The four-year agreement is coming to an end, and Aleo, which is about to launch its mainnet, wants everyone to realize that "ZK can be used for both blockchain scalability and privacy purposes."

Interview, compilation: Frank, Foresight News

Four years, 300 million dollars, and a privacy public chain based on ZK are the most intuitive three labels for Aleo.

For Joanna Zeng, Vice President and Chief Business Development Officer of Aleo, the most frequently mentioned keyword in the interview is "Technology."

Her decision to transition from over 10 years in Wall Street to the crypto industry was based on a "aha moment" about "Technology": "Crypto is not just an investment opportunity, but more of a disruptive technology."

This has been the theme of her 6 years in the crypto industry, from Coinbase to Optimism, from the company closest to Web2 to the new technology representative in the Rollup track. Joanna Zeng has been "getting closer to the industry's cutting-edge technological development step by step," an experience that has helped her "understand how to develop and strengthen a relatively mature ecosystem."

And ZK represents the latest technological frontier. Aleo has also made her realize that "privacy protection should not only be a concern for users who are frequently monitored, but is a larger issue that everyone will need in their daily lives."

Regardless of the construction period or the amount of financing, Aleo can be considered a leading "OG" project in the crypto world. However, since the Rollup wave in 2022, ZK technology seems to be more associated with blockchain scalability, and few people have paid attention to its original intention for privacy in blockchain.

Now that the four-year agreement is coming to an end and the Aleo mainnet is about to launch, it wants everyone to realize that "ZK actually has dual value, it can be used for both blockchain network scalability and privacy purposes."

Perhaps, as Joanna Zeng said, "From the perspective of the mainnet launch, Aleo may also become a beacon of hope." Foresight News also had the privilege of conducting an exclusive Chinese interview with Joanna Zeng on November 10, 2023, and here is the compilation of the interview transcript for the readers' enjoyment.

I. Joanna Zeng's "aha moment": From Wall Street to Bitcoin

Foresight News: After doing some research, we found that in the early stages of your career, you worked on Wall Street, including top traditional financial institutions such as Lehman Brothers and Citibank. What led you to learn about the blockchain industry and start working in it?

Joanna Zeng: Before joining Aleo, I had been in the entire crypto industry for almost 6 years. Initially, I was in traditional finance, and my first job was at Lehman Brothers, mainly in currency trading.

Later, I worked at Citibank for about 10 years. Then, due to work opportunities, around 2013, I first came into contact with the concept of Bitcoin. At that time, it was mainly seen as a hedge in the industry, and many people thought that Bitcoin would replace a portion of currency. As a currency trader at the time, I made some investments in Bitcoin, but later I sold the Bitcoin I held.

In 2017, one day, I had a sudden "aha moment," realizing that Crypto is not just an investment opportunity, but more of a disruptive technology. So, in the bear market at the time, I spent some time thinking about how to get involved in the technology field.

I attended a development training, learned Solidity language, and created a Crypto developer committee called "Crypto NYC" with some like-minded "Crypto enthusiasts" (Nerds) to discuss white papers. Many friends and colleagues from there went on to start their own companies, and I helped them write white papers, establish their projects, and connect with investors.

Foresight News: What led you to learn about Aleo and decide to join Aleo later? What role does joining the Aleo Foundation play in your career?

Joanna Zeng: After entering the crypto industry, I had work experience in departments related to Coinbase and Optimism. My experience at Optimism helped me understand how to develop and strengthen a relatively mature ecosystem.

Before joining Aleo, I was already very interested in ZK. I saw Aleo founder Alex Pruden give a related presentation at a ZK summit, and I also realized that ZK technology would be important in the future, for example, if 2022 could be called "Rollup Summer," then 2023 should be "ZK Summer."

So at that time, I also hoped to learn more about ZK technology, so I paid to take related courses to study. At that opportunity, I met the founder of Aleo and stayed in touch, and was eventually invited to join Aleo.

II. Aleo has an interesting "mixed feeling"

Foresight News: What do you think is the biggest difference between this industry and traditional industries? What role does joining Aleo play in your career?

Joanna Zeng: Since entering the crypto industry, many friends from traditional industries have always asked me, "Why did you make such a decision?" and "Have you ever regretted it?"

Every time, I tell them, don't just look at short-term gains and losses. For me, this is a relatively big change in life. In the long run, spending more time in this industry, I have accumulated some reputation. Now I feel that I can confidently pick up the phone and call anyone I know, and they will answer.

It's because this industry is too new. Although it's difficult to know everyone, it's still a small enough industry where it's possible to know everyone.

So, if you prove with your actions that you won't give up when the so-called bear market comes, then I think everyone will trust you and help each other. I really like this feeling of mutual assistance among peers, and I feel like I'm constantly growing in the industry.

