This blog post begins a series exploring the differences between three major cryptographic proof systems used to verify computations in blockchain applications: Groth16, PLONK, and STARK. To present their differences, we sketch instances of these proof systems to prove the knowledge of a solution for the Discrete Logarithm Problem (DLP) — a well-known computational problem whose assumed hardness is the base for the security of many cryptographic applications.

zkGM and welcome to our latest edition of the ZKM Newsletter, where we bring you all the key updates, highlights, and behind-the-scenes insights from our activities from the past month.‍

The ZKM team began our journey in Thailand by establishing a strong presence at @invisiblgarden, an @Ethereum and ZK-focused developer hub in Chiang Mai. They delivered a series of talks and workshops to showcase ZKM’s technology and its potential applications to the local community.

This month has been packed with significant events, groundbreaking research, and impactful collaborations. From hosting our own sessions at the House of ZK Virtual Conference and releasing major research pieces, to making big strides at ETHGlobal San Francisco, we have plenty of highlights to share.

ZKM has released a new research paper by Senior Cryptographer, Jeroen van de Graaf, in collaboration with the ZKM research team, further elaborating on the concepts introduced earlier this year in ZKM's Entangled Rollup litepaper.

In this edition, we are proud to share the highlights from September, which witnessed major developments including the release of our latest benchmark report, research articles, and key partnership activities.

In this work, we begin to publish a general and fair zkVM benchmark framework based on previous work by a16z, providing a comparison on proving time and energy cost between ZKM (zkMIPS) and other zkVM projects, like RISC Zero (R0) and SP1.

What constitutes a proof of transaction?

To accomplish cross-chain asset transfer, most of the solutions currently available are based on a bridge, a separate, intermediate entity, which is typically trusted with holding these assets during some period of the transaction. This trust assumption is undesirable since it provides a large opportunity for attack. In this post I will explain that, assuming the existence of a zkRollup, one can implement cross-chain asset transfer without the need for additional trust assumptions (such as a bridge).

Bitcoin’s transition from a speculative asset to a globally dominant financial system is approaching an inflection point. Developments

This month has been packed with progress and strategic collaborations that continue to shape our tech, so we’ve brought you a second edition of the August Newsletter. To catch up on the first edition, see zkm.io/blog/hello-world-august-newsletter.

Contributor Corner is a platform designed to amplify the voices and expertise of our community at ZKM, inviting experts and enthusiasts alike to share their insights and deepen the collective understanding of ZK technology and its applications. The primary aim of Contributor Corner is to create a vibrant community where members actively participate in sharing and creating knowledge. This initiative seeks to:

ZKM is leading the charge in the evolution of ZK technology, developing a suite of innovative tools and educational resources to enable seamless integration of ZK into blockchain. This article provides a broad overview of our ongoing initiatives, showcasing the breadth of our work and offering a glimpse into the future.

STARK (Scalable Transparent Argument of Knowledge) is a kind of proof system introduced in 2018 by Eli Ben-Sasson and his colleagues, offering better scalability and transparency than traditional SNARK systems. STARK operates by transforming complex computations into arithmetic circuits, which are then represented as polynomial evaluation problems. To conceal intermediate results during computation, polynomial commitments are employed while allowing the verifier to sample and check these results. By applying low-degree extensions, intricate computations are reduced to verifying low-degree polynomials, before the efficient interactive proof protocol, FRI, is used to check if a polynomial has a low degree. This technology has broad applications in enabling privacy preservation and verifiable computations.

What is House of ZK? Here, we present a comprehensive explainer of 'The home of Zero-Knowledge' 🔶

Welcome to Pulse Check Bytesize, the miniature version of our regular Pulse Check industry news initiative, which is your trusted source for the latest developments, insights, and analysis in the zero-knowledge field. While Pulse Check focuses on leading research papers and major project updates, ‘Bytesize’ curates impactful discussions from industry leaders on social media and podcasts into a concise format, offering essential updates and summaries of trending topics.

House of ZK held ‘ZK Day’ at The Science of Blockchain Conference in New York City. This event, consisting of technical workshops and debates centered around the latest innovations in ZK, was co-hosted by ZKM and Aleo, and co-organized by IC3, Stanford CBR, and Berkeley RDI. Notable experts like Jeroen van de Graaf, Lucas Fraga, and Alex Pruden shared their insights about topics such as Entangled Rollups, zkMIPS architecture, and BitcoinL2 zkVM-Powered Native Security, before the day concluded with a lively Happy Hour, offering a perfect opportunity to network and relax after a day of intensive discussions.

