ZK Research Grant Annocements

Research & Development

The Ethereum Foundation, in partnership with Aztec, Polygon, Scroll, Taiko, and zkSync, proudly announces the 25 winners of the ZK grant round. Each of the five sponsors contributed $150,000, creating a total pool of $900,000. The winners were selected through a ranked-choice voting process following thorough reviews of the submissions.

The selected projects encompass a diverse range of innovative approaches aimed at advancing zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs. These initiatives include the development of security frameworks, the analysis of cryptographic schemes, the creation of benchmarking tools for performance and scalability, and the integration of advanced cryptographic models into practical applications. Collectively, these efforts aim to enhance the efficiency, security, and applicability of ZK proofs across various domains.

The grantees, who include researchers and developers from esteemed organizations and universities, are addressing both theoretical and practical challenges in the field. Their contributions are expected to yield significant benefits for the Ethereum ecosystem and the broader field of cryptography.

Highlighted Projects and Grantees

1. Amit Kumar - New York University

Project: Proof Carrying Data from folding GKR with protostar

Description: Amit Kumar's project addresses the limitations of current Interactive Verifiable Computation (IVC) schemes, specifically the Witness-Multi-Scalar Multiplication (Witness-MSM) barrier. By leveraging the Goldwasser-Kalai-Rothblum (GKR) accumulation scheme, the project aims to significantly reduce the witness size and enhance computational efficiency. Using the Protostar compiler, the GKR protocol will be folded, extending IVC into a Proof Carrying Data framework to streamline verification processes and improve scalability.

2. Pratyush Mishra - University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University

Project: Zippel: A language and compiler for building proof systems

Description: Zippel is a new language and compiler designed to facilitate the development of correct and efficient succinct proof systems. It allows developers to express protocols in a high-level language that closely resembles their mathematical descriptions. Zippel manages low-level details such as parallelism and memory management automatically, helping developers catch protocol soundness and zero-knowledge bugs through powerful static analyses.

3. Julian Sutherland - Nethermind

Project: Lean Extraction of Circuit Constraints from Halo2

Description: This project focuses on developing a formal verification harness for the Halo2 library, a widely-used ZK infrastructure library. The goal is to extract constraints from a Halo2 circuit and reason about them in the Lean 4 proof assistant, ensuring high-level security for circuits written in Halo2's domain-specific language embedded in Rust.

4. Jordan Coppard - Independent

Project: ZK Benchmarks

Description: Jordan Coppard's project aims to create a comprehensive and accessible repository of performance benchmarks for various proving systems. The benchmarks will cover prover time, verifier time, and proof gate size across different computer architectures (e.g., x86_64, ARM). This repository will help developers and project managers make informed decisions about their requirements and understand the current landscape of ZK performance.

5. Stanislav Marycev - zkFold

Project: ZKFold Symbolic: a Zero-Knowledge Smart Contract Language

Description: ZKFold Symbolic is a high-level functional language for writing zero-knowledge smart contracts. Compiling directly into arithmetic circuits, it enables developers to utilize zero-knowledge protocols without needing deep expertise in ZK cryptography. This language reduces on-chain data and computation footprints, effectively scaling Ethereum and EVM chains.

6. Sergey Kaunov - Independent

Project: Wasm PLUME

Description: This project aims to make the PLUME scheme, a secure cryptographic implementation, more accessible outside of the Rust ecosystem. By minimizing divergence in the Wasm release and providing a downstream-friendly API, it seeks to enhance privacy, simplify identity management, and encourage user adoption in the Ethereum ecosystem.

7. Lako Nema - Independent

Project: Onboard users to verifiable KYC

Description: This project aims to create an open-source end-to-end app for verifiable KYC using the Noir language. The app will demonstrate how ZK technology can be used to ensure private KYC, making it easier for developers to build and deploy similar applications. The project includes comprehensive onboarding guides and blog posts to broaden its exposure.

8. Albert Garreta - Nethermind

Project: LatticeFold implementation and folding schemes for FRI-based SNARKs

Description: This project will develop a Proof of Concept (PoC) for the LatticeFold folding scheme and benchmark it against existing schemes like HyperNova. It also aims to create a "STARK-friendly" folding scheme for FRI-based SNARKs, facilitating their use in various applications like ethSTARK and Plonky2/3.

9. Albert Garreta - Nethermind

Project: SNARKs for non-prime arithmetics

Description: This project focuses on developing SNARKs tailored for proving statements over rings of the form Z/nZ, with n being an arbitrary integer. This approach aims to enable native proofs for computations involving RSA-based cryptography, CPU operations, and non-algebraic hash functions, reducing overheads in circuit/R1CS/AIR size.

10. Stefanos Chaliasos - Independent

Project: Reproducible ZK Vulnerabilities to Improve Ecosystem’s Security

Description: This project aims to develop a comprehensive dataset and framework featuring reproducible ZK exploits. It will serve as an educational tool for newcomers and a study base for experts, evaluating the effectiveness of existing security tools and aiding in the development of more robust detection tools.

