A ZK coprocessor is a service that takes computing work a smart contract cannot afford to do on chain, carries it out elsewhere and sends back the answer together with a zero-knowledge proof that it was computed correctly. The name comes from computer hardware, where a coprocessor handles specialist tasks for the main processor. Blockchains charge for every step of computation through gas fees, and contracts on networks like Ethereum cannot easily read much of the chain's own history. A coprocessor can, for example, scan months of past transactions to calculate a user's trading volume or average balance, and the contract only needs to check the proof. Uses include loyalty rewards, fee discounts and analytics that feed into DeFi. Unlike a ZK-rollup, it does not run a separate chain. Also see zkOracle.
Last updated 13 Nov 2026