Coming off the back of our hugely successful Brussels event during EthCC, House of ZK held ‘ZK Day’ during the Science of Blockchain Conference in New York City. Co-hosted by ZKM and Aleo, and co-organized by IC3, Stanford CBR, and Berkeley RDI, the event proved to be a remarkable convergence of researchers and industry leaders communally deliberating over the most recent advancements in ZK tech.

Welcome to "House of ZK - Pulse Check," your trusted source for the latest developments, insights, and analysis in the zero-knowledge field. Each edition of this report examines the cutting-edge advancements and critical discussions shaping the industry, offering commentary and analysis with particular focus on standout research papers and zkVMs, in addition to zk-based L1’s, L2’s, and cross-chain protocols.

As we celebrate our first anniversary at ZKM, I am immensely proud of our journey from humble beginnings to quickly becoming recognized as a pioneering force in the ZK space. Our commitment to transforming blockchain interoperability and integrating zero-knowledge technology seamlessly into everyday blockchain applications has fueled innovations and collaborations that extend far beyond our initial expectations. I’m proud to present the foreword to this newsletter, which captures our key milestones and community achievements - each vital step bringing us closer to our core mission of making state-of-the-art ZK technology accessible to the masses.‍

The House of ZK event, which coincided with ETHCC week in Brussels on July 11, 2024, proved to be the central hub for blockchain developers, scholars, and industry leaders dedicated to the exploration and advancement of ZK-based technologies. This one-day event was packed with educational keynotes, engaging panels, and in-depth discussions, focusing on the profound potential and diverse applications of ZK in blockchain.

zkGM and welcome to the June edition of the ZKM Newsletter ☀️.

Following the recent release of the updated zkMIPS paper by ZKM Research, we hope to address the key questions that followed from our community. Here, we present a broad Q&A with insights into the paper’s updates and their significance.

ZKM is pleased to announce the release of its exclusive Proving Service, providing developers with access to high-performance servers that are equipped to efficiently handle the intensive computational requirements for generating zero-knowledge proofs. The service is optimized specifically for zkMIPS, ZKM's specialist zkVM software for facilitating integration of ZKP capabilities into various applications.

Here, we announce the publication of the latest paper from ZKM Research: ‘zkMIPS: A High-Level Specification’. This substantial update of the previous version corrects the discrepancies between the original documentation and the present state of the zkMIPS codebase, providing a more accurate foundation of information to aid the ZKM developer community with their contributions.

​​We were delighted to announce a successful $5M Pre-A funding round in November 2023, led by OKX Ventures, with support from Polygon Ventures, Crypto.com, Amber Group, Leland Ventures, Waterdrip Capital, DFG, JSquare, Contribution Capital, and Metis Foundation 🔥

Network effects, as defined by Andrew Chen(a16z) in the book, The Cold Start Problem, describes what happens when products get more valuable as more people use them. As a founder of a hardcore infrastructure project building a general-purpose zkVM to unify liquidity across blockchains, how to achieve network effects for a lower-layer infra project is what I think about all day and night.

Historically, the greatest technological and corporate endeavors have been driven by a purpose that extends beyond the immediate objective of profit maximization. The companies run by Elon Musk are a great example. Consider SpaceX's ultimate mission to make humanity a multi-planetary species, or the objectives of Tesla,

ZKM is building the Quantum Network using Entangled Rollups to enable Universal Settlement.

Hello Q2! Our team is beyond excited to begin the new quarter, and we grow stronger everyday. We grew slowly after our initial launch in July 2023, but during Q1 of 2024 our community exploded to nearly 50,000 members. With this newsletter we hope to communicate our gratitude and appreciation to our community and partners who have been such an important part of the journey.

TL;DR: zkMIPS proves the correct execution of a MIPS program in five steps: it (1) divides the program in segments, (2) divides the instructions of each segment in four module tables, (3) proves instructions from each module table independently, (4) proves instructions from each segment is contained in one of its tables, and (5) recursively proves that the sequence of segment match the program execution. Step 3 is written as a STARK, step 4 is a logUp proof written as a STARK, and step 5 as a PLONK proof. All proof steps are implemented with the Plonky2 library. Optionally, one can generate a final Groth16 proof to verify the program execution on-chain.

