This article introduces three interesting projects, focusing on the concept of zk-proofs and their advantages in privacy and efficiency.

Authors: NAIROLF, SENSEI WU

Translation: Kate, Mars Financial

Are you ready to explore the wonderful world of zero-knowledge proofs? In this article, we will introduce three interesting projects and explain zk-proofs in an unprecedented way.

Enough with the ZK this, ZK that, brother. Starknet only has 8 users per month, it's a failed airdrop, and no one cares about ZK rollup. Well, hold on. This technology is really great.

Let's start by understanding what zero-knowledge or ZK proofs are. For example!

John likes to draw beautiful tigers but is too shy to show his drawings to his friends! 👉👈

His friends doubt his skills. They've never seen him draw! But John has a plan. There's a big tiger drawing competition coming up. To qualify, you have to draw a magical tiger.

If John participates and qualifies, his friends will know he can draw tigers. They won't see him draw, but they will eventually believe in him.

John enters the competition, draws a tiger, and impresses the judges. His friends finally believe in him! This guy can draw tigers.

This is just like a zk-proof. Not showing directly, but proving it without revealing anything. John's proof is his qualification. His friends haven't seen him draw, but they know he can.

As you may already know, one advantage of zk-proofs is the privacy they provide.

But that's not the only advantage. We won't delve into the details, but remember, zk-proofs are also faster. It makes sense. If we revisit our example, John doesn't need to show each of his friends how he draws tigers. He just presents the competition invitation.

Additionally, they are more memory-efficient. Compared to other proof systems, these proofs can verify larger computations with less effort.

However, there's a catch: these proofs need to be verified at some point. Suppose James tells you he got accepted into the competition. Great, but you want to confirm, right?

Unfortunately, Ethereum, or more precisely, its virtual machine (the large computer behind Ethereum), was not designed with zk-proofs in mind. This makes verification costs very high and sometimes renders zk-proofs unusable.

Enter Aligned Layer.

Instead of verifying your proof directly on Ethereum, you submit these proofs to Aligned Layer.

Aligned Layer is specifically responsible for verifying proofs. Think of Aligned as a network of specialized validators ready to confirm the correctness of your submitted proof at any time.

Aligned plays the role of Ethereum here. But don't worry, they use EigenLayer's re-staking to maintain the same level of security as Ethereum. Same security as Ethereum, without the limitations of EVM. Cool, right?

So, Aligned will verify your proof. The next step is to publish the verification result to Ethereum. Yes, I said "the result of this verification." It's already been verified, so why verify it again?

Now, you still have your data, or the proof, to publish somewhere. Well, Aligned will publish it on Ethereum or on AltDAs like Celestia. Your choice.

With Aligned Layer, the process of verifying proofs becomes cheaper. We're talking about a 10x cost reduction, yes!

It's also faster. You don't have to wait for your proof to be verified on Ethereum; you already receive the first soft confirmation from Aligned Layer.

With no more EVM limitations, there are many new potential use cases, and the goal of making zk-proofs mainstream: Aligned Layer will be one of the most prominent players in the zero-knowledge field. But it's not the only one.

Nebra is a universal zk-proof aggregation protocol based on Ethereum. Sounds a bit crazy, right? Let me explain.

Verifying zk-proofs on Ethereum is very expensive. With Nebra, you can reduce these costs by five times.

Nebra proposes: "Why don't we verify a large number of ZK proofs off-chain, batch them into a large package, and then only verify an aggregated on-chain proof? This way, we maintain Ethereum's security while reducing the cost per unit generated!" Smart, isn't it?

Moreover, Nebra is universal. This means proofs can come from any source. Whether it's from zk rollups, zkCoprocessor, zkML, or anyone else, Nebra accepts these proofs.

Nebra is also permissionless, meaning any project can use it without needing prior approval from the team, enabling widespread adoption of this technology.

Some projects have already utilized Nebra, such as Worldcoin and Brevis (a new type of ZK coprocessor). Not sure what a coprocessor is? Check out our previous articles.

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. Its goal is to become the foundational layer for generating zk-proofs. Impressive, right?

You might be wondering how they do it—or maybe not; either way, let me explain. Succinct operates as a network of provers. These provers generate zk-proofs on the Succinct network and then send the proofs to clients.

To ensure the most favorable prices for these clients, the Succinct layer consists of two parts: a marketplace where provers offer the best prices for each request, and an aggregation system that scales each generated proof to reduce the unit cost. Simple and effective!

Essentially, Succinct is like a contractor you hire to handle proofs for you. Imagine you can't create a meme, or don't have time to develop that skill; just hire someone to do it for you. Succinct is the same, but for proofs.

As the saying goes, "great innovation equals great articles" (haha, I made that up, sorry!) One thing is for sure: zk-proofs have tremendous potential. We still have a way to go before widespread adoption, but projects like the ones we introduced today are helping bridge that gap.

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。