ZK has been hyped as the ultimate solution for all privacy and scalability issues — identity will be self-sovereign, global voting systems will be revolutionized, and you will never need to reveal your personal data again, all because of the magic of ZK.

Sounds great, but where's the incentive? People don't seem that bothered about revealing their identity. The existing voting system seems to be working. And data collection is a lucrative business. Why would any company (big or small) spend the resources to upgrade to ZK?

Without a way to monetize ZK, there is no real motivation (beyond the philosophical) for real-world orgs to make the switch.

ZK is infra-level tech — no matter how optimized it becomes, it is not something that can just be ‘upgraded’ to become monetizable. The monetization will come from the creativity and ideas of the people building on it.

For example, Uber saw the app store infra being used for niche monetization uses such as Angry Birds or Paper Toss, and came up with an idea for a ride-share app that grew to a multi-billion dollar company.

The key to unlocking the monetization of ZK is to attract more builders to it. Pool the creative minds of Web 2.0 and Web3 through hackathons, buildathons, and incentivization schemes, and provide easy-to-use dev tools to find the next (or first) “Uber-style” breakthrough for ZK.

Web 2.0’s most profitable money-making machine was through data farming. Facebook, Google, OpenAI, and the other big tech players all make billions of dollars from either directly selling user data or utilizing it for targeted advertising.

Nowadays, people are becoming more savvy about the value of their data. Businesses have propped up that allow users to take ownership of their personal data and profit from its sale.

However, such solutions still don’t solve the issue of data privacy. What if you could sell your data without sacrificing privacy? ZK tech gives users this ability:

A recently hyped implementation of this was through Grass – a decentralized platform where users monetize their unused internet bandwidth by contributing to a data collection network designed for AI training.

They use ZK Proofs to verify the data without exposing the actual content. So, people can privately monetize their data, while Grass creates a profitable business structure based on its share of the fees.

Another niche implementation of ZK that has proved to be monetizable is anon-posting.

Anon-posting utilizes ZK proofs to allow users on X and Farcaster to post completely anonymously.

Example of someone anon-posting on X using AnonCast:

Such anon tools use a simple monetization structure where users either pay a fee or must hold a certain amount of the native token in order to post.

It is a small-scale example of creatively utilizing current ZK-tech to build a profitable structure, even if its usage remains relatively niche.

Finance, healthcare, and supply chain management industries are generally required to prove compliance with data privacy regulations.

The optimal way to accomplish this, without revealing the underlying data itself, is through ZK proofs.

Creating a SaaS model where enterprises pay per proof generation or subscribe to a ZK privacy suite is another avenue for larger-scale monetization.

This could also extend to audit systems, secure multiparty computations, and even private inter-company transactions.

ZK proofs can be used to create provably fair gaming ecosystems where players can verify achievements, assets, and game results without revealing sensitive information.

There are already niche implementations of this in Web3. For example, ImmutableX supports NFT-based assets that can be privately verified and traded using ZK proofs.

However, large-scale monetization will likely occur through integration with Web 2.0 gaming — where most of the money still is.

ZK asset verification tools, alongside premium ‘enhanced privacy’ ZK subscription services, could partner with established gaming companies, who pass the fee on to the customers.

For example, gamers may see an in-game option to ‘make this purchase private’ for an additional fee. This fee would be paid directly (or indirectly) to the ZK service partner.

Although it is somewhat against the ethos of the open-source, decentralized scientific system that DeSci stands for, there is potential for large-scale monetization of ZK within DeSci.

For example, a platform could implement a subscription model or charge transaction fees for using its zkTLS-secured environment.

Research institutions would pay a premium for such services to assure the security of their communications and the verifiability of their research.

ZK is the foundational infra ripe for an innovation boom. Its inherent privacy and scalability make it a point of difference that creative builders can use to develop the next Uber-level product.