Aligned https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3 We accelerate the roadmap of Ethereum by making proof verification faster and cheaper. We can verify proofs for 10% of the cost. Tue, 02 Jun 2026 19:21:00 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html https://github.com/jpmonette/feed en Aligned https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/2c6376c0440c7661b0609a42472de2b23ea03cf72d4d4f098808d974ea8fa1f7.jpg https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3 All rights reserved <![CDATA[Aligned Builders Hackathon: Prizes and Judging Criteria]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/aligned-builders-hackathon-prizes-and-judging-criteria ir0X57o6IQZ9fza1TkJU Wed, 16 Oct 2024 18:34:51 GMT The inaugural Aligned Builders Hackathon is in full swing. Over 250 hackers have joined our community to develop innovative projects on Aligned and to show the world what can be built using ZK. With just under two weeks left to build the competition is heating up, and more than two dozen teams are actively building. Today we’re sharing some details on the prizes that will be awarded to the best projects.

This hackathon is the first stage of our mainnet incentives program, designed to reward developers, partners, and users based on their engagement and usage. Our goal is to inspire the creation of apps that will attract users and refine the Aligned developer experience. While we’re specifically looking for ZK applications and tools to enhance Aligned, any well-executed project that showcases Aligned’s capabilities and has user appeal is welcome.

Hackathon Prizes

We’re offering up to $50,000 USD in total prizes. The 1st place winner will receive a prize of $15,000, 2nd place will receive $10,000, and there will be 5 runner-up prizes of $5000 each.

Aligned reserves the right to provide additional financial grants, logistical support, and partnership assistance for viable projects that demonstrate a path towards entering production. We are excited to support successful teams with their mainnet launch and to continue working together with our developer ecosystem.

Aligned Developer Points

In addition to prizes and support, developers in the hackathon may earn Aligned points, recognizing their contributions and status within the Aligned ecosystem. Further details about the points program and our mainnet incentives will be shared at a later date.

Judging Criteria

This is a product-focused hackathon where we are emphasizing the importance of building something that can actually be used. User experience is an important factor, as well as having a roadmap to extend and improve the project from MVP and into production.

Projects must use Aligned to verify ZK proofs on Ethereum (Holesky testnet).

Projects will be judged based on several criteria:

  • Technical implementation: Does the code work? Is it well-documented?

  • Innovation and impact: Does the project demonstrate a new or interesting way to use ZK? Is it solving an important problem, or does it have the potential to draw users?

  • Design and user experience: Is the project usable, accessible, and intuitive?

  • Readiness: How developed is the project? Is there a clear roadmap for going into production?

  • Community contributions and long-term collaboration potential: Has the team contributed to technical conversations? Have they helped other teams by sharing code, libraries, advice, etc?

Submissions must also meet some standard criteria to be considered complete:

  • Execution: The project must compile and execute fully. Incomplete submissions won’t qualify.

  • Open Source License: The project must use an open-source license (MIT, Apache 2, or GNU GPL).

  • Documentation: The project must include a README.md with:

    • Project description and rationale.

    • Backgrounds of team members.

    • Challenges faced during development; design considerations.

    • Clear deployment and execution instructions.

    • Project roadmap.

  • Additional materials: In addition to a GitHub repository, submissions will require a video demonstration and slideshow presentation.

Detailed submission requirements and instructions for submissions will be released soon. Please reach out to our team for any clarifications.

The submission deadline for hackathon projects is October 28th, 2024.

Original announcement: https://mirror.xyz/0x7794D1c55568270A81D8Bf39e1bcE96BEaC10901/_ia8GvSKS6bxU7YV8otdlIomtqWgSLef-lVl887O86U

Aligned Developers Telegram group: https://t.me/+fX7wk-luV0E0ZTdh

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[ZK-News - 7th-13th October '24]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/zk-news-7th-13th-october-24 gUWsKCLGRBnrwJ7dxg11 Wed, 16 Oct 2024 17:18:46 GMT ✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨

Here are the highlights of what happened in the ZK space last week, 7th - 13th October.

Last week we had the pleasure of connecting with Alignors in Istanbul! 🎉

The event was spectacular. We're thrilled to have interacted with you and discussed what's possible with Aligned.

An amazing experience. Thank you to everyone who attended.

StarkWare shows advancements of STARKs on Bitcoin. Are they closer than ever? ⚡️

It's fantastic to see this progress, truly driving innovation for Bitcoin.

Congratulations on this incredible work, Weikeng Chen!

Read on to learn more.

'Why you should pay attention to Real Complex STARKs', by Omer Shlomovits, CEO of Ingonyama. ⭐️

It is an excellent article which first of all offers a very interesting way to get into research.

The author describes his take on how the Circle STARK Paper came to be and the contributions presented in @Yuval_Domb's paper on “Really Complex Codes with Application to STARKs”.

You won't want to miss it. Great article. Thanks Ingonyama for sharing.

Attention devs! Kakarot Testnet has moved to Starknet Sepolia! 🥕

This move, previously announced by the team, has been successfully completed.

They remind us that the Former testnet is deprecated.

Congrats to Kakarot and its community!

Amazing The Rollup podcast: Ethereum's ZK & Formal Verification Endgame with Alexander Hicks from the Ethereum Foundation. 📢

The conversation is very interesting and covers a wide range of topics including the importance of Formal Verification in Blockchain, the security of ZKVMs, even the debate between Cryptographic vs. Crypto-Economic Security, and many more.

Excellent episode.

Blaze is here! A new and highly efficient multilinear polynomial commitment scheme over binary fields. 🚀

It has an extremely efficient prover, both asymptotically and concretely.

The work was presented jointly by Ron Rothblum, Binyi Chen, Ben Fisch, Hadas Zeilberger, Martijn Brehm, and Nicolas Resch.

This is fantastic work.

Introducing WHIR: A new IOP of proximity that offers small query complexity and exceptionally fast verification time. ⚡️

The paper is co-authored by Giacomo Fenzi, Gal Arnon, Alessandro Chiesa, and Eylon Yogev.

Read on to learn more.

Congratulations to the co-authors!

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[ZK-News - 30th September-6th October '24]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/zk-news-30th-september-6th-october-24 KvKsDglhdihsN2TVieZg Mon, 07 Oct 2024 14:26:30 GMT ✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨

Here are the highlights of what happened in the ZK space last week, 30th September - 6th October.

Alignoors, we’re very excited to have announced our 29th Partnership: Fermah. 🎉

We’re building complementary pieces of infrastructure that will help bring the world closer to ZK.

✅ Fermah generates proofs.

✅ Aligned verifies them.

Definitely, Fermah is aligned.

Stay tuned for more details about this partnership very soon.

StarkWare shared its long-term mission and values in an amazing video by its CEO Eli Ben-Sasson. ⚡️

The video provides a comprehensive overview of the blockchain landscape, offering insights into its past, present, and future.

It helps address fundamental questions about the technology's trajectory and its potential impact.

This vision, where innovation and integrity play key roles, is truly inspiring.

Attention builders and users, Kakarot is moving to Starknet Sepolia! 🥕

In the coming days, Kakarot Sepolia will be deprecated in favor of Kakarot Starknet Sepolia.

This marks another step forward on the path to mainnet.

Read the full announcement here 👇

Dive into the world of ZK with an amazing conversation between Nader Dabit from EigenLayer and Vanishree Rao, founder of Fermah. 📢

This conversation provides details about the potential of ZK, the challenges that need to be overcome, building a marketplace for ZK proof generation, and many more.

We are proud to have recently announced a partnership with Fermah and are excited about what we can do together.

Conduit is teaming up with Succinct Labs to bring ZKPs to the OP Stack. ⭐️

Want to launch an OP Stack chain with ZK proofs or convert an existing chain into a ZK rollup? Reach out to them!

