3 Projects Bringing Zero-Knowledge Proofs to the Mainstream
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3 Projects Bringing Zero-Knowledge Proofs to the Mainstream
This article introduces three interesting projects, focusing on the concept of zk proofs and their advantages in privacy and efficiency.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthors: NAIROLF, SENSEI WU
Translation: Kate, Mars Finance
Ready to dive into the fascinating world of zero-knowledge proofs? In this article, we'll introduce three exciting projects and explain zk-proofs in a way you've never seen before.
ZK this, ZK that—bro, enough already. Starknet has only 8 users per month; it was a failed airdrop, and nobody cares about ZK rollups. Well, hold on a second. This technology is incredible.
Let’s start by understanding what zero-knowledge (or zk) proofs actually are. Let’s use an example!
John loves drawing beautiful tigers, but he's too shy to show his artwork to friends. He’s embarrassed! 👉👈
His friends doubt his skills. They’ve never seen him draw! But John has a plan. A major tiger-drawing competition is coming up. To qualify, you must draw a magical tiger.
If John enters and qualifies, his friends will know he can draw tigers. They won’t see him draw, but they’ll finally believe him.
John joins the contest, draws a tiger, and impresses the judges. His friends finally believe him! This guy can draw tigers.
This is just like a zk proof. Instead of showing directly, you prove something without revealing anything. John’s proof is his qualification. His friends didn’t see him draw, but now they know he can.
As you may have realized, one benefit of zk proofs is the privacy they offer.
But that’s not the only advantage. We won’t go deep into technical details, but remember—zk proofs are also faster. It makes sense. Going back to our example, John doesn’t need to show each friend individually how he drew the tiger. He just presents his invitation to the competition.
Moreover, they’re more memory-efficient. Compared to other proof systems, these proofs can verify much larger computations with less work.
However, there’s a catch: these proofs must be verified at some point. Suppose James tells you he got into the competition. Great—but you’d want to double-check if it’s true, right?
Unfortunately, Ethereum—and more precisely, the EVM (its virtual machine, the giant computer behind Ethereum)—wasn’t designed with zk proofs in mind. This makes verification extremely expensive, sometimes rendering zk proofs impractical.
Enter Aligned Layer.
Instead of verifying your proof directly on Ethereum, you submit it to Aligned Layer.
Aligned Layer specializes in proof verification. Think of Aligned as a network of dedicated verifiers, ready to confirm that your submitted proof is valid.
Aligned plays the role of Ethereum here. But don’t worry—they use EigenLayer’s restaking to maintain the same security level as Ethereum. Same security, without EVM limitations. Pretty cool, right?
So Aligned verifies your proof. The next step is publishing the verification result to Ethereum. Yes, I said “the result of this verification.” It’s already been verified—why verify again?
Now, your data—the proof itself—still needs to be published somewhere. Well, Aligned publishes it either on Ethereum or on alternative data availability layers like Celestia. Your choice.
With Aligned Layer, the process of verifying proofs becomes significantly cheaper. We’re talking about over 10x cost reduction—yes!
It’s also faster. You no longer have to wait for your proof to be confirmed on Ethereum—you get an initial soft confirmation from Aligned Layer immediately.
No more EVM constraints, plenty of new potential use cases, and a mission to bring zk proofs into the mainstream: Aligned Layer is set to become one of the most prominent players in the zero-knowledge space. But it’s not alone.
Nebra is a general-purpose zk proof aggregation protocol built on Ethereum. Sounds wild, right? Let me explain.
Verifying zk proofs on Ethereum is very expensive. With Nebra, you can reduce those costs by up to five times.
Nebra’s idea: “Why not verify large numbers of zk proofs off-chain, batch them into a single large package, and then verify just one aggregated proof on-chain? This way, we maintain Ethereum’s security while drastically reducing per-unit costs!” Smart, right?
Additionally, Nebra is universal. This means proofs can come from any source. Whether submitted by a zk rollup, zk coprocessor, zkML, or anyone else, Nebra accepts them all.
Nebra is also permissionless, meaning any project can use it without prior approval from the team, enabling broad-scale adoption of the technology.
Several projects are already using Nebra, including Worldcoin and Brevis (a brand-new zk coprocessor). Not sure what a coprocessor is? Check out our previous article.
And that’s it… Wait, you don’t believe this is the end?
Succinct is a layer that generates zk proofs for any blockchain. Yes, any blockchain. It aims to become the foundational layer for generating zk proofs. Impressive, right?
You might wonder how they do it—or maybe you don’t; either way, let me explain. Succinct operates as a network of provers. These provers generate zk proofs on the Succinct network and then send them to clients.
To ensure clients receive the best possible pricing, the Succinct layer consists of two parts: a marketplace where provers compete to offer the lowest price for each request, and an aggregation system that scales every generated proof to lower unit costs. Simple and effective!
Essentially, Succinct is like hiring a contractor to handle your proofs. Imagine you can’t draw a meme or don’t have time to learn—just hire someone to do it for you. Succinct does the same, but for proofs.
As the saying goes, “Big innovation equals big articles” (haha, I made that up, sorry!). One thing is certain: zk proofs hold enormous potential. We’re still far from widespread adoption, but projects like the ones we introduced today are helping bridge the gap.
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