Digital Identity & ZKPs
I wrote about the advancements that zero knowledge proofs (ZKP) bring to digital identity, covering UX advantages, solutions & challenges, and what comes next.
This is what I covered in my piece💈
✨ Inspired by
@Paul_Gafni
's reflection from
@risczero
at zkSummit, I'm recapping the fantastic zkWeek hosted by
@0xparc
and
@zkpodcast
📍 Zuzalu. I'll be summarizing key insights on IVC and folding schemes -Nova, SuperNova, HyperNova, ProtoStar, Sangria & Origami ☄️🌊
Excited to unveil our partnership with
@alt_layer
!
“A zkRollup on every desk and in every home"
Now possible as AltLayer pioneers the first Raas supporting zkRollup, and Nebra makes settlements affordable.
Together, NEBRA + AltLayer are set to enhance native interoperability
AltLayer is thrilled to boost its rollup infrastructure using
@nebrazkp
's cutting-edge proof aggregation tech, which can reduce overall verification fees up to 1/10th!
More ↓
Recap of Proof Day: San Francisco Edition
Last week in the Bay Area,
@nebrazkp
and
@ModulusLabs
@nascentxyz
@EdgeAGI
co-hosted "Proof Day" where we had six talks delineating the proof-based future of blockchain.
Last 🧵 I covered the current Zk co-Processor landscape.
Today, let's use the popular Switch game "Overcooked" to understand what a Zk-coprocessor is 👩🏻🍳
@VitalikButerin
@jon_charb
It takes me a while to align semantics of the technical terms with protocol researchers, here is my proposal:
- Asynchronous Composability: There are some kinds of composability between rollups. You can argue that we already have that using bridges today.
- Atomic Inclusion: A
Glad to announce that
@0xevevm
is joining
@nebrazkp
as cofounder and COO. I have known
@0xevevm
for a while and she is definitely a force of natural! It is quite rare to find someone like her who is genuine, with great technical depth, and well rounded.
11/
@RiscZero
presents a zkVM that can run on any platform. It's a virtual microcontroller / co-processor that produces receipts for every program it runs, kind of like a secure virtual Adruino.
what a vibe 👯♀️
asking all the right questions w/
@0xevevm
on the first ep of infinite jungle! we chatted rollups, aggregated blockchains, eigenlayer, and more!
3/6 ZKP Advantages in Identity Space
Rather than revealing your ID to verify your age, ZKP enables attestation that you meet the age requirement. It protects user privacy, reduces identity theft risks, and combats misinformation, ensuring more genuine online interactions.
presented
@nebrazkp
for
@a16zcrypto
's demo day.
It was a proud moment to demo an ambitious and solid project that pioneers zero-knowledge proof aggregation for blockchain scaling and privacy.
We have a solid plan to launch the mainnet, a verified PMF, a bunch of top partners
IdEnTity cRisIs in the deCenTraLized woRlD
Part 1 of my brain dump on how to build towards the anti-dystopian all proof future
Thanks
@jonwu_
for the first read kind review✍️
🚨🚨
Proof Summer new article alert: "Identity Crisis in the Decentralized World Part 1" by
@0xevevm
What's the evolving nature of digital identity beyond crypto handles?
A credit scoring system but without the dystopian aspects?
LINK HERE:
Our mission at
@nebrazkp
is to enhance accessibility to zero-knowledge proofs through Open Proof Aggregation. I am deeply committed to our vision of proof singularity, which strives to be adaptive and system-agnostic in order to create the most robust proof aggregation possible.
We are excited to announce our partnership with
@RiscZero
to deliver affordable and accessible ZK proofs to
@RiscZero
developers!
We are ready to verify, are you ready to prove it?
NEBRA UPA 🤝 RISC Zero
We're thrilled to announce
@nebrazkp
is integrating RISC Zero's zkVM to reduce proof verification costs on Ethereum by over 10x.
Proof Summer is heating up 🟡🔥
.
@nebrazkp
Gnark support incoming!
One thing underrated is building actual good product. One of the example is
@gnark_team
, I have never seen them doing any PR or marketing push, but many great teams are using
@gnark_team
code! From what I know:
-
@SuccinctLabs
-
@brevis_zk
What really drew me to
@nebrazkp
is the opportunity to build something truly remarkable with a team of the most authentic, intellectually inquisitive, and grounded individuals. Together, we get to turn this theoretical vision into reality.
