{
  "slug": "challenges",
  "name": "Challenges and programs",
  "short": "verified-circuit",
  "title": "Formal verification challenges and programs for ZK: zk.golf, better.codes, Verified zkEVM",
  "summary": "Live venues where verified artifacts are produced competitively or under a coordinated program: zk.golf (cheapest circuit with a Lean proof of soundness and completeness), better.codes (raise a Lean-checked soundness bound for Reed-Solomon proximity), and the Ethereum Foundation's Verified zkEVM program that funds most of the frameworks on this index.",
  "intro": [
    "Two 2026 launches turned formal verification into a spectator sport. zk.golf scores circuits by allocations plus constraints, but a submission only counts if its Lean proof of soundness and completeness kernel-checks in a sandbox. better.codes hands AI agents a formalised open problem from the Proximity Prize and promotes every proof that improves the machine-checked bound. Both are useful to a team that wants to learn what a verified deliverable looks like before commissioning one.",
    "The Verified zkEVM program is the funding and coordination layer behind Clean, zkLean, Halva, ArkLib, LLZK, the Sail RISC-V Lean model, KEVM equivalence and hax's Lean backend, with a stated goal of formally verified zk(E)VMs by 2027."
  ],
  "choose": [
    "Learn how a sound-and-complete circuit proof is structured, or benchmark an optimisation: **zk.golf**.",
    "Contribute to or watch AI-assisted theorem proving on a real cryptographic bound: **better.codes**.",
    "Track which frameworks are funded, maintained and interoperable: the **Verified zkEVM** program page and its Overview repository."
  ],
  "tools": [
    {
      "name": "zk.golf",
      "page": "https://sorryfree.com/frameworks/zk-golf/"
    },
    {
      "name": "better.codes",
      "page": "https://sorryfree.com/frameworks/better-codes/"
    },
    {
      "name": "Verified zkEVM program",
      "page": "https://sorryfree.com/frameworks/verified-zkevm/"
    }
  ],
  "page": "https://sorryfree.com/categories/challenges/",
  "updated": "2026-09-13"
}