This month has been packed with progress and strategic collaborations that continue to shape our tech, so we’ve brought you a second edition of the August Newsletter. To catch up on the first edition, see zkm.io/blog/hello-world-august-newsletter.
From new partnerships to deepening research, we’ve made great strides in various areas. Let’s dive into the highlights and see what else August has brought us.
ZKM is leading the charge in the evolution of ZK technology, developing a suite of innovative tools and educational resources to enable seamless integration of ZK into blockchain. We recently released an article providing a broad overview of our ongoing initiatives, showcasing the breadth of our work and offering a glimpse into the future: zkm.io/blog/an-overview-of-current-initiatives
ZKM announced its partnership with Zan, aiming to utilize their ZK-friendly cloud GPU servers and state-of-the-art ZK acceleration library to boost the performance and efficiency of our Proof Network.
House of ZK’s ‘ZK Day’ during this year’s Science of Blockchain Conference, where ZKM served as a Platinum Sponsor, was covered by the New York Tech. ZKM co-hosted this event alongside Aleo, and recordings of the ZK Day talks will soon be available on our YouTube channel. nytech.media/zkm-co-hosts-zk-day-at-the-science-of-blockchain-conference-in-nyc/
House of ZK also released the recording from the event in Brussels during EthCC, so whether you missed the live sessions or want to revisit your favorite discussions, you can now watch them all on YouTube. Check out the full playlist here: youtube.com/watch?v=8aLXWiiFKsY&list=PLJ_r35m80nKjZX2Gh4zJs2eQO3KxciM7n
For the full ZK Day recap, see the ‘ZK Day at SBC 24’ article on the ZKM blog: zkm.io/blog/zk-day-at-sbc-24
ZKM Research released an article that provides a summary of Circle STARKs, a novel advancement that improves the efficiency of traditional STARKs by enabling efficient operations over non-smooth fields, specifically leveraging the computational advantages of Mersenne primes. Here, we unveil how Circle STARKs overcome key limitations in traditional STARK protocols, offering new possibilities for performance optimization.
The article can be found here: zkm.io/blog/traditional-stark-vs-circle-stark
ZKM Senior Researcher, Lucas Fraga, followed up on X with his own take on Circle STARKs: x.com/zklucas_/status/1827068417339539672
House of ZK Radio released their second podcast episode, this time discussing the history of ZK and much more with ZKM veteran cryptographer, Jeroen van de Graaf.
Jeroen has been heavily involved in cryptography since the 1980's, entering the field with a keen focus on theoretical cryptography for privacy applications, and was a close collaborator of David Chaum. In this episode, Jeroen discusses the key events he's witnessed and contributed to throughout his cryptography career, from participating in one of the world's first cryptography courses to attending the lectures of the most iconic names in ZK history.
HoZK Radio #2 now available on Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/2AYzRzFMyk6WzQQptXC7pP
August saw more thought-provoking articles about ZKM, notably those by @tmel0211 (Haotian | CryptoInsight) examining various solutions for Cross-L2 interoperability, providing an objective and comprehensive overview of how different technologies address cross-layer and cross-chain interactions, featuring ZKM's Entangled Rollups design: x.com/ProjectZKM/status/1821136437779067237
Haotian also examined the market impact of Babylon Labs's mainnet launch, forecasting a potential staking boom in the Bitcoin ecosystem similar to the effect Eigen Layer had on Ethereum. Notably, the article identifies potential challenges related to relying on Babylon for secure consensus and highlights ZKM and GOAT Network as key solutions to this issue: x.com/ProjectZKM/status/1826994712181383315
House of ZK released a comprehensive explainer article detailing its three main pillars: Podcast, Industry News Reports, and Worldwide Events, which are each designed to provide unique insights and drive discussions about cutting-edge developments in the industry.
Learn all about House of ZK’s multiple initiatives here: zkm.io/blog/house-of-zk-explainer
ZKM’s Ben Wynn released the first three parts of an article series titled ‘Decoding History: The Story of Cryptography’. The series examines the history of cryptography, tracing its evolution from ancient methods of communication to the sophisticated encryption technologies of today, providing a light overview of the key developments, techniques, and challenges that have shaped the field, touching on how cryptography has influenced and been influenced by political and social changes, securing information and communications throughout history.
