Traditional blockchains typically reward developers for minor computations, such as executing a DeFi transaction correctly or participating in an airdrop. However, what if you could earn rewards for substantial computations that make a significant impact? From modeling climate changes to conducting complex deep learning tasks, your Proofs of Useful Work (performing extensive computations) could contribute to real-world transformations.

If you're interested in helping people solve significant, verifiable mathematical problems or running physical simulations using zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and receiving instant rewards for your contributions, we encourage you to submit a proposal for a Proof of Useful Work Blueprint Grant (RFP).

Challenges Addressed with ZKPs:

Computer scientists typically classify problems based on their theoretical complexity, ranging from simple tasks like optimizing a supermarket route to find the cheapest bread to complex challenges like determining the shortest path through a list of cities.

Many institutions and organizations are already dedicated to finding solutions to complex issues. Scientific projects like BOINC at the University of California, Berkeley, utilize collaborative computing to study and research diseases, climate change, pulsars, and various other scientific investigations.

Another initiative, folding@home, allows developers to contribute their computational power to combat global health threats like COVID-19, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer.

There are even more issues that require computational solutions, including:

Enhancing our understanding of celestial objects and physics.

Deep learning.

Climate modeling.

Medical and biological modeling, such as protein folding.

Even SAT competitions involve computational challenges.

The more significant the problem, the more computations are necessary to solve it. You can perform large—very large—computations within Leo, Aleo's programming language, using ZKPs. Some problems demand nearly unlimited computational resources, making it more efficient to delegate their solutions to trusted and untrusted parties (ZKPs enable swift and secure verification of the latter).

While systems like BOINC and folding@home play a critical role in valuable work, they do not financially reward contributors for their solutions. Furthermore, many previous attempts to reward "Proofs of Useful Work" often focused on narrowly specialized problems (see Primecoin).

The Aleo Proof of Useful Work Blueprint Grant offers a distinct approach. The Aleo network already recognizes and compensates developers for creating ZKPs. Now you can enable others to provide rewards for solving computational problems that have a meaningful impact.