11. Stefanos Chaliasos - Independent

Project: Detecting Private Information Leakage in Zero-Knowledge Applications

Description: This project proposes a static analysis approach enhanced with taint tracking, input generation, and SMT solving to identify and validate instances of private information leakage in ZK applications. It aims to apply this approach to the Noir language and subsequently to other ZK DSLs like Leo.

12. Patrick Stiles - Independent

Project: Metal Backend for Icicle MSM

Description: This project aims to create a Metal Shader Language backend for Icicle MSM to leverage GPU performance on Apple's M series chips. This will provide significant performance benefits to developers in the ZK ecosystem, especially those with data that cannot leave the host device.

13. Gaylord Warner - ZK Hack

Project: ZK Whiteboard Sessions Season 2

Description: ZK Whiteboard Sessions is an educational video series covering the fundamentals of ZK technology. Season 2 will consist of 8 new modules produced by ZK Hack, providing up-to-date foundational knowledge for researchers and builders new to ZK.

14. Wenhao Wang - Yale University

Project: Cirrus: Performant and Robust Distributed SNARK Generation via Computation Delegation

Description: Cirrus aims to design and develop a new protocol for distributed SNARK proof generation. It will improve efficiency, scalability, and robustness against malicious nodes, addressing the current bottlenecks in existing systems.

15. Sergio Chouhy - Eryx & Manas

Project: Plonky2 backend for ACIR

Description: This project will expand the ACIR ecosystem by building an open-source backend for the Plonky2 prover. This integration will allow users of ACIR-compatible DSLs to leverage Plonky2's advantages and provide insights for potential improvements to ACIR as a standard.

16. Paul Yu - Independent

Project: Lookups comparison table (speed, memory, preprocessing): univariate + multilinear Description: This project aims to develop a comprehensive comparison table for various lookup arguments, such as pylookup, Caulk, Baloo, and others. The table will assist developers in choosing the most suitable solutions for their needs.

17. Igor Gulamov - ZeroPool

Project: Minimal fully recursive zkDA rollup with sharded storage

Description: This project proposes a novel rollup architecture using zero-knowledge proofs for data availability and sharded storage. It aims to enable infinite recursion, allowing rollups to be deployed on top of other rollups without limitations, thus enhancing scalability.

18. Artem Grigor - Independent

Project: ZK-ML-IOS Integration

Description: This project aims to enhance the existing iOS toolkit for ZK development by adding support for the Halo2 proving system and porting the EZKL library to iOS devices, enabling sophisticated ZKML applications on mobile devices.

19. Chao Ma - Snarkify

Project: Sirius

Description: The project introduces CycleFold to Sirius, enhancing the folding performance of recursive arguments over elliptic curves. This new approach minimizes the responsibilities of the secondary circuit and reduces BigInt operations, improving efficiency.

20. Hanze Guo - DLT Science Foundation

Project: Benchmarking ZK-circuits Across Multiple SNARKs/STARKs Development Frameworks

Description: This project aims to provide a comprehensive benchmark framework for testing and evaluating various ZK development tools. It will collect and organize development tools, create testing circuits, and evaluate popular ZKP tools across different parameters.

21. Yu Guo - SECBIT Labs and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Project: Comparison of Multilinear Polynomial Commitment Schemes

Description: This project aims to provide a comprehensive comparison of different multilinear polynomial commitment schemes. It will evaluate their efficiency, security assumptions, and performance to guide developers in selecting the best schemes for their applications.

22. Mirror Tang - Salus

Project: A Security framework for zkSNARK development and audit

Description: Mirror Tang's project focuses on developing a comprehensive security framework for zkSNARK development and auditing. This framework will help identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities in zkSNARK implementations, contributing to the robustness of Ethereum's ZK technology.

23. Pierre Orlandi - Independent

Project: Recursive SNARK for Quantum Circuits

Description: This project aims to develop a recursive SNARK protocol specifically designed for quantum circuits. It will provide a new approach to verifying quantum computations, potentially unlocking new applications in quantum cryptography.

24. Alice Li - MIT

Project: Fast Polynomial Commitment Schemes for Blockchain

Description: This project focuses on creating efficient polynomial commitment schemes tailored for blockchain applications. By optimizing these schemes for specific blockchain use cases, it aims to improve the scalability and efficiency of blockchain-based proof systems.

25. Ben Thompson - Independent

Project: Secure ZK-Oracles for DeFi

Description: Ben Thompson's project aims to develop secure zero-knowledge oracles for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. These oracles will provide verifiable data feeds that can be used in DeFi protocols, enhancing their security and reliability.

The Ethereum Foundation and its partners are excited about the potential impact of these projects and look forward to the innovations and advancements they will bring to the ZK ecosystem.

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