This partnership is very interesting and will definitely boost ZK to a new level.

Union announced its Trusted Setup Ceremony. 🚀

This is an important step on Union’s road to mainnet.

In the linked tweet you have more information, including an X Space with more details about it.

We congratulate Union on this exciting advancement!

A new ZK Podcast, featuring Zac Williamson​ & Ariel Gabizon from Aztec, is now out! 📢

Listen to learn about:

✅ MegaPlonk.

✅ IVC.

✅ ProtoGalaxy.

✅ And more.

An episode packed with information that ZK enthusiasts will love.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[Aligned Monthly Recap - September '24]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/aligned-monthly-recap-september-24 wd8DeGYvGNvQ012fxiEW Fri, 04 Oct 2024 13:18:46 GMT This month has been full of exciting updates for Aligned! 🎉

Check out this thread for a recap of our highlights!

✅ Hackathon and Roadmap.

✅ Collaboration and Partnership.

✅ Events.

✅ X Spaces and Community calls.

✅ Technical content.

Enjoy!

✅ Attention hackers! The Aligned Builders Hackathon has started! 💻

Join our virtual hackathon and win up to $50,000 in prizes.

Explore the potential of ZK with projects in:

🔹 DeFi.

🔹 Gaming.

🔹 Infrastructure.

🔹 And more.

Read the full announcement below and build the future of ZK with Aligned.

✅ Last month, we shared our Q3-Q4 Roadmap with you! 🚀

🔹 Fast mode.

🔹 Aggregation mode.

🔹 And many more.

After a lot of work, our first product is almost ready to be launched on mainnet.

All the details are in the linked tweet.

✅ Collaboration and Partnership. 🫂

🔹 Collaboration 027: Anoma.

We're delighted to provide Anoma with fast and affordable proof verification and unlock scalability for intent-centric apps built on Anoma.

🔹 Partnership 028: Nexus.

We’re happy to announce that Aligned will provide Nexus developers with low-cost and fast proof verification.

Definitely, Nexus is aligned.

✅ Let’s review the highlights of the events. 📢

🔹 In the linked tweet you can see our proof of attendance at Crecimiento.

We’re very excited to have participated in:

> zkCity, a week entirely dedicated to ZK.

> ZK Day, organized by Polygon and Dabl Club.

> Aleph Hackathon.

🔹 Singapore Events!

Take a look at some of the things we did in Singapore:

> Builder Nights panel.

> TEE Unconferance panel.

> The Rollup Day panel.

✅ Let’s continue with the X Spaces and community calls of this month. ⚡️

🔹 X Space with Gevulot founder Teemupai.

We explored the ZK supply chain together.

Listen to it here:

🔹 Community Calls:

Last month we had the pleasure of hosting 3 community calls with many Alignoors!

We’re thrilled to connect with the community in this way and answer many of their questions.

> First Community Call.

> Second Community Call.

Hosted by Geeny from our ecosystem team, and our co-founder and Head of Research Diego Kingston.

> Third Community Call.

Featuring:

Hosts: Diego Kingston, Boris, and Geeny.

Guests: Pia Park and Bartolomeo Diaz from Herodotus.

✅ Let’s explore some of the technical content. 🔎

🔹 A mathematical overview of Plonk.

Learn more about one of the most widely used proof systems in this article.

🔹 Introduction to Polynomial Commitment Schemes (PCS).

Don't miss the chance to learn about a concept that is at the core of proof systems.

Read on to see how they work.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[ZK-News - 23rd-29th September '24]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/zk-news-23rd-29th-september-24 Dc2u7A7iT0v5IY2snIZ5 Tue, 01 Oct 2024 17:52:05 GMT ✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨

Here are the highlights of what happened in the ZK space last week, 23rd - 29th September.

Alignoors, the Aligned Builders Hackathon has arrived! 🎉

Join our virtual hackathon and win up to $50,000 in prizes.

Among project ideas, we have:

✅ DeFi.

✅ Gaming.

✅ Infrastructure.

We're excited to see cool new ZK apps that can be built on Aligned.

Mina announced that they are hosting MinaCon in Istanbul. 💜

It’s a three-day ‘unconference’, a fantastic event with no central control over the agenda, but small group discussions, and hands-on sessions.

The Mina community stays winning 💪

Ingonyama posted an amazing article: Solving reproducibility challenges in Deep Learning and LLMs. 🍎

They shared their journey toward ensuring the reproducibility of AI on different hardware devices.

This is a big step towards Verifiable AI. 🤖

Incredible work!

Citrea Public Testnet goes Live on Bitcoin Testnet4. ⚡️

This is a significant milestone on its journey to the Citrea mainnet.

Read the full announcement here 👇

Taiko shared an awesome article explaining Binius. 🧠

It covers the basics, including a description of the SNARKs landscape, a detailed explanation of Binary Fields, and other key concepts.

Great resource if you like math and are interested in learning more about ZK.

Another fantastic ZK Podcast is now available! 📢

This week Anna Rose​ and Nicolas Mohnblatt​ chat with Lukas Helminger​ and Ais Connolly​ from TACEO.

They discuss Collaborative SNARKs (coSNARKs).

How they are created and possible applications.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[Announcing the Aligned Builders Hackathon: a virtual hackathon with up to $50,000 in prizes]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/announcing-the-aligned-builders-hackathon-a-virtual-hackathon-with-up-to-50-000-in-prizes Lxsfb8S5i9UTAKXKUldX Sun, 29 Sep 2024 14:29:06 GMT Announcing the Aligned Builders Hackathon: a virtual hackathon with up to $50,000 in prizes

In anticipation of Aligned’s mainnet launch, we are excited to announce the inaugural Aligned Builders Hackathon: an online hackathon series to show the world what kinds of novel and innovative applications can be built using ZK.

We want to give as much time as possible for builders to hack for this event. We will give more details about the jury, prizes and long term plans in the upcoming days.

Up to $50,000 USD (depending on the quality of the projects) in prizes will be awarded in total to apps built in this hackathon that use Aligned and can be ready to go into production alongside Aligned’s mainnet launch. The amount awarded to each application or improvement will be determined by a judging committee that will be disclosed shortly.

The goal is to incentivize the creation of applications that will draw users, and to help refine the developer experience for building on Aligned.  Aligned is seeking  cool new zk Applications or tooling to improve Aligned. Any well-executed project may be eligible and proposals outside of these categories are welcome if they demonstrate what Aligned enables and can bring users.

The Aligned Builders Hackathon is the first stage of Aligned’s upcoming mainnet incentives program which will reward developers, partners, and users with points based on usage.

Project Ideas

We encourage participants to focus on delivering functional, innovative, and user-friendly products across these tracks, with a focus on producing applications that will be ready to be deployed on mainnet once Aligned launches.

These are only some ideas. You can build whatever you want:

  1. New Applications

    1. DeFi (P2P Wallet, DEX, orderbooks or other DeFi primitives)

    2. Single Player Games (Tetris, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Pong, Asteroids, Flappy Bird, Snake)

  2. Enhance Aligned capabilities (Go/Typescript SDKs, scaffold-ETH integration)

  3. Infrastructure (Rollups and Bridges)

How to participate

You can start hacking today (September 29, 2024)! Join our specialized telegram group for the hackathon to find teammates, discuss project ideas, and receive feedback from the Aligned team. We are currently addressing an issue with our Discord server and, once resolved, we will transition the hackathon conversations to Discord. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Hackathon Submission Deadline: Monday October 28th. We will be providing a form and the full hackathon terms of services to submit your project in the upcoming days.

Follow our social media accounts and join our telegram for news and to reach our team with any questions you have:

X: https://x.com/alignedlayer

Aligned Developer Telegram: https://t.me/+fX7wk-luV0E0ZTdh

Aligned documentation: https://docs.alignedlayer.com/

Project Submission Requirements

Submissions of accepted proposals must fulfill the following criteria:

  • The project must use Aligned to verify ZK proofs.

