The Succinct Network introduces the idea of a global, distributed proving cluster codesigned with SP1 and powered by a competitive auction mechanism called proof contests to dramatically expand the proving capacity of the world.

The network provides a unified platform for users to submit proof requests and for anyone in the world to provide proving capacity. Provers can join the network permissionlessly and participate by running node software and users can get high-reliability guarantees for their requests.

The proof contest mechanism is a novel auction that balances proving cost and decentralization, and induces free market competition on proving. It functions as an all-pay auction with collateral that allows for effective price discovery on requests while maintaining a decentralized prover set and solving several related problems, such as proof spamming, contention, and griefing. Proof contests settle on an application-specific blockchain designed for coordinating provers with requests.