Proof Singularity Denver Recap. Kudos to
@afrazhaowang
for organizing the amazing event and
@0xevevm
for MC the event! Of course,
@zengjiajun_eth
's pink jacket 😀 some of my favorite moments:
A great framework for understanding zkRollup costs was presented in
@itmar
’s talk at
@thelatestindefi
TLDR day on the ZK Rollup Economics.
To navigate the "cost barriers" of zkRollups, it’s crucial to dissect the components of these costs.
As I embark on this new journey, I couldn't be more excited to unfold what the future holds. While I have zero knowledge of the unknowns that lie ahead, I relish the opportunity to discover and prove what's possible.
Proof of attendance
Proof of ticketing
Proof of Proof Day
Proof of Proof Summer
Powered by NEBRA UPA and
@Galxe
identity protocol, Proof Pass (
@proofpassio
) handled 600+ registrations, generating unique zkp-based event credentials and making ZK an integral part of the offline
2/🧵Folding schemes are an upgrade from plain vanilla recursion to significantly improves the efficiency of the verification process. Provers now construct proofs for only a limited number of checks, rather than the entire verification circuit. From R1CS to PLONK. Let's 👀
Wrapped up my first week attending
@a16zcrypto
csx representing
@nebrazkp
. After a few weeks of visa woe, I finally received UK visa and am now in London.
I have 3 initial impressions of the csx so far:
1. it’s a canonical and high-status moat
2. narrative cohesiveness
3.
1/🧵Recent progress in IVC has focused on utilizing an accumulator that combines new SNARKs with previous ones. Instead of verifying a SNARK at every step of the computation, the new accumulator can be checked to ensure the validity of all previous SNARKs. 🙏Prof
@danboneh
15/ One feature
@Poseidon_ZK
is developing involves creating composable ZKP primitives as smart contracts. On top, they offer a ZK-ZK Aggregator, which consolidates a batch of client-generated proofs into a single proof, significantly reducing the amortized ZKP verification cost
i occasionally tweet about what happens in the vc world because its a helpful piece of info for retail.
when a particular startup or sector becomes hot, vcs tend to prioritize securing an allocation over due diligence. most of the time they r fine but occasionally they step on a
"(zk)DID hot takes with PSE, Privado ID, and zkPassport" this Friday, July 5th at 10:30 AM ET!
LINK HERE 👇👇👇
🎙️ Guests:
- Andy Guzman, Technical Product Manager at PSE -
@AndyGuzmanEth
- Michael Elliot, Founder of zkPassport -
@michaelelliot
-
16/🧵While researchers continue to push the limits of privacy-preserving technologies, we on the plebeian concourse📷 are evangelizing the latest cool developments and brainstorming together ways to make them more accessible for various real-world applications📷📷💪🦾
Proof Summer is Here 🏖️
This summer, dive into the world of zk proofs with the onchain community!
We’re hosting an epic Proof Summer, featuring 10 themed
weeks of learning, coding, and having fun with proofs.
From DID to privacy, gaming, DeFi, and more.
5/ Why do we need ZK coprocessor?
Blockchain imposes compute limitations, restricting operations on L1/L2 to a small set of inherently safe operations for security. Zk coprocessor augments compute, enabling a wider range of operations while preserving robust security
@theyisun
4/🧵Nova, introduced by
@srinathtv
@abhiramko
, is an inner product argument with Pedersen commitments in the polynomial commitment scheme to hide witnesses and create a lightweight verifier circuit. 📃
1st Nebra UPA powered protocol out🔥
@GalxeIdentity
🤝
@nebrazkp
More social primitives could easily integrate with Universal Proof Aggregation to make proof cheap and fast.
Come build together at Proof Summer!
Announcing that
@Galxe
Identity Protocol has integrated with NEBRA UPA on the testnet! This integration empowers the Galxe Identity Protocol SDK to leverage NEBRA’s UPA, drastically reducing costly onchain proof verifications.
To read more at:
Proof Day Brussels is happening on July 10th!
Co-hosted by NEBRA & Succinct and created for everyone, Proof Day explores real-world use cases and infra landscape for ZKPs, and how we can collectively accelerate the ENTIRE space.
Register today:
5/🧵Zator🐊 by
@lyronctk
, is the first e2e example, recursively snarks a neural network with 512 layers using Nova. They designed a framework for verifying computation traces of arbitrary-depth neural networks, combining Nova & Spartan proving systems.
14/
@Poseidon_ZK
is aiming to fill in the gap for creating EVM-native zkDApps. It targets the two major obstacles hindering the development of privacy-focused zkDApps: the high barrier to using ZKP due to cryptographic complexity, and the expensive on-chain verification process.