  • The project must be deployed on the Ethereum Holesky testnet.

  • The project must compile and execute. Incomplete submissions will not qualify.

  • The project must use a clear Open Source License: MIT, Apache 2 or GNU GPL.

  • The project must include appropriate documentation, including:

    • A README.md that describes the project and rationale, provides backgrounds/biographies of team members, and notes on challenges you faced when building the project.

    • Easy to follow deployment and execution instructions.

    • Documentation that allows for others to reproduce your project.

Additional judging criteria include:

  • The project should, at least, be an MVP of a project that can deploy to Ethereum mainnet this year.

  • Projects with a strong emphasis on user experience and interface design will be highly valued.

  • Participants are encouraged to use Lambdaworks or zkRust libraries.

Technical stack

Supported Verifiers | AlignedLayer

Aligned's support for multiple proof systems is a significant advantage, as it allows users to choose the most suitable system based on their specific requirements. The following is the list of the verifiers currently supported by Aligned: The following are in the roadmap to be added:

https://docs.alignedlayer.com

SDK Intro | AlignedLayer

The Aligned SDK aims to help developers interact with Aligned in a simple way. Using the Aligned SDK, you can do things like submitting and verifying proofs through the Aligned Batcher, as well as checking the inclusion of the verified proofs on-chain. This guide provides an overview of the SDK, its installation, usage, and API details.

https://docs.alignedlayer.com

Generating & submitting proofs of Rust code with ZKRust | AlignedLayer

zkRust is a CLI tool to generate proofs of your rust code using a RISCV-zkVM's and submit them to Aligned to be verified with only one command. The following provers are supported: To generate and submit proofs to Aligned using ZKRust, you need to have the following dependencies installed: Foundry ( Optional, needed only to create a local keystore to sign Ethereum transactions if you didn't already have one).

https://docs.alignedlayer.com
]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[ZK-News - 16th-22nd September '24]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/zk-news-16th-22nd-september-24 vUHIpVCRA51xzTFuatzp Tue, 24 Sep 2024 02:29:39 GMT ✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨

Here are the highlights of what happened in the ZK space last week, 16th - 22nd September.

Alignoors! We are excited to announce that Aligned 0.7 upgrade is coming. 🎉

We're absolutely thrilled with how things have been progressing.

This represents another step on our journey to fulfilling our Q3 – Q4 Roadmap.

Stay tuned for more news very soon! 😉

StarkWare presents interesting content about Raito, a zero-knowledge Bitcoin client implemented in Cairo. ⚡️

It aims to provide trustless validation of the Bitcoin blockchain through STARK proof verification. 🤯

Check out the repository in the quoted tweet.

Starknet announced that Stone v3, the prover used in SHARP v6, is now open source. 💻

It's great to see such significant developments that promote transparency across the entire ecosystem.

Congratulations to Starknet!

Introducing Boundless: The Verifiable Compute Layer, by RISC Zero. 🚀

On Boundless, devs can access:

✅ Unlimited Execution.

✅ Global Composability.

✅ On-demand Scalability.

✅ Uncompromising Security.

Now in early testing. Read on to learn more.

ZK Compression is now live on Solana Mainnet-Beta. 🚀

✅ 1000x cost savings for Solana devs.

✅ A solution to state growth.

✅ A foundation for ZK compute on Solana.

Congrats Solana and Light Protocol. It's fantastic how ZK technology is growing so rapidly.

Privado ID and Disco.xyz will merge to launch the Unified Identity Protocol. ✅

It can lower the cost of trust across industries and revolutionize how users and organizations interact in the connected world. 👀

Congratulations on this initiative!

Aleo Mainnet is live!

This is the product of years of work and represents numerous innovations that reflect the learnings from previous testnets.

Get ready to address real-world problems like Secure Identity Verification, Trust-Minimized Oracle Infrastructure, and more.

Pretty special episode of The Rollup featuring a fantastic debate: ZKVM or ZK Circuits? 📢

Participants included:

✅ Uma Roy of Succinct Labs.

✅ Vanishree Rao of Fermah.

ZK enthusiasts, you won't want to miss this!

A new ZK Podcast is live! 📢

Is Cosmos Dead? This week's episode with Anna Rose and Zaki Manian delves into the Cosmos ecosystem to answer that question.

They explore key events, teams, and players who worked on Cosmos during different eras.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[ZK-News - 9th-15th September '24]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/zk-news-9th-15th-september-24 rKEW59Sxp5xdz11jiY2c Tue, 17 Sep 2024 15:13:31 GMT Fast Mode > Proof Aggregation Mode > @MinaProtocol bridge > ZKRust More integrations! Last week we released our ...]]> ✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨

Here are the highlights of what happened in the ZK space last week, 9th - 15th September.

Alignoors, we're excited to share our Roadmap for Q3-Q4 with you! 🚀

✅ Fast mode.

✅ Aggregation mode.

✅ And many more.

After months of hard work, our first product is almost ready to be launched on mainnet.

All the details are in the linked tweet.

o1Labs shared an interesting article about Mina’s proof system, (Re)introducing Kimchi. 💜

Learn about the proof system that powers Mina’s succinct blockchain and delve into its technical details.

A fantastic read.

The first RISC Zero proof has officially been verified on Starknet Sepolia! ✅

This marks a big milestone in giving Starknet devs more flexibility in how they build.

Congratulations to RISC Zero and Starknet!

Ingonyama introduced zkDL++, a novel framework designed for provable AI. 🎉

It improves the watermarking system developed by AI at Meta, solving the problem of needing to keep watermark extractors private to avoid attacks.

ZK is spreading everywhere.

Herodotus posted an article about how Storage Proofs enable cross-chain governance with Snapshot X, the new onchain voting protocol from Snapshot.

It explores:

✅ What Storage Proofs are.

✅ How they work within Snapshot X.

✅ And why they’re a game-changer for DAOs.

Fabric Cryptography and Polygon Labs are collaborating to accelerate the AggLayer. ⚡️

The collaboration focuses on developing real-time ZK proofs for the AggLayer with Fabric’s Verifiable Processing Units (VPUs).

Very interesting initiative!

Succinct Labs introduced OP Succinct.

Upgrade any OP Stack chain to use ZKPs in just 1 hour with SP1.

With OP Succinct, you get:

✅ Fast finality.

✅ Cost-effective proving.

✅ Excellent dev experience.

✅ And more.

In a pretty interesting post on EthResear.ch, Youssef El Housni presented Fake GLV.

A method allowing for efficient scalar multiplication on elliptic curves without needing an efficient endomorphism. 🤯

Read the full post to learn more.

Another amazing ZK Podcast is now available! 📢

In this episode, Anna Rose​ and Tarun Chitra​ chat with Andrew Miller.

The conversation covered a range of interesting topics: consensus, ZK, MPC, and of course, TEEs.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[Ask Aligned Anything - Community Call 11th September]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/ask-aligned-anything-community-call-11th-september Pt6zF7hohZWj6oH21c1u Wed, 11 Sep 2024 09:26:46 GMT Join our Discord today at 15:00 CET / 13:00 UTC, for the second edition of Ask Aligned Anything!

Our co-founder Diego Kingston and Geeny from our Ecosystem team will be answering your questions and giving exclusive insights into our project roadmap.

Those who listen for over ten minutes will be eligible to claim a Galxe OAT as proof of attendance!

Submit your questions for future calls using this form.

You can watch our first call on our YouTube account here:

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[ZK-News - 2nd-8th September '24]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/zk-news-2nd-8th-september-24 l5HhU9RkOFA4bF2vduSi Mon, 09 Sep 2024 13:30:51 GMT ✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨

Here are the highlights of what happened in the ZK space last week, 2nd - 8th September.

