{
  "type": "option",
  "name": "Plonky3",
  "slug": "plonky3",
  "section": {
    "id": "frameworks",
    "number": "02",
    "title": "Choosing a framework",
    "url": "https://zkpick.com/frameworks/"
  },
  "url": "https://zkpick.com/frameworks/plonky3/",
  "markdown": "https://zkpick.com/md/frameworks/plonky3.md",
  "category": "Proof-system toolkit",
  "summary": "Plonky3: Proof-system toolkit. Kind: Proof-system toolkit. Arithmetisation / backend: AIR / FRI over small fields. Setup: None. Maintained by: Plonky3 org (Polygon Zero lineage). Licence: MIT / Apache-2.0. Status: Widely used downstream; pre-1.0 API. Choose it when: Teams building a zkVM, a custom AIR-based prover, or a domain-specific proving engine.",
  "description": "A toolkit of polynomial IOP primitives — fields, FRI, commitment schemes, DFTs — for building STARK provers over small fields. Not a DSL: you write AIRs against it or build a zkVM on it. It is the shared substrate beneath a large fraction of the modern zkVM landscape.",
  "notes": [],
  "sections": [],
  "strengths": [
    "Improvements propagate broadly because so much of the zkVM landscape sits on it",
    "Field-agnostic design lets the same proof system be retargeted across field choices",
    "Extremely active development; permissive dual licence"
  ],
  "tradeoffs": [
    "Not usable directly by application developers — designing an AIR is a specialist skill",
    "No stable 1.0 API; component crates version independently and downstream projects commonly pin forks",
    "Security depends on parameters you choose; a Plonky3 dependency by itself implies nothing about soundness level"
  ],
  "bestFit": "Teams building a zkVM, a custom AIR-based prover, or a domain-specific proving engine.",
  "maintainers": "Plonky3 organisation (Polygon Zero lineage), with contributors from the zkVM teams built on it",
  "maturity": "Widely used downstream; pre-1.0 API",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "source": "https://github.com/Plonky3/Plonky3",
  "facts": [
    {
      "table": "Framework selection matrix",
      "url": "https://zkpick.com/frameworks/#frameworks-matrix-plonky3",
      "name": "Plonky3",
      "kind": "Proof-system toolkit",
      "arith": "AIR / FRI over small fields",
      "setup": "None",
      "by": "Plonky3 org (Polygon Zero lineage)",
      "license": "MIT / Apache-2.0",
      "status": "Widely used downstream; pre-1.0 API"
    }
  ],
  "relatedFailureModes": [],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Plonky3 — polynomial IOP toolkit",
      "url": "https://github.com/Plonky3/Plonky3",
      "kind": "project"
    }
  ],
  "updated": "2026-09-12",
  "version": "1.3",
  "canonical": "https://zkpick.com/frameworks/plonky3/",
  "authors": [
    "MarketComp"
  ]
}