We recently introduced a new trust-minimized multi-chain Interoperability infrastructure called Entangled Rollup.‍In this work, we implement an interoperability protocol by judiciously entangling the underlying primitives under standard security assumptions of zkRollups, leveraging our state-of-the-art recursive zkVM (zkMIPS). ‍The Entangled Rollup protocol is trustless, and a step forward to addressing liquidity fragmentation, in addition to simplifying the user and developer experience as major adoption barriers of the multi-chain world. ‍

It’s safe to say that February 2024 was the month that truly put ZKM on the map! After months of intense preparation and ardent building in relative stealth, we revealed several mouth-watering new developments in the build-up to our genesis launch of the House of ZK, which lit-up EthDenver!

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) Alpha Testnet.

We’re extremely pleased to be able to introduce ‘Delphi: sharing assessments of cryptographic assumptions’, an advanced research initiative developed by Jeroen van de Graaf and Arjen K. Lenstra.

January was a month of intense preparation — not only are we on the verge of our long-awaited testnet launch, but Eth Denver is also on the horizon and our ‘House of ZK’ hacker house is lining up to be something very special.

We’re ecstatic to move into the New Year with everything that’s coming in 2024. ZKM ended 2023 with tremendous gratitude and appreciation for our community — we couldn’t have had such a successful year without you!

ZKM is excited to relaunch our Monthly Hello World Newsletter! We understand the importance of staying connected with our community, and what better way to do so than through the relaunch of our newsletter? The ZKM team has been diligently working behind the scenes to bring you a newsletter that not only informs but also engages with a little razzle dazzle.

November began with an exciting development at ZKM — we launched Cohort 2 of our Early Contributor Program (ECP): Community Evolution

Zero-knowledge (ZK) has become a new, very popular buzzword in the Web3 world– but what does it mean, really? The Education Hub provided by ZKM is your first stop for unraveling the intricacies of ZK. The ZKM team is here for you in every step of your ZK learning journey.

At ZKM, we are on a mission to revolutionize the digital world by bringing privacy, security, and efficiency to the forefront. With the introduction of Phase 2: Community Evolution of our Early Contributor Program (ECP), we’re taking a giant step forward in achieving this goal. This program has been instrumental in fostering a community of forward-thinking developers who actively participate in shaping the future of open-source zero knowledge technology. In this post, we’re excited to unveil the new features and opportunities this new phase our ECP brings to our growing community.

The Science of Blockchain Conference (SBC 2023) is held annually at Stanford University. The local ZKM team attended, and of the attending team Chief Research Advisor Jeroen van der Graaf shares his experience and gives his insight of the events and the seminars with commentary:

August marked another month of building our universal-purpose zkVM. Let’s look back at all the happenings here at ZKM. Hack to the Future Livestream

In our article discussing the road to Hybrid Rollup technology, we talked about the evolution of Ethereum’s scaling struggle. Within that discussion, we saw how an elegant and practical solution finally emerged: a layered blockchain design, with Layer 1 as the main chain dealing with only consensus and data availability, and Layer 2 as a Rollup to provide offloaded computation validation for all blockchain users, thus creating a scalable blockchain solution.

Using zkMIPS, a client can outsource a program written using the MIPS instruction set, have it executed, and in addition to getting the result, receive an easily verifiable proof that this result is correct. The software component that creates this proof is called a zkVM.

Now that we have described the broader questions of ZK proofs security, let’s continue with Question 2. In the analysis of a two-party

Understanding the security properties of ZK proofs is a monumental challenge. Since we are building a universal-purpose zkVM (called zkMIPS, because it combines zero-knowledge proofs with the MIPS instruction set), it’s vital that we consider security within every line of code that we develop.

And We Are Off🚀 ZKM officially launched 13 July 2023. A zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) solution, incubated by the MetisDAO Foundation, aims to establish Ethereum as the universal

by Ming Guo, ZKM Chief Scientist The need for speed On the blockchain timeline, Ethereum has been around for ages, in the process evolving into the most widely used network — by a mile. Still, many challenges remain. By enabling decentralized application-building, Ethereum has fueled floods of user interest in popular dApps, only to…