> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://arithmic-labs.gitbook.io/arithmic-documentation/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://arithmic-labs.gitbook.io/arithmic-documentation/gen-1.0-gen-2.0-vms-and-staking/gen-2.0-vm-paradigm.md).

# Gen 2.0 VM Paradigm

Recent developments in SNARKs aim to prove non-algebraic operations entirely using lookups, that greatly reduce overheads for such computations. This enables the design of SNARKs with reduced prover overheads for CPUs like RISC-V with non-algebraic operations. We term this approach to designing virtual machines for validity roll-ups as Gen 2.0, i.e., a virtual machine (VM) that proves all the operations in a CPU (e.g. RISC-V) entirely using lookups. VMs built on the Gen 2.0 paradigm have two major advantages: a) isolation of protocol errors to just the lookup arguments, and hence, increased security, and b) friendly towards developers who can code in a language like C or Rust, as we have existing compilers that build C/Rust code to assemblies like RISC-V.