We are thrilled to announce that, after months of hard work, our first product is almost ready to be launched on mainnet. 🎉

This product (Fast Mode) will provide a crucial proof verification solution for many projects.

Read on to learn more about our Roadmap for Q3-Q4.

StarkWare shared an article explaining its vision and mission. 🚀

StarkWare aims to allow everyone to interact online without the fear of being misled, monitored, or censored by technology.

Polygon Foundation announced that Polygon Miden Alpha Testnet v4 is Live! ⚡️

This brings:

✅ Alpha release of the Rust compiler.

✅ First release of the Miden block explorer.

✅ Basic wallet changes.

✅ And more.

Explore the tutorials and start building on the testnet today.

Ingonyama announced the release of ICICLE v3! 🥳

ICICLE is a cryptography library designed to accelerate ZKPs.

This is a major update that introduces robust multi-platform support.

For comprehensive guides and examples, visit the ICICLE Documentation and the GitHub repository.

Ingonyama shared an introduction and tutorial on the efficient implementation of field and polynomial arithmetic within the M31 field. 🤯

This is very useful in the context of Circle STARKs.

Great work by Ingonyama!

Get ready for another ZK Podcast! 📢

This week Anna Rose and Nicolas Mohnblatt chat with Arnaud Schenk​, one of the original co-founders of Aztec and creator of the Polaris Fellowship.

They discuss programmable cryptography, trust infrastructure, and much more.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[Aligned Roadmap (Q3-Q4, 2024)]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/aligned-roadmap-q3-q4-2024 e4sEFfcLZ7k254yEIXDA Fri, 06 Sep 2024 11:50:10 GMT After months of hard work, our first product is almost ready to be launched on mainnet.

We expect that this product (Fast Mode), will provide a crucial proof verification solution for many projects, greatly reducing their operational costs and go-to-market time. We have run three separate testnets to date, all of which have shown positive results, demonstrating that we are able to provide high throughput, low-latency and low-cost verification for several popular proof systems. The code for Fast Mode is currently in the security review stage and undergoing audits with multiple industry-leading security firms. Once we have received their feedback and implemented fixes where necessary, we will be ready to launch. This post will go into detail on our development process for Fast Mode, and provide a roadmap detailing our other goals for the short-term.

Fast mode: coming soon to mainnet

Our third testnet launched on June 17th, and is still operational. This has been our first public testnet, which we opened to select third-party operators for our EigenLayer AVS.

Testnet users have been able to submit batches of Halo2, SP1, and Gnark (Groth16 and Plonk + KZG) proofs, providing us with valuable data. Improving the reliability of Fast Mode is a major focus for us, and we are confident that we can make tangible improvements in this aspect based on the data we have obtained from our current testnet.

You can check the Aligned Explorer for testnet usage statistics.

This release comes with further improvements to our explorer and improved documentation, with the goal of improving the developer experience and clarifying the advantages of using Aligned. In line with our open source company ethos, we will be sharing information and reports from the security pre-audits in our Github repository.

Proof Aggregation mode: in development

Once Fast Mode is live, every ZK project and all their users will be able to benefit from our fast and cheap proof verification.

Projects which do not depend on super low latency can also benefit from an effective proof aggregation service, which will reduce on-chain verification costs whilst retaining the full economic security of Ethereum.

Our Proof Aggregation mode performs recursive proof verification of other proofs, creating one final proof to be verified on Ethereum. We faced several challenges while building this service, mainly regarding the computational burden of recursive proving, the need to deal with different proof systems, and the cost and latency requirements. By design, Proof Aggregation mode is slower than Fast Mode. However, it still needs to operate reasonably quickly to avoid lagging behind, or making users wait too long to achieve finality on Ethereum and avoid incurring large proving costs from computing the recursive proof.

Our Proof Aggregation mode will provide developers with the same amount of flexibility as our Fast Mode when it comes to the type of proof system that they wish to use. However, given the enhanced performance shown by hash-based proof systems, such as circle STARKs, we will make hash-based proof systems the main building block for proof aggregation, avoiding the need for trusted setups and complicated circuits.

We believe that all aggregation layers will eventually adopt hash-based proving systems and zkVMs over elliptic-curve and circuit-based approaches. To read more about our thoughts, check out our blog post - All the proof aggregation solutions will use RISC-V zkVMs.

Mina Bridge: Connecting Mina to Ethereum

The Mina to Ethereum bridge will connect Mina Protocol, an L1 blockchain that leverages zero-knowledge proofs to achieve a succinct state, to Ethereum, allowing users and developers to benefit from synergies between both ecosystems.

The bridge involves several components, though the main steps are:

  1. Verify the Mina state proof

  2. Perform consensus checks

  3. Show account inclusion

We are working towards a solution that will use a single verifier that performs the checks in 1 and 2, and a separate verifier for account inclusion. We are working closely with the Mina Foundation and o1Labs to have all the necessary functionalities to develop the two specialized verifiers and integrate them into Aligned.

Once the developers from LambdaClass have finished and tested the bridge’s components, we will go to the security auditing stage.

Making Mina Protocol interoperable with Ethereum was very technically challenging, and Mina faced some difficulties due to the inflexibility of the EVM. We are very happy that Aligned was able to help Mina get their proof system into the EVM. Brandon Kase, CEO of Mina Protocol said on our recent X space: “The cool thing is because Mina itself is a proof, the whole blockchain is a proof, we can use Aligned layer, which [...] makes it super easy for proofs to get onto Ethereum, to get the whole of Mina onto Ethereum. And that whole concept is just really cool.”

For more details about the bridge, you can read the LambdaClass blog post here.

zkRust: the easiest way to launch provable applications

Proving technology has improved over the last few years, allowing developers to move from writing complicated circuits to coding in a high-level language and generating their proofs with a ZK virtual machine (zkVM). The development of new proof systems and improvements in both software and hardware will make coding and deploying provable applications easier. We want to further simplify this flow by allowing users to send their code in Rust, generate a proof and verify it in Aligned using one command: zkRust. The user simply needs to focus on coding and can choose from different zkVMs to generate the proof. This will allow developers to flexibly write provable applications in Rust, and readily have the option to execute in any supported zkVM depending on the current cost and performance offered by each zkVM at that time.

You can check the current version in our Github here.

We will continue improving the current interface and adding more options for developers, along with more example use cases and improved documentation.

Integrations with several projects

Our partnerships and integrations are hugely important to us. We already have 25 partnerships secured, from various projects that can benefit from the fast and cheap verification that we provide. The variety of use cases from our partners serves as proof of demand for our dedicated verification layer, and we will continue to make announcements as we integrate new projects and partners into Aligned.

Summary

We predict that this roadmap will cover the next ~6 months of our development. Although we cannot commit to defined deadlines or launch dates, we hope that by giving you these insights into what we are working on, you will gain a better understanding of our project and what we are ultimately working towards: the acceleration of Ethereum’s roadmap and the widespread adoption of ZK.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[Introduction to Polynomial Commitment Schemes (PCS)]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/introduction-to-polynomial-commitment-schemes-pcs nD9h1XrCrq1KqZ12LKG4 Fri, 06 Sep 2024 11:02:57 GMT Polynomial commitment schemes (PCS) are at the core of proof systems.

They determine key properties such as proof size, verification time, and whether the system is post-quantum secure.

The Kate-Zaverucha-Goldberg (KZG) is a popular PCS, first appearing in 2010.

Learn more:

Polynomial commitment schemes allow us to commit to a polynomial via a short string and prove things about it, mostly evaluations of the polynomial at points of the verifier’s choice.

They have two key properties:

• Hiding: the commitment does not reveal anything about the polynomial.

• Binding: given a commitment to a polynomial p, it is infeasible to find another polynomial q such that the commitment to q is equal to the commitment to p.

A PCS consists of the following three algorithms:

Setup: produces the public parameters needed for producing commitments and verifying them.