Part one of the Series can be found here: zkm.io/education-hub/contributions/decoding-history-the-story-of-cryptography-part-1
There were also several new ZKM community articles added to contributor corner this month, including:
- Unified Native Liquidity Across All Blockchains, by Mubbie: zkm.io/education-hub/contributions/unified-native-liquidity-across-all-blockchains-the-power-of-zkmips
- Hybrid approach: zkVM and Optimistic Rollup, by BarneyStinson: zkm.io/education-hub/contributions/hybrid-approach-zkvm-and-optimistic-rollup-starting-with-optimistic-rollup
- Knowing The ZKM Framework, by Henrycn: zkm.io/education-hub/contributions/knowing-the-zkm-framework-architectural-purposes
Contributor Corner is a platform designed to amplify the voices and expertise of our community at ZKM, inviting experts and enthusiasts alike to share their insights and deepen the collective understanding of ZK technology and its applications. To learn more about this initiative, including how you can get involved, visit: zkm.io/education-hub/welcome-to-contributor-corner
House of ZK's released an enhanced PDF version of its periodic industry report, ‘Pulse Check’: cli.re/DZBVqZ
Pulse Check is your trusted source for the latest developments, insights, and analysis in the zero-knowledge field. Each edition of this report examines the cutting-edge advancements and critical discussions shaping the industry.
House of ZK also released the first installment of ‘Pulse Check Bytesize’, which is the miniature version of our regular Pulse Check. While the broader version focuses on leading research papers and major project updates, ‘Bytesize’ curates impactful discussions from industry leaders on social media and podcasts into a concise format, offering essential updates and summaries of trending topics.
Pulse Check Bytesize can be found here: x.com/HouseofZK/status/1823317124363743386, and has already garnered praise from leading cryptographer Vanishree Rao: x.com/vanishree_rao/status/1823464525129240739.
Look out for HoZK’s upcoming industry reports!
Succinct Labs announced the release of SP1, a production-ready zkVM, claiming it to be the most performant in the market and emphasized their benchmarks, which showed SP1 outperforming other zkVMs by up to 10x. This was met by Risc Zero with a heavily critical response, claiming that Succinct were overstating their contributions to zkVM technology and were using manipulated benchmarks.
ZKM took a pragmatic view, highlighting the need for clearer agreed upon standards around attribution and zkVM benchmarking. We acknowledge that competition is vital for innovation, but it's equally important that this competition is grounded in fairness and transparency.
The debate can be found above in Pulse Check Bytesize, and ZKM’s full contribution can be found here: x.com/ProjectZKM/status/1823416942205542558
ZKM DevRel Lead, Pavel Sinelnikov, featured at the Futurist Conference in Toronto, Canada. Pavel first participated in VirgoCX's 'Defining Bitcoin’s Future' panel, engaging in a compelling discussion on The balance of privacy and transparency in Web3, before presented 'Securing Attestations with ZKM' on the main stage, where he offered the first public glimpses of ZKM's upcoming Developer Playground.
House of ZK released version one of The ZK Infrastructure Map, mapping the foundational pioneers of ZK innovation in blockchain. The map showcases 33 projects that have captured the attention for their novel approaches and promising contributions to the field, and represents the first step in an ongoing effort to chart the pioneers of ZK:
We announced a new ZKM initiative coming soon: ZK Spaces. This is a new initiative to bring you ZK-focused discussions through regular X Spaces, and is your opportunity to engage directly with industry experts - let us know in Discord who we should host and what topics you’d like to see covered in ZK Spaces: discord.com/invite/zkm
Series One of our long-running initiative ‘Quiz Time’ came to an end, and the baton will now pass to House of ZK, with next Series will take place in the new HoZK Telegram channel: t.me/HoZKmedia
A big thank you to all of our regulars for participating - we hope you had as much fun as we did and look out for the final Series Leaderboard results on X and Discord!
As we wrap up a summer of progress, we look forward to continuing this momentum into the latter part of 2024. Stay engaged with our ongoing initiatives, and as always, your feedback and participation are invaluable as we navigate the exciting path ahead. Keep an eye out for some big upcoming updates, and see you here next month!
