ZKM Newsletter August 2023
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August marked another month of building our universal-purpose zkVM. Let’s look back at all the happenings here at ZKM.

Hack to the Future Livestream

ZKM DevRel Lead Filip Dimitrijevic joined MetisDAO Foundation’s Hack to the Future livestream event for Metis Ecosystem developers. Filip presented ZKM’s vision to turn Ethereum into the global settlement layer, as well as the initial use cases of ZKM. While we wait for our MVP to be announced in the coming months, we urge devs to join our discord and be a part of the conversation and continue to move forward with our application.

Check out the livestream here to hear from all Metis EcoNodes.

Join the ZKM Discord channel and let’s start chatting!

EthToronto and Futurist Conference

The ZKM team joined the MetisDAO Foundation along with its other EcoNodes and took on Toronto’s growing blockchain scene. Foundation co-founder and DC for Education presented ZKM as an important partner to the Metis Layer 2 in order to achieve a functional Hybrid Rollup.

Dr. Ryan Cohen, ZKM R&D Lead, provided an exclusive keynote presentation titled “Building a Trustworthy Internet with zkVMs.” In this presentation, Dr. Cohen alludes to the slogan, “Write Once, Run Anywhere” to describe the possibilities of building a zkVM application.

EthWarsaw 2023

We took a waaaaaalk to Poland! Alongside the Metis Layer 2 team, ZKM headed to EthWarsaw. ZKM sponsored a booth at L2Warsaw by L2Beat. ZKM also attended and lead a keynote at zkWarsaw delving into the concept of utilizing our proposed zkVM as a tool for Layer 2 Optimistic Rollups.

Science of Blockchain Conference ‘23

Stanford Blockchain Conference (SBC) is a mecca for the deeply technical blockchain enthusiasts. And if you guessed it, you guessed right: Zero Knowledge development is only getting HOTTER! Industry leaders and researchers flocked to SBC ’23 to talk about the latest developments and concepts that will further lead the future of blockchain to success, such as Ethereum Foundation, Microsoft Research, Starkware, and leading university research groups from around the world.

Ming Guo, ZKM Chief Research Scientist, introduced ZKM during the official Lightning Talk, giving a brief overview of the organization’s vision, mission and whitepaper.

📰 August Published Articles:

zkMIPS: What “Security” Means for Our zkVM’s Proofs (Part 1) by Jeroen van de Graaf
One question sits at the heart of blockchain technology, especially ZK proofs: How do we define security in the first place? Delve into the world of security in zkVMs as Jeroen van de Graaf dives into key concepts and implications for the ZKM’s proof system.

zkMIPS: What “Security” Means for Our zkVM’s Proofs (Part 2) by Jeroen van de Graaf
In the second part of the series, Jeroen van de Graaf delves deeper into the intricacies of security in zkVMs.

Jolt and Lasso: A New Approach to Building zkVMs by Jeroen van de Graaf Jeroen van de Graaf responds to the recently published articles “Jolt” and “Lasso,” where he outlines the innovative techniques of Jolt and Lasso that promise to redefine the landscape of secure virtualized environments.

Life After Scaling for Ethereum by Ming Guo.
What is the end goal of Ethereum? Ming Guo dives deep into potential implications and strategies for Ethereum’s future scalability in this informative piece.

ZKM Whitepaper:

Haven’t read it yet? What are you waiting for?! Published on EthResearch and also available on our website — check the links, and let us know your thoughts. Reach out by email, twitter DMs, or Discord.

Discord | Twitter | Website | Email

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Getting to Know zkMIPS Proving Architecture
TL;DR: zkMIPS proves the correct execution of a MIPS program in five steps: it (1) divides the program in segments, (2) divides the instructions of each segment in four module tables, (3) proves instructions from each module table independently, (4) proves instructions from each segment is contained in one of its tables, and (5) recursively proves that the sequence of segment match the program execution. Step 3 is written as a STARK, step 4 is a logUp proof written as a STARK, and step 5 as a PLONK proof. All proof steps are implemented with the Plonky2 library. Optionally, one can generate a final Groth16 proof to verify the program execution on-chain.
ZKM Newsletter August 2023

August marked another month of building our universal-purpose zkVM. Let’s look back at all the happenings here at ZKM.

Hack to the Future Livestream

ZKM DevRel Lead Filip Dimitrijevic joined MetisDAO Foundation’s Hack to the Future livestream event for Metis Ecosystem developers. Filip presented ZKM’s vision to turn Ethereum into the global settlement layer, as well as the initial use cases of ZKM. While we wait for our MVP to be announced in the coming months, we urge devs to join our discord and be a part of the conversation and continue to move forward with our application.

Check out the livestream here to hear from all Metis EcoNodes.

Join the ZKM Discord channel and let’s start chatting!

EthToronto and Futurist Conference

The ZKM team joined the MetisDAO Foundation along with its other EcoNodes and took on Toronto’s growing blockchain scene. Foundation co-founder and DC for Education presented ZKM as an important partner to the Metis Layer 2 in order to achieve a functional Hybrid Rollup.

Dr. Ryan Cohen, ZKM R&D Lead, provided an exclusive keynote presentation titled “Building a Trustworthy Internet with zkVMs.” In this presentation, Dr. Cohen alludes to the slogan, “Write Once, Run Anywhere” to describe the possibilities of building a zkVM application.

EthWarsaw 2023

We took a waaaaaalk to Poland! Alongside the Metis Layer 2 team, ZKM headed to EthWarsaw. ZKM sponsored a booth at L2Warsaw by L2Beat. ZKM also attended and lead a keynote at zkWarsaw delving into the concept of utilizing our proposed zkVM as a tool for Layer 2 Optimistic Rollups.

Science of Blockchain Conference ‘23

Stanford Blockchain Conference (SBC) is a mecca for the deeply technical blockchain enthusiasts. And if you guessed it, you guessed right: Zero Knowledge development is only getting HOTTER! Industry leaders and researchers flocked to SBC ’23 to talk about the latest developments and concepts that will further lead the future of blockchain to success, such as Ethereum Foundation, Microsoft Research, Starkware, and leading university research groups from around the world.

Ming Guo, ZKM Chief Research Scientist, introduced ZKM during the official Lightning Talk, giving a brief overview of the organization’s vision, mission and whitepaper.

📰 August Published Articles:

zkMIPS: What “Security” Means for Our zkVM’s Proofs (Part 1) by Jeroen van de Graaf
One question sits at the heart of blockchain technology, especially ZK proofs: How do we define security in the first place? Delve into the world of security in zkVMs as Jeroen van de Graaf dives into key concepts and implications for the ZKM’s proof system.

zkMIPS: What “Security” Means for Our zkVM’s Proofs (Part 2) by Jeroen van de Graaf
In the second part of the series, Jeroen van de Graaf delves deeper into the intricacies of security in zkVMs.

Jolt and Lasso: A New Approach to Building zkVMs by Jeroen van de Graaf Jeroen van de Graaf responds to the recently published articles “Jolt” and “Lasso,” where he outlines the innovative techniques of Jolt and Lasso that promise to redefine the landscape of secure virtualized environments.

Life After Scaling for Ethereum by Ming Guo.
What is the end goal of Ethereum? Ming Guo dives deep into potential implications and strategies for Ethereum’s future scalability in this informative piece.

ZKM Whitepaper:

Haven’t read it yet? What are you waiting for?! Published on EthResearch and also available on our website — check the links, and let us know your thoughts. Reach out by email, twitter DMs, or Discord.

Discord | Twitter | Website | Email