Commit: given a polynomial and parameters, the algorithm outputs a short string to p (for example, a hash or a point over an elliptic curve).

Evaluate/Open: a protocol between a prover and a verifier, where the prover tries to convince the verifier that the committed polynomial evaluates to v at a point z.

The KZG commitment works over pairing-friendly elliptic curves, such as BN254 or BLS12-381. We need to generate a set of trusted parameters consisting of the powers of a secret number s, hidden inside a group/subgroup of the curve where the discrete log problem (DLP) is hard.

The secret numbers cannot be known, as this will allow the creation of false proofs!

We call this collection of points the structured reference string (SRS).

Given generators of the subgroups G1 and G2 of the curve, called g1 and g2, the SRS takes the form g1, s.g1, s^2.g1, s^3.g1, … , s^n.g1 and g2, s.g2 (typically, we only need these points from G2 for most cases).

Each element is a point of the elliptic curve.

For the BN254 curve, each point takes 64 bytes (32 for the x and y components), but we can compress them to just 32 bytes!

The commitment to a polynomial is its evaluation at the point s, multiplied by the generator of the subgroup. This is computed using the SRS in an operation called multiscalar multiplication (MSM).

The MSM is one of the key operations that has been the subject of optimization and hardware acceleration, as it is the bottleneck of many proof systems based on KZG.

Knowing the commitment reveals nothing, as any other party would have to break the DLP.

To prove evaluations, we use the fact that if a polynomial p(x) evaluates to v at z, then p(x) - v is divisible by (x - z). In other words, there is a polynomial q(x) such that q(x)(x - z) = p(x) - v.

The prover has to compute that quotient and commit to it. Using the elliptic curve pairing, the verifier can check the equality at the secret point s. If the check passes, then with overwhelming probability p(z) = v (thanks to the Schwartz-Zippel lemma).

This means that both commitments and evaluation proofs are short. Moreover, to check evaluations, we only need one pairing check (two Miller loops and one exponentiation).

KZG commitments are additively homomorphic, which means that if we have the commitments to p(x) and q(x), we can compute the commitment to a linear combination of p(x) and q(x).

The homomorphic property is important for batching: We can show that polynomials p1(x), p2(x), … pn(x) evaluate to values v1, v2, … vn with one short evaluation proof and one pairing check instead of n!

Many protocols use this trick to significantly reduce proof sizes.

Do you want to try your knowledge of KZG further?

Try solving the following puzzle from LambdaClass!

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[Plonk: A Mathematical Overview of this Proof System]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/plonk-a-mathematical-overview-of-this-proof-system D8MR1WjomhuXMlvLPVTu Thu, 05 Sep 2024 14:24:51 GMT Plonk is one of the most widely used proof systems.

It is at the core of the proof systems used by ZKsync, Mina, Halo2 (by Zcash), Plonky2 (Polygon), and Succinct Labs SP1’s compression proof, gnark, due to its versatility and efficient prover.

Since it's introduction, the Plonk protocol has been improved, and some components have been changed.

Plonk stands for Permutations over Lagrange basis for Oecumenical, Non-interactive arguments of Knowledge.

It was introduced by Williamson & Gabizon in this paper.

The paper introduced a new arithmetization scheme (which we call Plonkish) and interactive oracle proof (IOP) and used KZG as a polynomial commitment scheme (PCS).

The original Plonk protocol offered constant-sized proofs, consisting of 7 or 9 points of a pairing-friendly elliptic curve and 6 field elements. However, the commitment schemes used by Halo2, Mina, and zkSync have evolved to cater to different needs.

Halo2 and Kimchi (Mina) now utilize an inner product-based PCS, while Plonky2 and Boojum (zkSync) have adopted FRI.

These transparent PCS eliminate the need for a trusted setup and pairing-friendly elliptic curves, showcasing Plonk's adaptability.

Plonkish (Plonk arithmetization), is a complex yet fascinating concept.

Let's start by working with fan-in-2 gates: each gate has left and right input (a and b) and the output (c).

We can later create more complex gates like the ones we have in Kimchi (which can take 15 variables). We will construct a table where each row contains elements a,b,c.

This table, known as the execution trace, is a key component of Plonkish.

Each gate can be represented by selector variables, q_i.

Using different values of q_i lets us tailor the type of gate. The general Plonk gate has the form q_L a + q_R b + q_M a b + q_O c + q_C = 0.

Setting q_M = 1, q_O = -1, and the rest to zero, we get a simple multiplication gate, a*b = c.

We can create more complex gates by adding selector variables and extra terms: for example, lookup tables, elliptic curve addition, foreign field, etc.

If the gate’s input and output are correctly related, the gate equation will evaluate to zero.

However, even if every gate’s equation evaluates to zero, this does not mean that we computed things correctly. For example, the output of gate 1 could be the right input to gate 2, but the system of equations does not enforce those conditions! We have all the gates disconnected.

To solve this, we need to provide the wirings or connections between the variables.

Plonk uses a permutation check to ensure the correctness of the wirings. The original version is based on the grand product check.

Execution is valid if the trace assignment satisfies wiring constraints & the gate constraints.

To prove, we encode the equations using polynomials: we interpret each value of each selector and trace column as the evaluations of a univariate polynomial over a smooth domain D0.

As the selectors and wiring are fixed for each circuit, we can have them already interpolated and committed (preprocessing).

The prover will have to interpolate the trace and build polynomials for the gate constraints and the permutation checks.

If all hold, the resulting polynomials should be divisible by the vanishing polynomial over the interpolation domain.

The prover produces the quotient polynomial, resulting from the division of a linear combination of the constraint’s polynomials and the vanishing polynomial.

Afterward, the prover will receive a random point z where to evaluate the polynomials, so that the verifier can then check the validity of the computations.

The final proof size depends on the PCS: with KZG, proofs will be short, but we need a trusted setup.

For inner product arguments, proofs will be longer, but with transparent setup. With FRI, proof sizes will be polylogarithmic in the degree of the polynomials, but need no setup.

For more details, check the implementation at lambdaworks by LambdaClass or watch the videos by Dan Boneh.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[Partnerships category highlight: Infrastructure for ZK]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/partnerships-category-highlight-infrastructure-for-zk DIxLvpK5nKbFdNaTLEyS Tue, 03 Sep 2024 16:27:39 GMT Aligned is a ZK verification layer for Ethereum that makes Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proof verification fast and cheap. We believe that verifiable computation is a necessary evolutionary step for the software that powers our world, and we are working to help Ethereum become the global open coordination network that will make this possible.

ZK is a powerful cryptographic primitive that allows one party (the prover) to prove the validity of a statement (e.g. the output of any arbitrary computation) to another party (the verifier) without revealing the underlying information or requiring the verifier to re-execute the computation. It has found adoption as a blockchain scaling solution, notably by enabling ZK-Rollups on Ethereum.

ZK technology is advancing quickly and we are proud to partner with projects that share our vision of giving developers the infrastructure needed to build the next generation of ZK-powered applications.

Gevulot

Proving (generating proofs) is computationally expensive. Our partner Gevulot is building the ZkCloud: an internet scale compute network for zero-knowledge proofs. This decentralized proving layer helps bring down the cost of proof generation. Combining efficient proving markets and zk verification layers is fundamental for reducing costs, making the ecosystem more robust, and providing the foundations for the future of zk.

Clients generating proofs using Gevulot will be able to seamlessly verify them through Aligned, creating a comprehensive proof pipeline for verifiable applications.

Ingonyama and Accseal: hardware acceleration for ZK

Once again: proving is computationally expensive. We are excited to be working with Ingonyama and Accseal, two projects which are solving this problem through innovative approaches to hardware acceleration for proving. Ingonyama is focused on GPU acceleration through their ICICLE library for ZK. Meanwhile, Accseal has designed and produced the first generation of ASIC chips purpose-built for ZK. Both projects are making proving faster, and Aligned is ensuring that these proofs can be easily and cheaply verified.