It's a sense of "community," and there is still a lot of untapped potential. I have always been exploring this new potential, such as starting from Coinbase, which is the closest to a Web2 company in Web3, then to Optimism, which is a representative of a new Rollup technology, and now ZK is a new technological direction.

So, I am also making an effort to get closer to the industry's cutting-edge technological development trends step by step.

Foresight News: In the process of working at Aleo, what is the biggest commonality among your colleagues? Is there anything or anyone that has left a deep impression on you?

Joanna Zeng: I think Aleo has an interesting "mixed feeling."

For example, many people have been working in Web3, and then another group of people entered the Web3 industry later, having work experience and leadership in Web2.

I have done or participated in many other Web3 projects before, and they either consist of a bunch of people from Web2 working in Web3, or people who have only worked in Web3, without this kind of balance and integration, which Aleo has achieved.

From my perspective, why this corporate culture is good is because I feel that the team still has the feeling of a startup company, the team is small, and everyone's voice can be heard, especially in the department I am responsible for. Everyone has enough freedom and resources to do things well.

I admire the CEO's initiative. He doesn't just talk, but actually fulfills his promises.

III. Privacy is the Key to Web3 Going Mainstream

Foresight News: What specific product services/business content does Aleo include? What problems does it aim to solve?

Joanna Zeng: Aleo is currently an L1 blockchain project that uses ZKP technology to address privacy-related issues.

Why do I want to talk about privacy? It's because I initially thought that privacy is not something everyone cares about. But then I thought, if we want to make Web3 mainstream, meaning that everyone, not just those in the crypto community, can participate, what should we do?

Undoubtedly, we need the current technology to simulate privacy protection in the real world. In real life, for example, if I transfer money to you, Frank, the account name, information, and amount of the transaction should only be known to the two of us, which is our normal practice. But in the current Web3 world, everything is completely open and transparent.

Once your address is linked to your actual identity, everyone knows all your previous transaction records, which clearly does not align with our habits in real life. So we believe that privacy protection should not only be a concern for users in countries frequently monitored by the government; it is a larger issue that everyone will need in their daily lives.

We are now making privacy protection a programmable Web3 feature. Users can consider it as an option, choosing to use it completely privately or completely publicly, or in a "gray" middle state, allowing everyone to freely choose.

Foresight News: Many people compare Aleo to a programmable Zcash or Ethereum with underlying privacy logic. What are the architectural differences between Aleo and other protocols or public chains based on ZK or with privacy attributes?

Joanna Zeng: We see ourselves as the next major breakthrough in the blockchain technology revolution.

Let's review the step-by-step development path:

• First, there was Bitcoin, as a solution for peer-to-peer public payments;

• Then there was Zcash, providing a privacy-enabled payment solution;

• Next was Ethereum, building an open application ecosystem;

Now it's Aleo's turn to build a privacy-enabled application ecosystem. As for the differences in our privacy architecture compared to other projects, I think the biggest difference is that we have spent a lot of effort in redeveloping the architecture of Layer 1 to ensure that all the technology is specifically designed for privacy protection.

Aleo is also a very OG project, having been in development for three years. Why did it take until now to launch the mainnet? It's because we have been exploring. Initially, we also considered using Ethereum as the initial model and trying to build something on top of it. However, Ethereum's account model and underlying structure are not designed for privacy. Therefore, Aleo decided to use a different accounting model, the Record model.

In the end, we adopted a virtual machine based on ZK-SNARK, combined with the later ZK SNARK OS operating system, and our own developed Leo language (Foresight News note, a functional static type programming language built on Rust specifically for writing private applications).

Overall, after some trade-offs, we have adopted what we believe are the most advanced technological choices. Therefore, there are three points that I think we have achieved that other products have not:

• First, we have achieved privacy protection;

• Second, we have achieved programmability. This means that we can not only conduct private transactions but also build other applications on top of it;

• Third, we have achieved "permissionless";

Regarding "permissionless," we have adopted a unique design, using both PoW and PoS consensus mechanisms. We use the PoS mechanism to validate transactions, and after the mainnet launch, anyone can join the network as long as they have enough tokens to stake.

In terms of PoW, we have also fully achieved decentralization, allowing traditional miners to participate in ZK Proof generation similar to mining. Additionally, we have introduced a new mining competition mechanism called "ZPrize," bringing together the best teams in research and engineering, hardware, and software to develop better machines. The team will not intervene but will allow developers to freely develop better applications.

Overall, whether it's validators, miners, or developers, the overall system is very decentralized.

Foresight News: In terms of hardware, is the barrier to entry high for those who want to participate in mining on Aleo?

