From zkVM to Boundless building the settlement layer for ZK

[Perl01]

I remember when zkVM first launched, most of us thought it was still years away from practical use. Then came Zeth, built by just three developers in under a month, proving that zero knowledge proofs could scale far faster than anyone expected. Now the same team is back with Boundless, a decentralized marketplace where verifiable compute becomes a tradable commodity. Instead of relying on centralized proving farms, anyone with standard hardware can participate as a prover, while protocols and developers submit requests through an on-chain market mechanism.

What makes Boundless stand out is its design. It introduces Proof of Verifiable Work to measure computation objectively, allowing computer to be financialize much like Ethereum did with blockspace. The native token ($ZKC) connects rewards directly to cycles proven and fees generated, while the Vault redistributes market fees to stakers. With major exchanges like Binance, BingX, and HTX already listing $ZKC, liquidity and accessibility are built in from the start a level of backing that usually comes after traction, not before.

Looking at benchmarks, zkSync and StarkWare peaked at $5–8B valuations, though they remain tied to specific scaling solutions. Boundless, on the other hand, is chain-agnostic, aiming to be the universal marketplace for ZK compute. With a starting market cap in the low hundreds of millions, the upside could be significant if adoption takes hold. The RISC Zero team has shown they can move fast, and if ZK really is inevitable, now might be the time to research, explore the docs, or stake $ZKC before this narrative gains momentum.

[Degods]

With the level of tech infra Boundless is shipping, I still think their token is largely undervalued and good spotters are already looking for ways to stack up $ZKC. Like the staking you mentioned, you could also join Bitget $ZKC launchpool if you have BGB token and just lock up for some days to earn a reasonable amount of the launchpool $zkc reward.