Thread by @MohamedFFouda

1/ In my new article with @QwQiao we discuss the advancements in zero-knowledge technology and what is needed to achieve mainstream adoption.
medium.com/alliancedao/zk…

2/ Our goal is to identify areas where Web 3 founders can deliver the most impact while pushing the ZKP technology forward. At @alliancedao we are looking to support and fund founders building in these areas.

3/ The article first reviews the current application space of ZKPs such as privacy-focused apps, rollups, data compression, and gaming. We discuss the utility and tradeoffs of ZKPs in each of these use cases.

4/ We then investigate the bottlenecks affecting ZKP traction and how to achieve mainstream adoption. By drawing an analogy to the progress of AI, we identify 3 verticals for progress
- zk circuit improvements
- Execution engine optimizations
- Software abstraction layers

5/ Improving zk circuits is currently the most active front. We've progressed from Zcash’s zk-SNARKs to @StarkWareLtd’s STARKs, and PLONKs.

However, we are still far. In the same way AI has progressed from LeNet to Transformer, zk circuits will become faster and more efficient

6/ On the execution speed optimizations, we are starting to see projects using GPUs and FPGAs to accelerate the ZKP proving time.
Examples include @Filecoin’s GPU implementation of Groth16 and Jump’s work on an FPGA MSM engine to accelerate ZKPs

https://twitter.com/jumpengineering/status/1587198000971014146?s=46&t=5owjyrnPATDhv0lYdr8rAw

7/ Finally, abstracting the software layers of ZKPs is probably the most important vertical to facilitate the development of zkApps. Abstractions allow each developer group to focus on their core competency which improves productivity.

8/ This is not unique to ZKPs. AI wouldn’t have reached the scale it has now without efficient abstractions that separate application development from AI execution models and hardware management.

9/ Efforts on the abstraction front include Aztec’s Noir language, Starkware’s Cairo language, and the Warp framework to transpile Solidity code to Cairo for efficient proving of EVM SCs. However, there is a lot more work to be done in this regard.

https://twitter.com/aztecnetwork/status/1578082456212643840

10/ Based on this vision of the future of ZKPs, we identify several startup ideas that are critical for the mission.
The ideas are split into two categories: ZKP tooling and ZKP applications

11/ One of the ZKP application ideas that we are excited about is ZKP-enabled gaming engines that abstract away the ZKP part for game developers and allow the implementation of efficient information-incomplete on-chain games

12/ Another idea is private DAO governance where the DAO proposals and business operations are only visible to the DAO’s community and the voting on these proposals is private which ensures that voting is not affected by coercing or public pressure.

13/ A third idea is anonymous collaborative organizations, e.g. decentralized intelligence organizations, where contributors can anonymously provide value. ZKPs can be used to both prove the value of the contributions and for private payments for these contributions.

14/ There are several other ideas that we discuss in the article. Interested founders should check the article, reach out to discuss further, and apply for @alliancedao's accelerator where we can help them build these ventures.

15/ Many thanks to @cyber_porter, @shumochu, and @CarterMcAIister for their valuable comments on this article.