Joanna Zeng: Currently, the barrier to entry for hardware mining is not high.

Miners with mining experience can quickly equip themselves with the necessary hardware. I am not a miner myself, so I am not particularly clear about the specific situation, but as far as I know, transitioning from other mining platforms to Aleo does not require much additional work.

IV. Aleo's Mainnet Launch Schedule

Foresight News: You also mentioned the plan to launch the mainnet in January 2024. What is the specific schedule for the mainnet launch? What is the specific launch process?

Joanna Zeng: Regarding the mainnet launch, the current plan is to launch around the first quarter of 2024. However, the specific timing will need to be adjusted based on testing, and we will announce it to the public once it is finalized.

Foresight News: What does the launch of the Aleo mainnet mean compared to the testnet? What are the key areas that may need to be focused on?

Joanna Zeng: First, it is important to note that the applications on the testnet can be directly migrated to the mainnet after its launch.

The most important point is that previously, the team and the protocol were making technical decisions, but after the launch of the Aleo mainnet, we will transition to a permissionless, community-governed model, meaning that all technical upgrades will require community voting to be implemented.

To achieve this goal, we will establish a comprehensive proposal and community governance process, similar to Ethereum's ERC process, which we call ARC, allowing anyone to propose and decide through community voting whether to implement the proposals.

At the same time as the mainnet launch, we will introduce a foundation. The company will continue to work on product and service aspects, while the foundation will focus on ecosystem and community development, providing various resources and support such as Grants to help developers build applications on Aleo.

Foresight News: Regarding the token economic model, is there any information that can be disclosed or shared? What is the process for exchanging Aleo points obtained from the testnet?

Joanna Zeng: The specific details of token allocation are yet to be determined, and the specific token allocation plan will be announced before the mainnet launch.

For community members who participated in the testnet, they will receive corresponding tokens after the mainnet launch, as a reward for their contributions to Aleo during the testnet period.

Foresight News: Many people know that the development threshold for ZK is relatively high, including complex circuits. Will there be a certain threshold for developers to build applications on Aleo?

Joanna Zeng: Improving the development experience on Aleo has always been our focus.

For example, we have recently developed many compilers, including a Python compiler, which can compile high-level languages into low-level languages. Therefore, developers can use familiar high-level languages for development and then compile the code into Aleo's internal language, Leo, at compile time. This allows developers to see the compiled code without needing to understand Aleo's internal structure.

We have also developed many other tools to help developers lower the development threshold, so they don't need to understand the basic ZK concepts and can more easily develop on Aleo.

Foresight News: What types of applications do you think have the demand or motivation to choose Aleo and what advantages can they gain after integration with the services provided by Aleo after the mainnet launch?

Joanna Zeng: Aleo currently focuses on seven major areas of applications (DeFi, Identity, Gaming, SocialFi, zkML, Infrastructure, Voting/Governance) as a basic understanding. After the mainnet launch, more people may be interested in how to integrate our technology with the technologies of other chains to create new use cases.

The advantage of Aleo lies in its focus on privacy and security, which sets it apart from other chains that often prioritize transaction volume and user count. We believe that privacy and security are key to blockchain technology, and as the technology becomes more widespread, Aleo's transaction volume and user count will grow, continuing to drive development in these two areas.

Aleo will continue to collaborate with projects on other chains to create new use cases, such as the new possibilities for full-chain games mentioned earlier, using our technology to verify the age of children, and using our technology to verify the accuracy of machine learning algorithms, and more.

We believe that Aleo's unique advantages can play an important role in the blockchain field, continuing to drive the development of blockchain technology to make it a more private, secure, and fair platform.

V. Achievements of the Aleo Ecosystem

Foresight News: Although the Aleo mainnet has not yet launched, the testnet is already undergoing testing. What achievements has the development of the Aleo ecosystem made so far? Are there any data dimensions that can be shared?

Joanna Zeng: I will mention two indicators, one is the monthly active developers, and the other is the number of deployed programs (in Aleo's terminology, programs are what we call smart contracts).

The definition of monthly active developers is that regardless of the programming language used, they have submitted code at least once and have been used by others at least once. Deployed programs are not just something that can be forked randomly.

After removing the valueless code, we currently have 14,000 deployed programs, and 120 monthly active developers.

These numbers are actually quite impressive compared to other popular blockchain platforms, so even though Aleo has not yet launched the mainnet, the number of monthly active developers on the testnet is similar to that of many mainstream blockchain platforms. Additionally, our monthly active developer growth rate is 79%.

In terms of the ecosystem, we are currently focusing on the following 7 use case scenarios: DeFi, Identity, Gaming, SocialFi, zkML, Infrastructure, Voting/Governance.

