academy

Key Takeaways

Brevis is a zero-knowledge (ZK) coprocessor that enables smart contracts to access and compute historical and omnichain data in a completely trust-free manner.

Traditional blockchains tend to struggle with heavy computations or accessing historical data without sacrificing security or incurring high costs.

Brevis is designed to offload these intensive tasks to an off-chain network (ProverNet). It verifies the results on-chain using succinct ZK proofs.

BREV is the native utility token used for proof fees, prover staking, governance, and eventually as gas for the planned Brevis rollup.

Introduction

When it comes to decentralized applications (DApps), smart contracts generally can’t access historical blockchain data or data from other chains without relying on oracles and other trusted intermediaries. Also, performing complex calculations directly on Ethereum or other Layer-1 networks can be relatively expensive.

Brevis aims to solve these scalability and interoperability limitations by introducing a Zero-Knowledge (ZK) Coprocessor. Just as a computer uses a GPU to handle heavy graphics processing alongside the CPU, Brevis sits alongside a blockchain to handle heavy data processing. It allows developers to build data-driven DApps that can utilize arbitrary data across multiple blockchains without having to add new trust assumptions.

How Does Brevis Work?

Brevis operates by separating computation from verification. It moves heavy computational workloads off the main blockchain into a specialized environment, processes the data, and returns a cryptographic proof attesting to the accuracy of the result.

The ZK Coprocessor Model

In the Brevis architecture, the smart contract on the main chain (e.g., Ethereum) requests a specific computation or data query. Brevis processes this request off-chain and generates a Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP). This proof is then submitted back to the smart contract, which can cryptographically verify that the computation was performed correctly without having to re-execute the work itself.

ProverNet

The engine powering this system is ProverNet, a decentralized marketplace of provers. These participants compete to generate proofs for requested computations. The system is currently deployed on the Base blockchain but is designed to migrate to a dedicated Brevis rollup in the future. ProverNet ensures that the generation of proofs is decentralized, secure, and competitively priced.

Key Features

Brevis introduces several architectural innovations designed to expand the capabilities of Web3 applications:

Omnichain data access: The platform allows DApps to access and use on-chain data from different blockchains. This enables use cases such as cross-chain reputation systems, historical liquidity analysis, and multi-chain DeFi logic.

Trust-free verification: By relying on ZK proofs, Brevis eliminates the need to trust the off-chain actors. The destination blockchain verifies the mathematical proof rather than trusting the entity that provided the data.

High-performance zkVM: Brevis uses the Pico zkVM to enable high-speed proof generation, aiming to make off-chain compute efficient enough for real-time applications.

The BREV Token

The BREV token is the native utility and governance asset of the Brevis ecosystem. It’s designed to align incentives between developers, users, and the provers who secure the network.

Token utility:

Proof fees: Developers and DApps pay fees in BREV to request and verify zero-knowledge proofs within the ProverNet system.

Staking and security: Participants operating as provers in the network are required to stake BREV. This stake serves as collateral; if a prover acts maliciously or fails to deliver, their stake can be penalized (slashed), ensuring network integrity.

Governance: BREV holders can participate in the governance of the protocol, influencing decisions regarding incentive structures and ecosystem development.

Future gas token: While ProverNet initially launched on Base, the roadmap includes a migration to a dedicated Brevis rollup. Upon this migration, BREV is intended to serve as the native gas token for the network.

Tokenomics

Brevis has a fixed total supply of 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) BREV tokens. The project has emphasized community and ecosystem growth in its allocation strategy.

Token allocation

Ecosystem Growth: 37%

Community Incentives: 32.20%

Team: 20%

Seed Investors: 10.80% 

Brevis on Binance HODLer Airdrops

On January 5, 2026, Binance announced BREV as the 60th project on the Binance HODLer Airdrops. Users who subscribed their BNB to Simple Earn and/or On-Chain Yields products from December 17 to 19 were eligible to receive BREV airdrops. A total of 15 million BREV tokens were allocated to the program, accounting for 1.5% of the total token supply at genesis.

BREV was listed with the Seed Tag applied, allowing for trading against the USDT, USDC, BNB, and TRY pairs.

Closing Thoughts

Brevis is focused on blockchain infrastructure designed for modularity, where specific tasks like heavy computation are offloaded to specialized layers. By leveraging Zero-Knowledge technology, Brevis provides a "coprocessor" that allows smart contracts to see and compute more data without sacrificing decentralization.

Further Reading

What Are Zk-Rollups? The Layer-2 Scalability Technique

What Is ZKsync and How Does It Work?

What Is Zero-knowledge Proof and How Does It Impact Blockchain? 

Disclaimer: This content is presented to you on an “as is” basis for general information and educational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind. It should not be construed as financial, legal or other professional advice, nor is it intended to recommend the purchase of any specific product or service. You should seek your own advice from appropriate professional advisors. Products mentioned in this article may not be available in your region. Where the article is contributed by a third party contributor, please note that those views expressed belong to the third party contributor, and do not necessarily reflect those of Binance Academy. Please read our full disclaimer for further details. Digital asset prices can be volatile. The value of your investment may go down or up and you may not get back the amount invested. You are solely responsible for your investment decisions and Binance Academy is not liable for any losses you may incur. This material should not be construed as financial, legal or other professional advice. For more information, see our Terms of Use and Risk Warning.