Zero-knowledge cryptography is an incredibly complex field. There is a very high barrier to entry for developers to leverage zero-knowledge techniques in production smart contract development.
This is the total amount allocated to Anastasia Labs - ZK Accelerate : A User-Friendly Smart Contract Library for ZK contracts.
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Develop a high-level library to empower developers to leverage the power of zero-knowledge proof in their DApps without wrestling with the complexity of zk-circuit construction and verification.
No dependencies.
All outputs will be fully open-source under the MIT license.
ZK Accelerate is an abstraction library to help developers leverage zero-knowledge technology in their decentralized applications. Applied zero-knowledge cryptography has a very high barrier to entry for developers.
In light of the significant CPU usage already associated with some Plonk verification processes, our aim is to introduce design patterns that allow protocols to harness the concurrent verification of multiple proofs. For instance, the Plonk benchmark provided by perturbing plonk-benchmark illustrates that Plonk verification can consume up to 30% of CPU resources.
By developing wrapper libraries that enable protocols to efficiently validate multiple proofs simultaneously, we intend to mitigate the computational burden associated with such processes.
This approach not only enhances scalability but also optimizes resource utilization, thereby improving the overall performance of Cardano-based applications.
Our plan is to deliver essential design patterns.
Anastasia Labs has rapidly established itself as a leading development firm within the Cardano Ecosystem. Our team consists of highly skilled developers who have made significant contributions to various community projects, including Lucid, Agora, Liqwid-Plutarch-Extra, and Aada Finance. Furthermore our developers have had experience developing and publishing end-to-end DApps including production projects such as WingRiders.
In addition to our project involvement, our team has been actively engaged in the developer experience domain. We have actively participated in educational panels focused on DApp Security Practices and Design Patterns, and our members have served as co-chairs of the IOHK developer experience working group.
Furthermore, our collaboration with Emurgo Academy has been instrumental in educating aspiring developers, with our team playing an essential role in this endeavor. We have also recognized and recruited the most exceptional talents from the academy's classes.
We have developed software development kits (SDKs) that facilitate the integration of existing dApps with other systems through off-chain code. Our team has also designed various protocols, including bridges and staking systems, while also actively contributing to open-source smart contract languages and their associated standard libraries.
Overall, Anastasia Labs has established itself as a highly capable and versatile development firm with a broad range of expertise within the Cardano Ecosystem.
Protocol Specification:
Development of Proof Aggregator:
Implementation of Merkelized Proofs:
Implementation of Tokenize Proofs:
Testing:
Project Closeout:
Philip DiSarro, Compiler & Programming Language Research, https://twitter.com/phil_uplc
Philip is an expert in the field of Compiler Development & Programming Language Theory. He has made significant open-source contributions to the Cardano developer ecosystem. As a co-chair of the IOHK developer experience working group he worked to identify and resolve pain points that DApp developers experience in Cardano. He has a vast wealth of professional experience in smart contract security and auditing on Cardano; and was responsible for the identification and resolution of a large number of critical exploits in production open-source smart contracts. Recently, Philip has concentrated his efforts on designing and deploying effective zero-knowledge proof applications within the Cardano ecosystem.
Philip is a senior Haskell developer on the XSY team, a consultant and lecturer for Emurgo, and the CEO and co-founder of Anastasia Labs.
Jonathan Rodriguez, Functional Programming & TypeScript SDKs, https://twitter.com/solidsnakedev
Jonathan is a highly skilled smart contract developer specializing in Cardano, a blockchain technology that he is deeply passionate about.
His passion in smart contract development drives him to constantly polish his technical knowledge. In the pursuit of that knowledge he obtained the following certifications: Cardano Solution Architect, Cardano Developer Professional, and Associate Certificate.
With an extensive background in Haskell development, which is a critical language for Cardano, he possesses a thorough understanding of functional programming concepts.
His expertise extends to various aspects of the Cardano ecosystem, including the Cardano Toolchain, Transaction Structure, Plutus Smart Contracts, Native Tokens, DApp Connector, and other essential components.Â
Jonathan is well-versed in conducting use case analysis and tokenomics, as well as interfacing with decentralized storage, server APIs, and integrating databases.
He is knowledgeable in establishing robust CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) flows and integrating them into development processes. Additionally, he is skilled in conducting thorough unit testing to ensure the reliability and security of his smart contract solutions.
Robust Documentation of Design Patterns and Efficiency Tricks:
Engineering Hours for Documentation: 1 month
Design Pattern Wrapper Libraries for Zero-Knowledge Patterns:
Engineering Hours for Development: 4 months
Testing Assurance:
Engineering Hours for Testing: 1 month
Total Project Budget: 200,000 ADA
This proposal aims to capitalize on the anticipated surge in ZK-based development once Plutus V3 is launched. By promoting the adoption of advanced design patterns and efficiency techniques, we anticipate a significant boost in development efficiency across the Cardano ecosystem.
This initiative not only accelerates the pace of innovation but also incentivizes existing DApps to upgrade, granting access to cutting-edge efficiency enhancements and ZK design patterns.