The project with the most decentralized infrastructure (InfraFi) has reached 330, mainly because our ecosystem focuses on decentralized infrastructure.

Because ZK technology itself is very conducive to privacy use cases, but due to infrastructure reasons, it is currently difficult to directly migrate from the Ethereum ecosystem. Therefore, many projects are working on this, including wallets, cross-chain bridges, and RPC-related infrastructure applications.

Another interesting use case is Gaming, where game developers are working on developing full-chain games. In traditional modes, they cannot hide game states. Now, based on ZK technology, game developers can deceive players in an asymmetric information environment, not allowing opponents to see the player's strategy during the game. This is a use case that can only be built on a privacy public chain.

This is really interesting because there are many types of games that can be applied to different scenarios. For example, poker games can use our technology to protect the privacy of players, and so on. In short, Aleo's technology can be used to achieve endless gameplay, including implementing other game features, such as social features.

Regarding SocialFi, it can be used to achieve third-party certification. For example, we can scan the other party's NFC chip to obtain their identity information, but this information will only be stored on both of our devices and will not be made public.

For example, we are collaborating with a company that provides education for children to help them safely use the internet. They use our technology to verify the age of children, but do not disclose this information to anyone. This technology can be used in various scenarios, such as allowing children to watch age-appropriate movies or TV shows.

Finally, there is zkML, which is a method of using zero-knowledge proofs to verify the accuracy of machine learning algorithms. This technology is a decentralized method that allows people to provide data without disclosing personal data, and can be used in various scenarios, such as verifying the accuracy of credit card transactions, and so on.

Foresight News: In addition to purely on-chain applications, what other applications can be combined with offline scenarios and require privacy to be achieved?

Joanna Zeng: As we discussed earlier, Aleo has surpassed traditional privacy transactions and is now addressing how to achieve true privacy applications.

From the user's perspective, any scenario where you don't need to broadcast information to the entire network can be considered a privacy application. This includes the example mentioned earlier of checking the ID of each school student to determine if they are allowed to access specific internet content based on their age.

In Aleo's system, all one-time database information can be processed in a verifiable manner using the latest technology and quickly generate verification proofs.

Foresight News: Privacy applications like Tornado Cash face regulatory issues in many countries and regions. If Aleo is built as a privacy public chain, could it also face concerns or risks in terms of regulation?

Joanna Zeng: I believe that one difference between Aleo and other privacy chains is that we have been committed to compliance from the beginning.

Privacy public chains and compliant public chains may seem contradictory, but we believe that both can be achieved. We are collaborating with a company that provides zero-knowledge proof technology to develop a mechanism for validators that allows regulatory agencies to view on-chain data when necessary, but such viewing requires the project's consent.

We are also working with many government agencies to help them develop privacy applications. We believe that by working with regulatory agencies, Aleo can provide privacy protection for users while also meeting regulatory requirements.

Foresight News: Whether it's the development stack or actual use cases, the development of the ZK ecosystem is still in its early stages. What efforts and developments do you think are needed to make ZK mainstream, and what are Aleo's thoughts and actions on this?

Joanna Zeng: ZK technology has always been seen as a technology for scaling blockchain, and when people think of ZK, they usually think of solutions for Rollups and Layer2.

But the most important thing Aleo has done is to make everyone realize that ZK actually has dual value, it can be used for the scalability of blockchain networks, but it can also be used for privacy purposes.

We are also doing a lot of education on this, from top-level policy makers to ordinary users, providing comprehensive publicity. We have also done some social welfare projects, such as ZPrize, from which Aleo does not directly benefit, but we hope to use it to promote ZK technology and make more people aware of the potential of ZK.

Foresight News: Aleo has gone through several rounds of relatively large financing, totaling nearly $300 million, which is quite rare in the industry. In the current market, how do you view the current bull and bear cycles?

Joanna Zeng: It is quite clear that we are currently in a so-called bear market, which can be seen from various data.

In this situation, Aleo needs to continue to focus on technical research and community building, especially the launch of the mainnet, to fulfill the promises made to investors and the community over the past four years, which is an important milestone.

Of course, this is also the significance of the $300 million in funding, allowing us to focus on technical research and fulfill our promises.

From the perspective of the mainnet launch, Aleo may also become a beacon of hope. Because those who truly understand us and know our community friends understand that we are a protocol that can deliver on all our promises, including privacy protection, permissionless, scalability, programmability, and resistance to witch attacks, which are all very difficult problems to solve.

We are confident that Aleo can bring hope to industry friends through the launch of the mainnet.

In addition, the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) is also the next key market for Aleo, and our core team has recently visited various core gathering points in the Asia-Pacific region for inspection, and we are looking forward to the development potential in the Asia-Pacific region.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。