Manta Network By collaborating with influential figures in cryptocurrency and technology sectors, this venture offers up to $7 million in rewards to groups advancing zero-knowledge cryptography, an essential component for scaling blockchain operations.
Announced earlier this month, the ZPrize contest Endorsed by a diverse group of 21 Web3 enterprises, such as the Ethereum Foundation, Polkadot, and Polygon, the contest is also backed by industry powerhouses AMD and Xilinx, providing the necessary computational resources.
The contest focuses on recognizing teams that produce novel open-source algorithms and techniques which enhance zero-knowledge proofs' performance beyond the capabilities of existing solutions. zero-knowledge proofs The requirement for all entries is to be open-sourced so that the entire blockchain ecosystem can leverage their breakthroughs.
Zero-knowledge proofs facilitate the confidential execution of blockchain transactions, revealing only the timing and dates, while specific details like wallet addresses and transaction amounts remain accessible only to transaction participants.
This technological innovation is seen as pivotal for the scaling of blockchains like Ethereum, which currently processes only about 15 to 40 transactions per second. Ethereum's co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has remarked on this potential. said For Ethereum, the future of scaling may lie in a zero-knowledge proof method known as ZK Rollups, which compress transactions to save space on the blockchain. Polygon, an Ethereum scaling solution, is already pursuing advancements in this area. earmarked $1 billion Alongside the scaling advantage, zero-knowledge proofs offer enhanced privacy. Although many view blockchain-based cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as anonymous, each transaction is entirely transparent and publicly accessible.
A significant contributor to the evolution of zero-knowledge proofs is the Manta Network, which has constructed
a system using zkSNARKS cryptography to deliver comprehensive privacy for DeFi applications, addressing the complications of transparent wallet addresses and information traceability. According to Manta, its protocol allows DeFi users to thoroughly disguise their crypto holdings, shielding them from potential threats. a protocol As the primary backer of the ZPrize, Manta is incentivizing teams to amplify the performance of multiscalar multiplication (MSM) and number-theoretic transform operations—crucial elements of zero-knowledge computations. The prize hopes to inspire methods for optimizing these processes on client devices and within blockchain virtual machines, notably the WebAssembly (WASM) runtime.
Shoumo Chu, Manta's co-founder and leading visionary, emphasized the significance of enhancing zero-knowledge proof capabilities within WASM, citing it as the 'final hurdle' towards widescale tech adoption. Findings indicate that WASM-based applications experience a 10-to-15-fold performance decrement when deploying zero-knowledge proofs, in contrast with native transaction speed, highlighting the necessity for optimization.
Chu insisted that achieving widespread zero-knowledge proof and privacy usage mandates superior integration of ZKP provers with popular wallets. Enhanced WASM prover performance marks a critical step in this direction.
The concept behind the ZPrize initiative was inspired by a privately financed non-profit that runs public contests to drive innovative breakthroughs in socially beneficial technologies, including carbon reduction, pandemic response, and space exploration.
ZPrize's mission is to ignite a dramatic leap forward in zero-knowledge cryptography, according to founder and Aleo COO Alex Pruden. XPrize Editor-in-Chief of Blockonomi and founder of Kooc Media, a UK-based online media outlet. A proponent of open-source software, blockchain tech, and a universally accessible internet.
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