk_root + frontier_proof_circuit_id
    columns added to providence_cache (schema migration deferred
    to integration ticket).
  - Validation pipeline: schema check → recompute commitment
    sanity → Ed25519 signature check → delegate to sibling
    verifier → bind to audit chain.
  - Threat model: compromised prover, wire-format injection,
    proof replay, issuer-key compromise — each with its own
    mitigation.

Status closure
==============

Ticket flipped from "open · awaiting go/no-go" to "parked ·
bench-plan + wire-protocol landed 2026-05-09 (sibling-repo
measurement pending)." This is honest: arborist's side is done.
Sibling repo `arborist-zk-bench` (not yet built) produces the
real numbers; doc updates roll back here when measurements
arrive.

Result: the v7 § 16.1 hand-wave is replaced with explicit
thresholds + preliminary projection + ready consumer schema.
The hand-wave is closed even though the bench-question is
parked.
2026-05-09 15:05:08 -04:00