1/ A new paper was recently published by @Zac_Aztec, @relgabizon, and @OanaCiobotaru that outlines a new cryptographic construction called a PLONK. It has caught the attention of many including @VitalikButerin, so what’s it all about?
eprint.iacr.org/2019/953.pdf
eprint.iacr.org/2019/953.pdf
2/ A PLONK is a new type of zero-knowledge proof. It stands for “Permutations over Lagrange-bases for Oecumenical Noninteractive arguments of Knowledge”. What’s important to know is that they fulfill the same role as a SNARK, with slightly different properties
3/ Here’s a diagram that @VitalikButerin created to compare various types of zero-knowledge proofs. As you can see, the proof size of a PLONK is a bit bigger than existing SNARKs, and it involves a couple of extra security assumptions. 
4/ As in zkSNARKs, the purpose of PLONKs is to make statements that prove knowledge without providing information about the knowledge. PLONKs constructs polynomials and provers make statements related to factorization of those polynomials.
5/ So what advantages do PLONKs offer and why are developers excited? PLONKs are universal and therefore can be used generally. Moreover, the trusted setup has many advantages over existing SNARKs.
6/ A challenge with SNARKs is that they require a trusted setup unique to each application. Unfortunately it’s not possible to re-use previous trusted setups in ordinary SNARKs, they must be generated from scratch. The PLONK trusted setup can be reused for new applications.
7/ Even better, with PLONKs there’s no need to know how many parties will participate in the setup process before beginning, people can add to it at any time. Therefore it’s possible to reuse a previous trusted setup while augmenting it with more input enhancing security.
8/ Many thanks to @VitalikButerin for explaining the idea. He gives a detailed summary of how PLONKs work in his recent post vitalik.ca/general/2019/0…
