# Flock: Fast Proving for Batch Boolean Computations

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.27491 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.27491/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 29 Jul 2026.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Can AI Oversight Be Zero Knowledge?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.01995/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

For many applications of SNARKs, a key bottleneck is proving large batches of standard cryptographic hash evaluations, such as SHA-256, Keccak, or BLAKE3. We introduce Flock, a hash-based SNARK for extremely fast proving of such batched Boolean computations. Flock proves batches of the same R1CS circuit (plus input/output relations between them), can prove hash-chains and Merkle path openings, and in principle can be extended to full-fledged hash-based signature verification. At its core, Flock combines new optimizations for the lincheck and zerocheck protocols with an aggressively optimized proof-of-concept implementation co-designed by coding agents. On a single core of an M4 Max processor, Flock proves 82k evaluations of the BLAKE3 compression function, 42k SHA-256 compressions, and 30k Keccak permutations per second --- less than a 250× overhead over native execution. On ten cores, throughput exceeds 660k BLAKE3 compressions per second; in proving SHA-256, Flock is more than 9× faster than Binius64, the prior state of the art, and more than 500× faster than the fastest elliptic curve-based SNARK we measured against.