{
  "type": "failure-mode",
  "name": "Treating a quoted security level as comparable",
  "slug": "treating-a-quoted-security-level-as-comparable",
  "section": {
    "id": "proof-systems",
    "number": "01",
    "title": "Choosing a proof system",
    "url": "https://zkpick.com/proof-systems/"
  },
  "url": "https://zkpick.com/proof-systems/failure-modes/treating-a-quoted-security-level-as-comparable/",
  "markdown": "https://zkpick.com/md/proof-systems/failure-modes/treating-a-quoted-security-level-as-comparable.md",
  "detail": "Benchmarks are compared across systems configured at different security levels. Hash-based systems in particular ship at 96–100 bits in production far more often than teams assume, and a proof size quoted at 96 bits is not comparable to one quoted at 128.",
  "mitigation": "Require a full written parameter statement with every benchmark, and normalise to a common target before comparing. Treat any bit count without its derivation as unverified.",
  "relatedOptions": [],
  "updated": "2026-09-12",
  "version": "1.3",
  "canonical": "https://zkpick.com/proof-systems/failure-modes/treating-a-quoted-security-level-as-comparable/",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "authors": [
    "MarketComp"
  ]
}