Thank you for supporting us,
The ZKM Team
This month has been packed with progress and strategic collaborations that continue to shape our tech, so we’ve brought you a second edition of the August Newsletter. To catch up on the first edition, see zkm.io/blog/hello-world-august-newsletter.
From new partnerships to deepening research, we’ve made great strides in various areas. Let’s dive into the highlights and see what else August has brought us.
ZKM is leading the charge in the evolution of ZK technology, developing a suite of innovative tools and educational resources to enable seamless integration of ZK into blockchain. We recently released an article providing a broad overview of our ongoing initiatives, showcasing the breadth of our work and offering a glimpse into the future: zkm.io/blog/an-overview-of-current-initiatives
ZKM announced its partnership with Zan, aiming to utilize their ZK-friendly cloud GPU servers and state-of-the-art ZK acceleration library to boost the performance and efficiency of our Proof Network.
House of ZK’s ‘ZK Day’ during this year’s Science of Blockchain Conference, where ZKM served as a Platinum Sponsor, was covered by the New York Tech. ZKM co-hosted this event alongside Aleo, and recordings of the ZK Day talks will soon be available on our YouTube channel. nytech.media/zkm-co-hosts-zk-day-at-the-science-of-blockchain-conference-in-nyc/
House of ZK also released the recording from the event in Brussels during EthCC, so whether you missed the live sessions or want to revisit your favorite discussions, you can now watch them all on YouTube. Check out the full playlist here: youtube.com/watch?v=8aLXWiiFKsY&list=PLJ_r35m80nKjZX2Gh4zJs2eQO3KxciM7n
For the full ZK Day recap, see the ‘ZK Day at SBC 24’ article on the ZKM blog: zkm.io/blog/zk-day-at-sbc-24
ZKM Research released an article that provides a summary of Circle STARKs, a novel advancement that improves the efficiency of traditional STARKs by enabling efficient operations over non-smooth fields, specifically leveraging the computational advantages of Mersenne primes. Here, we unveil how Circle STARKs overcome key limitations in traditional STARK protocols, offering new possibilities for performance optimization.
The article can be found here: zkm.io/blog/traditional-stark-vs-circle-stark
ZKM Senior Researcher, Lucas Fraga, followed up on X with his own take on Circle STARKs: x.com/zklucas_/status/1827068417339539672
House of ZK Radio released their second podcast episode, this time discussing the history of ZK and much more with ZKM veteran cryptographer, Jeroen van de Graaf.
Jeroen has been heavily involved in cryptography since the 1980's, entering the field with a keen focus on theoretical cryptography for privacy applications, and was a close collaborator of David Chaum. In this episode, Jeroen discusses the key events he's witnessed and contributed to throughout his cryptography career, from participating in one of the world's first cryptography courses to attending the lectures of the most iconic names in ZK history.
HoZK Radio #2 now available on Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/2AYzRzFMyk6WzQQptXC7pP
August saw more thought-provoking articles about ZKM, notably those by @tmel0211 (Haotian | CryptoInsight) examining various solutions for Cross-L2 interoperability, providing an objective and comprehensive overview of how different technologies address cross-layer and cross-chain interactions, featuring ZKM's Entangled Rollups design: x.com/ProjectZKM/status/1821136437779067237
Haotian also examined the market impact of Babylon Labs's mainnet launch, forecasting a potential staking boom in the Bitcoin ecosystem similar to the effect Eigen Layer had on Ethereum. Notably, the article identifies potential challenges related to relying on Babylon for secure consensus and highlights ZKM and GOAT Network as key solutions to this issue: x.com/ProjectZKM/status/1826994712181383315
House of ZK released a comprehensive explainer article detailing its three main pillars: Podcast, Industry News Reports, and Worldwide Events, which are each designed to provide unique insights and drive discussions about cutting-edge developments in the industry.
Learn all about House of ZK’s multiple initiatives here: zkm.io/blog/house-of-zk-explainer
ZKM’s Ben Wynn released the first three parts of an article series titled ‘Decoding History: The Story of Cryptography’. The series examines the history of cryptography, tracing its evolution from ancient methods of communication to the sophisticated encryption technologies of today, providing a light overview of the key developments, techniques, and challenges that have shaped the field, touching on how cryptography has influenced and been influenced by political and social changes, securing information and communications throughout history.