12/🧵Sangria🍷 proposed by
@__geometry__
's
@nico_mnbl
adapts Nova’s folding scheme for R1CS to handle Plonk arithmetization. Folding is performed by taking a random linear combination of the input instance-witness pairs. 📐
6/6 Looking Forward
The potential applications of ZKPs are vast. Their widespread adoption demands both technological growth and societal understanding. As the ecosystem evolves with more robust infrastructure, we shall find the Ikigai of zkp.
Announcing NEBRA UPA 1.1 Testnet:
✅
@gnark_team
Groth16 support (with and without commitment)
✅ Updated developer docs for
@gnark_team
devs
✅ NEBEA SDK v1.1 with full
@gnark_team
G16 support
Dev docs:
Proof explorer:
6/ What are the zk coprocessors being built?
Axiom is a ZK coprocessor for Ethereum that provides smart contracts trustless access to all on-chain data and arbitrary expressive compute over it.
We are announcing Axiom, the ZK coprocessor for Ethereum:
Axiom provides smart contracts trustless access to all on-chain data and arbitrary expressive compute over it. Like GPUs do for CPUs, Axiom augments blockchain consensus with zero-knowledge proofs.
We are thrilled to announce a $7M raise to become the leading Open-Access AI Cloud 🤘🏼🌪️
At Hyperbolic, we’re building an open AI ecosystem and economy where everyone who contributes is rewarded. Our goal is not to merely optimize AI performance to compete with traditional Web2
3/🧵TL;DR Nova realize IVC by using folding scheme, reducing the satisfiability of 2 NP instances to just 1 and introduces relaxed R1CS. Supernova generalized Nova. Sangria is Nova for PLONK. HyperNova is a recursive argument for customizable constraints, based on folding schemes
Next generation Optimistic Rollups are here! 🚀
@RiscZero
and
@LayerN_
have joined forces to develop the first ZK Fraud Proof system, combining Optimistic Rollups with ZK Proofs, opening the door for more performant, reliable, and secure Blockchains.
🧵 [1/6]
6/🧵Result: SNARK machinery is used only once for a succinct proof. The recursive structure lies in the homogenous backbone, with head and tail layers proved separately due to different parameterization.Check out
@lyronctk
zator’s repo here:
NEBRA UPA Gas Calculator is online!
To help our users/developers to understand how much gas saving they can have after using NEBRA UPA. Our team made this gas estimator and detailed article on how to understand gas cost.
(Note: the offchain submission mode is not available now
9/🧵Protostar⭐️ by
@benediktbuenz
and
@Charles_Chen533
☕️
@EspressoSys
, is an IVC scheme for a highly expressive language supporting multiple non-uniform circuits, high-degree gates, and lookup gates for Plonkish. 📃
2/ A ZK coprocessor is an interoperability layer that performs arbitrary computation and provides a "receipt" which is a mathematical valid proof confirming the computations are executed correctly.
7/🧵SuperNova🌠 builds on Nova to produce succinct proofs of correct program execution on a stateful machine. Proving cost of a program step is proportional solely to the circuit size representing the instruction executed in that step📃
12/
@RiscZero
's Bonsai is a general purpose zero-knowledge proof network. It provides ability to perform off-chain computations for blockchain smart contracts.
8/🧵HyperNova⚡ a recent breakthrough, is a recursive argument for proving incremental computations whose steps are expressed with a customizable constraint system(CCS). Nova-like performance generalized for Plonkish, R1CS, and AIR without overheads. 📃
5/ Technically speaking, the CPU (the chef) is the primary component of a computer system that performs most of the processing inside the computer. A coprocessor (the sous-chef) is a supplementary processor that assists the CPU by performing specific tasks more efficiently.
With the hype around zkVMs, I've had many crypto-but-not-ZK people ask me whether we will use Jolt, Risc0, or SP1. We are not, and I hope this thread will help you understand why:
13/🧵Origami – A Folding Scheme for Halo2 Lookups
@krzhang
@aard_k_vark
Origami presents an explicit folding scheme for Halo2 lookup arguments, highlighting its potential for general folding schemes in polynomial custom gates.
📄
🎨
@jonakashima
10/🧵Protostar aim to design a more expressive accumulation schemes to overcome R1CS limitations and can be instantiated from any homomorphic vector commitment. It supports non-uniform IVC without overhead, flexible high-degree gates & lookups linearly independent of table size
10/ One of the most obvious use cases is storage proof. Currently, smart contracts are limited in what they can access on-chain. Storage proof enables smart contracts to access historic data on-chain and use it in their operations using ZK proofs to make the process trustless.