Sindri

Finally, we are partnering with Sindri, which is focused on bringing the developer experience of traditional apps to the world of ZK.

Sindri’s serverless cloud infrastructure makes it easy for developers to deploy ZK proving resources, helping them bring their apps to users faster. We’re working with them to ensure that the proofs their users generate can be verified on Ethereum at the lowest cost and highest speed possible.

Together, Aligned and our partners are creating a performant and user-friendly ZK technical stack that will help bring ZK apps and services to the market.

We’re eager to partner with more projects that share this vision of a faster, better, cheaper, and more user-friendly ZK infra stack. Reach out to us if you want to explore how we can empower ZK developers together.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[ZK-News - 26th August-1st September '24]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/zk-news-26th-august-1st-september-24 t2BhKo30BlPAiIPylTbh Mon, 02 Sep 2024 12:12:13 GMT ✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨

Here are the highlights of what happened in the ZK space last week, 26th August - 1st September.

We hosted a fantastic X Space with Versatus and Opacity Network about the stack for a decentralized future. 📢

The conversation was engaging, insightful, and definitely worth a listen!

Diego Kingston was the special guest on the X Space hosted by Phala Network. ✅

Listen to it and explore real-world use cases of TEEs.

Our co-founder and Head of Research Diego Kingston was on The Rollup last week! 📢

It was an insightful conversation on ZKVMs and proof verification.

Watch the stream below to explore these fascinating topics further.

The Starknet ‘Bolt’ upgrade is here! ⚡️

It introduces two features:

✅ “Parallel execution”, enabling independent transactions to be executed simultaneously.

✅ And “Block packing” cuts fixed L1 costs and reduces transaction confirmation times and block times.

StarkWare published a new algorithm that improves the multiplication performance for Circle STARK related fields. 🤯

It's satisfying to see these improvements and optimizations.

Congratulations to Avihu Levy from StarkWare, Weikeng Chen and @pingzhouyuan. Great work!

RISC Zero is now fully open source! 🚀

This is a major milestone that will drive innovation, foster collaboration, and promote transparency across the entire ecosystem.

ZK is spreading everywhere.

Congratulations to RISC Zero on this huge step!

Polyhedra has published an interesting article: Demystifying ZK Proofs. ✨

It offers:

✅ A basic description of what ZK proofs are.

✅ It covers practical applications.

✅ And more.

It highlights the impact and potential of this technology.

Another ZK Podcast is out! 📢

This time Anna Rose and Tarun Chitra chat with Naveen Durvasula about his recent work ‘Robust Restaking Networks'.

Listen to it to learn more about this fascinating topic, how restaking works, and how it can be optimized.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[Aligned Monthly Recap - August '24]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/aligned-monthly-recap-august-24 AT7eOnSqTDUWYQ8AuFRi Fri, 30 Aug 2024 15:12:53 GMT Orbiter Finance. Vizing is an omni interoperability environment built on advanced ZK technology, powered by Orbiter Finance. Excited to provide it with fast and efficient proof verification. ...]]> This month has been full of exciting updates for Aligned. 🎉

Check out this thread for a recap of our highlights!

✅ New partnerships.

✅ Spaces, podcast, community call.

✅ Events.

✅ Educational videos.

✅ Technical material.

Enjoy!

✅ Let’s start with our new Partnerships.

Aligned Partnerships Recap: 023 -> Orbiter Finance.

Vizing is an omni interoperability environment built on advanced ZK technology, powered by Orbiter Finance.

Excited to provide it with fast and efficient proof verification.

Aligned Partnerships Recap: 024 -> Paima Studios.

We’re thrilled to be working with Paima Studios.

Fast and cheap proof verification of game state, on EVM, by Aligned.

Aligned Partnerships Recap: 025 -> Phala Network.

We are delighted to partner with Phala Network to ensure their users have access to the cheapest and fastest TEE attestation verifications possible.

Aligned expanding its ability as an integrity layer: from ZK to TEE.

Aligned Partnerships Recap: 026 -> Versatus.

Versatus is building the decentralized cloud computing platform of the future, to ensure secure deployment of dApps.

We’re working together to give devs the best tools to create the future of internet and crypto.

✅ Let’s continue with the Spaces and Podcasts offered this month.

🔹 Space with NodeKit and Union.

It was an amazing X Space with our partners, where we discussed the interoperability problem in crypto and how ZK can help solve it.

🔹 Space with Versatus and Opacity Network.

We hosted a fantastic Space today about The Stack for a Decentralized Future.

It was a really interesting conversation that we highly recommend listening to!

🔹 Space with Phala Network and Ternoa.

Listen to it and deep dive into real-world use cases of TEEs.

Spoiler: The special guest was Diego Kingston. 😉

🔹 Our co-founder and Head of Research Diego Kingston was on The Rollup!

It presents a fascinating discussion about ZKVMs and Proof Verification.

Watch the stream below to learn more about these exciting topics.

🔹 We’re pleased that over 1000 users on Discord joined us in our first Community Call! 🎉

It was a huge success!

Thank you to everyone who joined. We're happy to have connected with so many of you and answered your questions.

✅ Let’s review the highlights of the events.

🔹 As part of our activities at @crecimientoar, our co-founder and Head of Research Diego Kingston gave a talk about 'Intro and current state of ZK with Aligned'.

🔹 ZK Hack Montreal was incredible!

The event took place from August 9th to 11th.

We are very happy to have met a lot of Aligned attendees in Montreal.

ZK is becoming mainstream. 👀

✅ Clips taken from podcasts.

🔹 How many proofs we can verify?

In this clip, our co-founder Mauro Toscano responds.

Aligned is extending the capabilities of Ethereum. ✨

🔹 What problems does Aligned solve?

Ethereum wasn’t designed for verification of ZK proofs.

We are building this new infrastructure to solve this problem, allowing us to verify a lot of proofs in a very efficient way, and unlocking a wide range of use cases.

🔹 How Aligned is redefining proof verification?

No blocks, no chain.

Our co-founders Mauro Toscano and Roberto Catalán explained to us why Aligned doesn’t need to have blocks to verify proofs.

✅ Let’s explore some of the technical content.

🔹 What does a ZK Verification Layer do?

  • This post will help you better understand the mission of Aligned.

  • And why a ZK verification layer is needed.

🔹 The guide you’ve been waiting for.

How to integrate Aligned into your application.

Follow these simple three steps to achieve it:

  • Generate your ZK Proof.

  • Write your smart contract.

  • And submit and verify the proof to Aligned.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[Mina to Ethereum Bridge]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/mina-to-ethereum-bridge 6ywEK1mwJUsMHlEzmxfM Fri, 30 Aug 2024 14:59:44 GMT Mina is a layer 1 (L1) blockchain that uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) to maintain its size at 22 kB.

Its vibrant community and technology make it unique and developers and users from other ecosystems could benefit from their interaction with Mina. To this end, Aligned will support the technology needed for Mina to build a bridge to Ethereum.

  1. Allow cross-chain transactions seamlessly.

  2. Allow applications to leverage Mina's zero-knowledge capabilities and expand their capabilities across multiple chains.

In particular, the second one lets users compute and prove things off-chain and verify them on-chain in Ethereum.

While Lambda's bridge is operational, its cost is too expensive for most applications. You can check a description of the bridge and implementation here. The main challenges for a bridge between Mina and Ethereum are the following:

  1. Verify a Mina state proof in Ethereum.

  2. Perform consensus checks to ensure that it corresponds to the canonical chain.

  3. Show the state of your account.

Each of these three steps offers challenges, as we will see:

  1. Mina's proofs use Kimchi with an inner product argument (IPA), using cycle of curves formed by the Pallas and Vesta elliptic curves (better known as the Pasta curves). There are no precompiles in Ethereum for operations using the Pasta curves and verifying one of these proofs is prohibitely expensive!

