Testnet Deployment and Proof Access Design

1. Deployment Scope: Monad and MegaETH

The USDm protocol launches its testnet on Monad and MegaETH as the foundational execution environments for high-throughput, verifiably private stablecoin infrastructure. This decision is both strategic and technical:

Monad

Monad offers parallelized execution and extremely low latency, making it the ideal environment for hosting privacy-preserving vaults, zero-knowledge proof verifiers, and post-transfer stablecoin logic. The deterministic, high-performance nature of Monad enables fast finality for transactions involving proof validation, vault liquidations, and oracle-driven triggers.

MegaETH

MegaETH extends EVM compatibility while offering improved throughput over Ethereum L1. It supports ETH-native vaults and proof verification workflows where Ethereum-style liquidity and composability are needed, but at a fraction of the cost and latency. By launching on MegaETH, USDm benefits from Ethereum-native integrations and liquidity primitives while retaining scalability.

Both platforms provide deterministic state transitions, composable DeFi layers, and a robust foundation for zk-integrated financial applications.

2. Future Scaling Across Throughput Chains

While the testnet is focused on Monad and MegaETH, the protocol is designed to be chain-agnostic. Future deployments will target additional high-throughput environments (e.g., Optimism, Arbitrum, ZKSync, Scroll) where:

• SP1 verifiers can be deployed and sustained

• Oracle infrastructure (e.g., Pyth or ChainSight) is live

• Vault liquidity and DeFi composability are possible

The goal is to establish USDm as a privacy-layer primitive—interoperable across multiple chains via proof portability, not bridging.

3. Controlled Prover Access: Why Proofs Are Gated

Note: Access to private transactions on USDm is currently restricted to a vetted group of fewer than 16,000 real users, whitelisted and verified by the Succinct team through their zkPortal framework. These users represent the first cohort of zk-native actors authorized to participate in USDm's proof-based privacy system.

SP1-based zero-knowledge proofs incur non-trivial GPU computation costs. Unlike generic STARK or SNARK circuits, the SP1 zkVM compiles and executes arbitrary programs to generate attestations over state transitions. This requires:

• Significant GPU compute time per proof (~10–30s for optimized circuits)

• Runtime constraints to prevent abuse, spam, or DoS vectors

To mitigate these issues during early testnet phases, proof generation is restricted to whitelisted users verified by the Succinct team. These users:

• Undergo identity verification via Succinct’s zkPortal

• Are provisioned GPU access for local or delegated proving

• Operate within rate-limited environments to ensure proof throughput

This ensures the proving infrastructure remains sustainable, auditable, and tightly scoped while critical circuits are benchmarked and monitored in production.

4. Proof Deposit Requirement: Why 10 USDC on Ethereum Mainnet

As part of the access control mechanism, users must deposit 10 USDC on Ethereum mainnet to activate their proving rights. This deposit is not a payment or fee—it acts as:

• A security deposit ensuring commitment to real usage

• A resource gate that disincentivizes spam or GPU abuse

• An on-chain identity anchor that can be referenced in attestations

This mirrors patterns seen in Succinct's zkPortal, where deposits are used to allocate prover rights proportional to available compute. The funds may be refundable, or used to subsidize prover compute and relay cost over time.

This design aligns with the operational constraints outlined in Succinct’s SP1 documentation (see: Succinct Docs – Proof Types), where proof generation is an off-chain, high-integrity process bounded by GPU throughput, not simple cryptographic hashes.

5. Summary

The testnet phase of USDm focuses on:

• Deploying on chains that support fast, low-latency zk verification

• Maintaining integrity and cost-efficiency of SP1 proof infrastructure

• Ensuring controlled access to zk proving via verified users and deposits

This foundation ensures that by mainnet, USDm can scale to public zk composability without sacrificing privacy guarantees, network stability, or prover fairness.