StarkWare, a company specializing in zero-knowledge (ZK) technology, has developed a ZK verification of the Bitcoin blockchain that can run on mobile devices. This new tool is significant because it allows users to verify Bitcoin payments without the need to set up a full Bitcoin node, which is often costly and technically complex.
The proof created by StarkWare is a lightweight 1 megabyte (MB) file that contains all Bitcoin block headers from the genesis block to the present. It does not include the entire 680-gigabyte blockchain history. This allows for transaction verification in less than 100 milliseconds, according to StarkWare's Abdelhamid Bakhta.
This technology builds on the concept of Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) from Satoshi Nakamoto's original white paper, enabling smaller, lightweight nodes to verify payments efficiently.
The article also touches on a debate within the Bitcoin community regarding node storage requirements. While running a Bitcoin node is currently accessible and helps maintain the network's decentralization, some critics argue that the storage of non-monetary data, like Ordinals and Inscriptions, could increase ledger size and make nodes more expensive to run. This would centralize the network among large service providers.
In response to these concerns, the article notes a recent surge in users running Bitcoin Knots nodes, an alternative software that gives users more control over the data they store. This trend accelerated after developers of Bitcoin Core, the most common node software, announced plans to remove the OP_Return limit, which caps the amount of non-monetary data that can be embedded in transactions. The number of Bitcoin Knots nodes has increased from about 1% to nearly 20% of the network in 2025.
September 2025, Cryptoniteuae