As privacy-preserving technologies become more essential, mobile devices remain the hardest frontier: constrained in compute and memory, but critical for real-world, on-the-go applications. We’re introducing IMP1, a drop-in framework for mobile zero-knowledge proofs, bringing the power of advanced cryptography client-side, to iOS and Android.

Built on ICICLE-SNARK, world’s fastest Groth16 implementation, IMP1 is lightweight, blazing fast, and ready for integration in modern apps. Whether you’re working on wallets, private voting, decentralized identity, or confidential transactions, IMP1 makes it easy to harness zero-knowledge proofs where users actually interact: their phones.

What is IMP1?

At its core, IMP1 (Ingonyama Mobile Prover 1) is a mobile-optimized Groth16 prover, specifically engineered for iOS and Android. It delivers:

  • ‍ICICLE acceleration inside: the same high-performance proving engine powering next-generation ZK systems‍
  • Up to 3× faster proving than Rapidsnark on supported devices‍
  • Open-source MIT license: free to use, fork, and customize‍
  • Minimal dependencies for quick integration‍
  • Native mobile support: iOS via .xcframework and Android (arm64-v8a) via .aar‍
  • Seamless APIs: just call prove() and verify()

IMP1 significantly reduces proving times compared to existing mobile solutions across all tested circuits, all while maintaining a strict memory budget throughout the computation.  

Real-World Impact: In collaboration with Bionetta’s ZKML framework, IMP1 has already proven its capabilities by reducing proving times for large neural networks (1M constraints) to a record 2.3 seconds on IPhone 16, making private, on-device AI a practical reality.

High-Level Goals: Where We’re Going

Our mission with IMP1 and future versions is clear: push the boundaries of what’s possible on constrained devices. The ideal mobile prover we’re building towards must be:

  • Transparent: avoiding trusted setups whenever possible. Groth16 requires a circuit-specific trusted setup, which complicates upgrades and maintenance of applications
  • Post-quantum secure: leveraging hash, or lattice-based constructions to withstand future quantum computers.
  • Memory-adaptable: supporting folding and streaming to fit provers into tight RAM budgets. 
  • Programmable: enabling a wider range of applications beyond fixed circuits.
  • Power efficiency: essential for mobile adoption, reducing reliance on costly elliptic curve operations can significantly lower energy usage.,

IMP1 is just the first step, a foundation on which we’ll expand programmability, efficiency, and security. IMP2 design will be covered in a separate post. 

Get Involved

IMP1 is open-source under MIT. We invite developers, researchers, and privacy advocates to explore, contribute, and help build the future of mobile privacy. 

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