Migrating from Bonsai
What happened to Bonsai?
Bonsai is no longer available for individual developers. Boundless is intended to be a replacement for all your proving needs. If you want to read about the differences between Bonsai and Boundless, please continue on this page. Otherwise, if you have a guest program ready and you are eager to get started, you can follow the Request a Proof tutorial to create your first proof request on Boundless.
Boundless is the blockchain native way to work with ZK proofs; while the initial setup is more complex than Bonsai's configuration, you gain access to verifiable compute through a highly available, permissionless and self-sustaining proving protocol that aligns with Web3's core principles.
Key Benefits
- Native proof aggregation amortizes the onchain gas costs for proof verification across the entire Boundless network; you won't have to worry about paying high gas costs for proof verification in your app.
- Strong cryptoeconomic guarantees (through prover slashing and automatic retry logic) on the delivery time of proofs, which is highly configurable via the request Offer parameters.
- The Smart Contract Requestor and Callback features eliminate the need to build (often extensive) offchain infrastructure for both proof requess and proof delivery.
- Build up your app's community by integrating with the industry's only fully open source multi-GPU proving stack.
Key Differences
While Bonsai offers simplicity through centralization, Boundless provides:
- Liveness Guarantees: Decentralized protocol with multiple provers
- High Availability: No single point of failure
- Long-term sustainability: Community-driven protocol evolution
- Transparent pricing: Market-driven proof costs
| Aspect | Bonsai | Boundless |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | 2 environment variables (BONSAI_API_URL + BONSAI_API_KEY) | Wallet + Storage Provider |
| Proof Format | STARK/SNARK (Groth16) | Proof aggregated via SetVerifier |
| Proof Delivery | Directly to host program (Offchain) | Onchain |
| Proof Verification | Via receipt.verify or Verifier Contracts | Verifier Contracts |
| Architecture | Centralized service | Decentralized protocol |
| Integration | Drop-in replacement to guest program | New integration required |
Getting Started
Setup
Before you get started, you'll need to set up:
- Wallet: Configure a developer wallet for on-chain transactions. For dev testing, something as simple as metamask will do; make sure to create a new account for your dev testing to use with testnets. You'll also need some testnet funds before you can submit a request.
- Storage Provider: You'll need to set up either IPFS or S3 for provers to be fulfill your requests. We recommend IPFS via the Pinata gateway, see further instructions here.
Sending your first proof request
Transitioning to Boundless requires:
- Rearchitecting your proof request and retrieval flow
- Managing proof fulfillment asynchronously
- Handling potential proof request failures or delays
The documentation listed below, along with the Boundless Foundry Template and the Boundless Examples, will help you get started in no time.
- Quick Start Guide: Set up your first Boundless project and request your first proof with our example app, Boundless Foundry Template.
- Request a Proof: Go into more specifics when it comes to requesting a proof with request/offer configuration.
- Proof Tracking: Implement monitoring of requests and retrieving proofs when they are finished
- Use a Proof: Understand how to use a Boundless proof in your app.
- Boundless Tooling: Explore the SDK and CLI to configure your request flow to your specific needs.
Proof Verification
If you are verifying proofs onchain, Boundless proofs verify in exactly the same manner as proofs delivered via Bonsai, and via the same Verifier Router contract you are used to using. There should be no upgrade required, unless you are using an old version of (i.e. 1.X.X) R0VM.
Need any migration help?
Join the Discord and claim the dev role via Guild.xyz to chat and ask questions in #dev-support-forum.