  2. Mina uses the Poseidon hash function, which is faster to prove using Kimchi-IPA than the Keccak or Blake2 hash functions. Unfortunately, there are no precompiles in Ethereum for Poseidon, making even a single call to the hash function very expensive.

We could solve these problems by generating zero-knowledge proofs that can be verified efficiently in Ethereum, such as Groth16 or Plonk-KZG, using the BN254 elliptic curve. The main drawback is that we have to perform recursive proving over different fields (because we have to move from the native fields of the Pasta curves to the native fields of BN254), which is computationally intensive. We can do much simpler using Aligned, reducing both computational effort and costs.

When we want to update the state of Mina in Ethereum, we have to check the latest proof and the consensus. We are developing a verifier that will output true if and only if:

  1. The proof is valid.

  2. The consensus checks pass.

This prevents sending valid proofs for previous states or not belonging to the current chain. This way, for the cost of one proof in Aligned, we check the validity of the state proof and the consensus. This avoids all the difficulties of handling the consensus separately in the bridge contract and recursive proving.

Showing account inclusion can be simplified by avoiding zero-knowledge proofs. Since an inclusion proof is already logarithmic in size, we can include a specialized verifier that checks it in Aligned.

Components of the Bridge

The architectural diagram for the bridge is given in the following figure:

Mina Polling Service

mina_bridge repo: core/mina_polling_service.rs

This module queries a Mina node (defined by the user) GraphQL DB for the latest state data (called the candidate state) and proof.

It also queries the Bridge’s smart contract for the last verified Mina state hash, called the Bridge’s tip state or just tip state (if there’s no tip state in the smart contract then it defaults to the hardcoded genesis hash instead) and queries the state corresponding to that hash to the Mina node.

Then it serializes:

  • both states (which are an OCaml structure encoded in base64, standard vocabulary) as bytes, representing the underlying UTF-8.

  • both state hashes (field element) as bytes (arkworks serialization).

  • the candidate state proof (an OCaml structure encoded in base64, URL vocabulary) as bytes, representing the underlying UTF-8.

This data composes what we call a Mina Proof of State.

Mina Proof of State

We understand a Mina Proof of State to be composed of:

  • public inputs (vector of bytes): [candidate_state_hash, candidate_state_length, candidate_state, tip_state_hash, tip_state_length, tip_state]. We include the lengths of the states in bytes because these can vary, unlike the hashes which are a fixed 32 bytes.

  • proof: Kimchi proof of the candidate state (specifically a Wrap proof in the context of the Pickles recursive system). We like to call it “Pickles proof” for simplicity.

This is the proof that the Mina verifier in Aligned (also called a Mina operator) expects.

Aligned Polling Service

mina_bridge repo: core/aligned_polling_service.rs

This module sends the Mina Proof of State (retrieved by the Mina Polling Service) to the Aligned batcher for verification using the Aligned SDK. The batcher executes pre-verification checks that validate the integrity of the proof and discards it if one of these checks is unsuccessful. After pre-verification, the batcher includes the Mina Proof of State in the current proof batch and then sends it to Aligned’s operators.

The Aligned Polling Service waits until the batch that includes the Mina Proof of State is verified, polling Aligned every 10 seconds (the Aligned SDK does this).

Finally, the service returns the verification data sent by Aligned after proof submission. This data is used to update the Bridge’s tip state by sending a transaction to the Bridge’s smart contract.

Smart Contract Utility

mina_bridge repo: core/smart_contract_utility.rs

This module sends a transaction to the Bridge’s smart contract that calls the “update tip” (see the Smart Contract section) function by sending the incomplete verification data retrieved by the Aligned Polling Service, aside from the Mina Proof of State public inputs. By “incomplete,” we mean we’re sending all the verification data except for the public input commitment, a keccak256 hash of the public inputs. So, by sending the public inputs to the contract, we can cheaply calculate on-chain the public input commitment for completing the verification data. We do this instead of directly sending the commitment so the contract can:

  • check that the tip_state_hash is indeed the tip state hash stored in the contract

  • retrieve the candidate_state_hash and store it if the candidate was verified on-chain.

Smart Contract

mina_bridge repo: contract/

The contract stores the Bridge’s tip state hash and exposes functions to read (getTipStateHash()) or update it (updateTipStateHash()). Generally it’s the Smart Contract Utility that will send a transaction to update the tip state hash.

The Bridge’s contract update function calls the Aligned Service Manager smart contract to check that the Mina Proof of State was verified in Aligned. The parameters that the Aligned Service Manager needs to check are the complete verification data.

If the Aligned Service Manager calls returns true, a Mina Proof of State of some candidate state (whose hash is known by the contract) was verified against the Bridge’s tip state (consensus checking). Then this candidate state is now the tip state, so its hash is stored in the contract.

Currently, the “update tip” transaction costs between 100k and 150k gas, a big part of it being the call data cost of sending both state's data in the public inputs of the Mina Proof of State. The cost could be decreased to <100k by modifying the definition of a Mina Proof of State, sending the state data as proof data instead of public inputs. This is not a priority at the project's current phase, so this change hasn’t been made yet.

Aligned’s Mina Proof of State verifier

aligned_layer repo: operator/mina/

Aligned Layer integrated a verifier in its operator code for verifying Mina Proofs of State.

Consensus checking

The verifier's first step is to execute consensus checks specific to the Ouroboros Samasika consensus mechanism that the Mina Protocol uses. The checks compare state data between the candidate state and the tip state.

Currently, the only check implemented is the one corresponding to short-range forks. The check just compares whether the candidate state’s height is greater than the tip’s. If equal, tiebreak logic is implemented. Tiebreak consists of lexicographically comparing the VRF hashes of both states and if these are equal, then comparing the consensus state hashes.

So the total logic can be summed up by:

if candidate_block_height > tip_block_height {
    return candidate;
}

// tiebreak logic
else if candidate_block_height == tip_block_height {
    // compare last VRF digests lexicographically
    if hash_last_vrf(candidate) > hash_last_vrf(tip) {
        return candidate;
    } else if hash_last_vrf(candidate) == hash_last_vrf(tip) {
        // compare consensus state hashes lexicographically
        if hash_state(candidate) > hash_state(tip) {
            return candidate;
        }
    }
}

return tip;

If the candidate wins the comparisons, then verification continues. If not, verification fails.

State hash check

We check that both the candidate and tip state hashes are correct by hashing the corresponding state data using OpenMina’s hasher. This way, we can be certain that the hashes are valid if the Mina Proof of State was verified in Aligned, which is useful for the Bridge’s smart contract to check that the tip state is indeed the state corresponding to the tip and for storing the candidate hash if its proof is valid.

Pickles verification

This is the last step of the Mina Proof of State verifier. We are leveraging OpenMina’s “block verifier” to verify the Pickles proof of the candidate state. The verifier takes the hash of the state as public input. OpenMina’s block verifier has yet to be audited.

Roadmap

  • Mina Proof of State verification in Mina Aligned Operator ✅

  • Short range fork rule check in Mina Aligned Operator ✅

    • We are using the transition frontier root as initial state to perform consensus check and assuming for now that it's valid.

  • Mina Bridge Smart Contract ✅

  • Integration with Aligned Layer fork using Holešky Testnet ✅

  • Account inclusion verification 🚧

  • Consensus check and Mina Proof of State verification in Aligned Batcher

  • Complete consensus algorithm

Blockers

We are researching the consensus algorithm we need to implement in the Mina verifier. We are waiting for confirmation of several design decisions related to relative finalization and the rest of the consensus rules. We are in constant communication with the people involved and once we are confirmed we can start implementing the complete consensus algorithm.