Part one of the Series can be found here: zkm.io/education-hub/contributions/decoding-history-the-story-of-cryptography-part-1
There were also several new ZKM community articles added to contributor corner this month, including:
- Unified Native Liquidity Across All Blockchains, by Mubbie: zkm.io/education-hub/contributions/unified-native-liquidity-across-all-blockchains-the-power-of-zkmips
- Hybrid approach: zkVM and Optimistic Rollup, by BarneyStinson: zkm.io/education-hub/contributions/hybrid-approach-zkvm-and-optimistic-rollup-starting-with-optimistic-rollup
- Knowing The ZKM Framework, by Henrycn: zkm.io/education-hub/contributions/knowing-the-zkm-framework-architectural-purposes
Contributor Corner is a platform designed to amplify the voices and expertise of our community at ZKM, inviting experts and enthusiasts alike to share their insights and deepen the collective understanding of ZK technology and its applications. To learn more about this initiative, including how you can get involved, visit: zkm.io/education-hub/welcome-to-contributor-corner
House of ZK's released an enhanced PDF version of its periodic industry report, ‘Pulse Check’: cli.re/DZBVqZ
Pulse Check is your trusted source for the latest developments, insights, and analysis in the zero-knowledge field. Each edition of this report examines the cutting-edge advancements and critical discussions shaping the industry.
House of ZK also released the first installment of ‘Pulse Check Bytesize’, which is the miniature version of our regular Pulse Check. While the broader version focuses on leading research papers and major project updates, ‘Bytesize’ curates impactful discussions from industry leaders on social media and podcasts into a concise format, offering essential updates and summaries of trending topics.
Pulse Check Bytesize can be found here: x.com/HouseofZK/status/1823317124363743386, and has already garnered praise from leading cryptographer Vanishree Rao: x.com/vanishree_rao/status/1823464525129240739.
Look out for HoZK’s upcoming industry reports!
Succinct Labs announced the release of SP1, a production-ready zkVM, claiming it to be the most performant in the market and emphasized their benchmarks, which showed SP1 outperforming other zkVMs by up to 10x. This was met by Risc Zero with a heavily critical response, claiming that Succinct were overstating their contributions to zkVM technology and were using manipulated benchmarks.
ZKM took a pragmatic view, highlighting the need for clearer agreed upon standards around attribution and zkVM benchmarking. We acknowledge that competition is vital for innovation, but it's equally important that this competition is grounded in fairness and transparency.
The debate can be found above in Pulse Check Bytesize, and ZKM’s full contribution can be found here: x.com/ProjectZKM/status/1823416942205542558
ZKM DevRel Lead, Pavel Sinelnikov, featured at the Futurist Conference in Toronto, Canada. Pavel first participated in VirgoCX's 'Defining Bitcoin’s Future' panel, engaging in a compelling discussion on The balance of privacy and transparency in Web3, before presented 'Securing Attestations with ZKM' on the main stage, where he offered the first public glimpses of ZKM's upcoming Developer Playground.
House of ZK released version one of The ZK Infrastructure Map, mapping the foundational pioneers of ZK innovation in blockchain. The map showcases 33 projects that have captured the attention for their novel approaches and promising contributions to the field, and represents the first step in an ongoing effort to chart the pioneers of ZK:
We announced a new ZKM initiative coming soon: ZK Spaces. This is a new initiative to bring you ZK-focused discussions through regular X Spaces, and is your opportunity to engage directly with industry experts - let us know in Discord who we should host and what topics you’d like to see covered in ZK Spaces: discord.com/invite/zkm
Series One of our long-running initiative ‘Quiz Time’ came to an end, and the baton will now pass to House of ZK, with next Series will take place in the new HoZK Telegram channel: t.me/HoZKmedia
A big thank you to all of our regulars for participating - we hope you had as much fun as we did and look out for the final Series Leaderboard results on X and Discord!
As we wrap up a summer of progress, we look forward to continuing this momentum into the latter part of 2024. Stay engaged with our ongoing initiatives, and as always, your feedback and participation are invaluable as we navigate the exciting path ahead. Keep an eye out for some big upcoming updates, and see you here next month!
Thank you for supporting us,
The ZKM Team