Costs

The verification costs in Aligned depend on the number of proofs in a batch: the more proofs we have, the lower the costs! The worst case scenario for the bridge would be when there is only one proof to verify, since the cost is not amortized with other proofs. We should also bear in mind that the current estimation could change due to additional costs associated with the consensus. While there is still room for further improvements, the worst case scenario for the bridge has the following cost breakdown:

  1. Batcher: 125k gas.

  2. Aggregator/Verifier: 250k gas.

  3. Bridge contract: 110k gas.

The total gas cost is 485k for this scenario, which is significantly lower than current solutions and avoids additional proving. The cost in USD varies on the value of ETH and gas. For an ETH value of 3000 USD and a gas cost of 15 gwei/gas, the cost would be around 20 USD.

Summary

The Mina to Ethereum bridge will allow developers and users from two vibrant ecosystems to work closer together and benefit from each other. The construction of such piece of infrastructure, operating in a fast and affordable way, is not straightforward, due to the abscence of precompiles in Ethereum and the need for expensive proof recursion. However, using Aligned, the verification of Mina's state proofs and consensus can be simplified by providing one specialized verifier that passes if and only if the consensus checks and proof verification pass. Moreover, we avoid the need of ZKP to show inclusion of an account by performing the necessary Poseidon hashing natively. This construction should lead to lower bridging costs as well as lower latency.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[ZK-News - 19th-25th August '24]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/zk-news-19th-25th-august-24 0QkweY9snS85Tv8HVp3o Mon, 26 Aug 2024 14:16:54 GMT ✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨

Here are the highlights of what happened in the ZK space last week, 19th - 25th August.

Alignoors! Last week we had our first Community Call and it was a huge success! ✅

We're thrilled that over 1000 users on Discord joined us.

Huge thanks to our amazing hosts: Geeny, from our ecosystem team, and our co-founder and Head of Research, Diego Kingston.

Starknet v0.13.2 is live on Testnet! 🐺

It brings Parallel Execution, where unrelated transactions can be executed simultaneously.

This topic was discussed by:

✅ Ilia Volokh and Noa from StarkWare.

✅ And Rati Gelashvili and Alexander Spiegelman from Aptos.

Details below:

Mina posted a video about why building on Mina is different. 💜

It presents a new paradigm with many opportunities.

Mina gives you:

✅ Off-chain computation.

✅ Decentralization.

✅ Scalability.

✅ And the ability to verify the network in a single proof.

Mina announced that its fungible Token Standard has been audited. 💜

This allows for adding more complex use cases to the Mina Ecosystem.

It's exciting to think about all the potential use cases and integrations with zkApps.

Aave announced the launch of Aave V3 on Era Mainnet powered by ZKsync. 🎉

Users of Aave will gain access to advanced ZK technology that provides low-cost transactions while deriving security from Ethereum.

Read on to learn more.

Introducing ZK on Solana, powered by RISC Zero. ✅

This is a significant step forward for ZK in the ecosystem.

It's exciting to see how this technology is spreading everywhere, unlocking multiple use cases.

Could this be the next generation of Solana dApps?

In an amazing paper, Ngoc Khanh Nguyen and Gregor Seiler proposed Greyhound, a polynomial commitment scheme from standard lattice assumptions.

🔹 It requires no trusted setup.

🔹 And it relies on the Module-SIS assumption.

It’s a fantastic achievement. Congrats to the authors!

Another ZK Podcast has been released. 📢

Check out this episode where Anna Rose talks to Connor O’Hara from Celestia.

They discussed the latest ZK Hack Montréal event, various ZK-focused initiatives within the Celestia Ecosystem, and more.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[ZK-News - 12th-18th August '24]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/zk-news-12th-18th-august-24 l7ZQmVyjNAB2E7OYUwOr Mon, 19 Aug 2024 13:35:44 GMT ✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨

Here are the highlights of what happened in the ZK space last week, 12th - 18th August.

Alignors, check out our latest stats! 🎉

✅ Partnerships.

✅ Operators.

✅ Verified batches.

✅ Verified proofs.

'Aligned by Numbers' highlights the performance of our proposal to accelerate the Ethereum’s roadmap by adoption of verifiable computation.

Discover the Mina Mindset in this article. 💜

🔹 What are the differences between building on the EVM and Mina?

🔹 What is Mina's approach to providing a powerful ZK tool for applications?

Read on to better understand the ‘Proof of Everything.’

StarkWare shared an amazing video from Eli Ben-Sasson at the Bitcoin 2013 conference in San Jose.

At that time, Eli already suggested using universal (Turing Complete) cryptographic proof systems, like zkSNARKs and PCPs, in the Bitcoin setting.

Very valuable material.

Union is now open source! 🖥️

You can explore all aspects of Union and suggest changes.

Congratulations to @union_build for this great step, which encourages transparency and collaboration.

Cronos zkEVM launches its Mainnet. ✅

It is an L2 blockchain on top of Ethereum, powered by ZKsync technology.

Congratulations to all the teams involved in this work.

This marks a significant leap forward for the Elastic Chain. 🎉

Aztec Devnet is now live! 💻

This is the culmination of a seven-year journey of hard work and iterative development.

A massive milestone for Aztec and the Ethereum community.

Check this out for more details.

Polyhedra is spreading ZK to everywhere, applying it to Web2 and TradFi sectors. 🚀

The potential applications of this technology extend to areas like healthcare, education, and many others.

This would improve their security, privacy, and efficiency.

A fantastic ZK Podcast featuring Anna Rose in conversation with Jens Groth and Daniel Marin from Nexus is now available! 📢

It dives into a variety of topics, such as formal verification, IVC, Nexus architecture, and much more!

Listen to it here.

An interesting article about a GKR-based approach to unsigned integer multiplication was posted by the Irreducible team. 🤯

If you enjoy math, we recommend checking it out.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned) <![CDATA[Learn about: Binius - A proof system on binary fields]]> https://paragraph.com/@aligned-3/learn-about-binius-a-proof-system-on-binary-fields 21C2ikQjnbZMSGT1pEZG Mon, 19 Aug 2024 13:12:27 GMT Recently, Vitalik Buterin wrote on binary fields and their potential to generate zero-knowledge proofs.

Binary fields are finite fields with characteristic equal to two.

We can view them as polynomials whose coefficients can only take the values 0 and 1, so 1 + x^2 + x^6 are elements in some binary field but not 5 + x!

We can also associate them with bitstrings and define operations over them so that they behave like fields.

The simplest binary field is the integers modulo 2. The addition operation is simply binary XOR and multiplication is the binary AND.

We can make bigger binary fields by considering polynomials with coefficients in the binary field modulo an irreducible polynominal (e.g, 1 + x + x^2 or 1 + x + x^3 + x^4 + x^8).

The 1st allows us to make a field over bitstring of size 2 and the 2nd, over bitstring of size 8.

Binius builds field extensions using a towered approach: we start from the simplest binary field and build a degree two extension over it. Then, we build another binary extension over the new field, using the irreducible polynomial 1 + xy + y^2.

We continue creating new fields from the previous one using the irreducible polynomial 1 + y z + z^2.

This comes with some advantages when we consider Binius’s polynomial commitment scheme.

The commitment scheme is based on Brakedown, a hash-based polynomial commitment scheme.

It is very fast, at the expense of larger proof sizes (on the order of the square root of the degree of the polynomial).

By using an efficient packing scheme and leveraging an additive fast Fourier transform algorithm for encoding, Binius can commit to polynomials really fast!

If you want to learn more, check out the LambdaClass introductory posts on Binius: here and here.

Stay tuned:  🐦 Twitter | 🗨️ Telegram | 👾 Discord | 🌐 Website | 🌌 Galxe | 📝 Manifesto

]]> aligned-3@newsletter.paragraph.com (Aligned)