APIs for Private Applications

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Tomorrow, the web will become private-by-default.

Over the past decade, new technologies to protect user data have become practical. For the first time, users have a choice. They are not constrained to giving up control of their data, and data breaches no longer have to be an inevitable price to pay. And for the first time, web services can use privacy-preserving technologies to protect users while expanding the possibilities of their web experience*.

*excerpt from Aleo.org site

What's the Buzz in Zero-Knowledge Proof (zk)?

The applications of zero-knowledge (zk) crypto protocols in the blockchain can be far-reaching and game-changing especially in the fields of privacy and security. This would help address data breach concerns that are costing industries billions of dollars.

Thus, it has brought a lot of buzz and excitement in the tech space, bringing in huge investments from VCs and the likes. Aleo.org for example has recently raised $200M, another is zkSync which has now gathered $50M.

What is ZK?

Zero-knowledge (zk) techniques are mathematical methods used to verify things without sharing or revealing underlying data. Zero-knowledge protocols are probabilistic assessments, which means they don't prove something with complete certainty. Instead, they provide small pieces of unlinkable information that can accumulate to show that the validity of an assertion is overwhelmingly probable.

In simpler explanation, it's like "I can't tell you the secret, but I can prove to you that I know the secret."

ZK in Cardano

Aleo makes it easy to build private applications for which the zk-proofs are saved in their own chain. To build zk enabled apps in Cardano, however, one still has to build its own zk module! This requires not only extensive knowledge in zero-knowledge, but one also has to learn and be comfortable with the Rust language since most good zk libraries use Rust.

Proposed Project: Know Zero

Our proposed project is called Know Zero. We want to make building zk apps easy for developers in Cardano by eliminating the hard stuff. No need to learn so much of the intricacies of zk. No need to learn Rust language.

To do this, we will build a zk-enabled module complete with APIs so any developers can just integrate with the services through these endpoints. Devs can just focus on their apps front end development and quickly generate zk-proofs that are also integrated on the Cardano blockchain.

So as not to reinvent the wheel, we'll use zkSNARK (see below) on top of other zk-libraries and our own concoction of zk, privacy, and secure protocols to build Know Zero. We will also tap into our 5 years of insights and expertise in building a privacy-centric health platform.

ZK Snarks

zk-SNARK stands for “Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge,” and refers to a proof construction where one can prove possession of certain information, e.g. a secret key, without revealing that information, and without any interaction between the prover and verifier.

ZEXE Protocol

Zexe is a new blockchain design that enables both data privacy and function privacy in addition to succinctness. In other words, not only can transactions be generated offline and efficiently verified on-chain, the time needed to verify the transaction is independent of the time required to do the offline computation to which the prover attests to. It achieves this by introducing a new cryptographic primitive called a Decentralized Private Computation (DPC).

Javascript SDK

To ease up development even further, we will provide SDK for Javascript devs as well. They can just focus on building zk apps without having to learn extra stuff.

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

Specifically, tell me how your proposed Private Applications API will drive more adoption to Cardano ecosystem?

With the available APIs, developers will be encouraged to easily develop private applications without having to learn the nitty gritty of zero-knowledge proof protocols. In addition, they wouldn't have to learn Rust language since most of the zk libraries now are created using this.

This makes it attractive and easy for developers to build zk apps by decreasing, if not eliminate, the learning curve to do so. And as more private applications are available, these could also attract further more users to their apps, thus increasing more usage of the Cardano blockchain.

Is the usage of Zero-Knowledge gaining traction in general?

Yes, ZK is a hot item now in the web 3.0 world. As mentioned in this ZDNet article, Zero-knowledge proofs could play a major role in the future of Web3, DeFi and Metaverse. Thus, it will be great if there will be ZK APIs available in Cardano.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Experienced Team

The team has built a similar zk module for healthcare so there are no challenges or blockings anticipated. We were able to overcome them already before when we built a similar module.

The probable challenge is the timeline of activities that will be set. Some allowance should be provided to consider external factors that are outside of the team's control.

Product Built on ZK

The team has developed Nightingale, which has a ZK module built-in, see details here. This is a part of the Hippocrades Healthcare Platform, some modules of which have been funded in Catalyst as well.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

Month 1

• System Analysis and Design
• Gathering of Requirements

Months 2 to 4

• Start of Development (Backend)
• Start of Development (Front end - app)
• Start of Development (Front end - website)

Month 5

• Release of Alpha
• QA and testing
• Iterations and improvements
• Start of SDK Development

Month 6

• Release of Version 1.0
• Integrate to website
• SDK Release

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Project Lead

• 6 months @ $1.5T / month
• $9,000

Backend Senior Devs (2)

• $3000 @ 5months
• $30,000

Front end Devs (2)

• $2,000 @ 3 months
• $12,000

System Analyst & Designer

• $3,000 @ 1 month
• $3,000

Total 54,000

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

The team here is also part of Team Hippocrades which is selected by Cardano in the Ariob Incubator / Iceaddis program in Africa. The Hippocrades app has zk enabled module so the team has a good experience in building zero-knowledge. The team is also a finalist in the recent Seedstar - FT x Cardano Blockchain Challenge.

Some reference to Our Works

• Nightingale ZK module here
• Team is also part of the Atala Prism Pioneer Program
• Hippocrades Whitepaper here
• Deploy your own health dApps (www.hippocrades.org)
• Actual deployment of Hippocrades (www.hippocrades.com)
• Demo of Hippocrades Apps here
• Healthcare API documentation here
• We are the same team behind MYCURE

Core Tech Team

We are a 10 man team and also have a pool of tech consultants that we can tap on a project basis. This project will be lead by the following:

Trista, project lead, is an industrial engineer by profession, a tech startup hustler by choice, and an artist by heart. She is the operations head in a health tech company, driving continuous improvement and growth since 2016. She is also in charge of the product development group.

Joff has been programming and focusing on web development using JavaScript in the past 9 years (since 2012). Most of his time is spent mastering frontend development using AngularJS, Angular, and Vue.js frameworks. Currently, he is dabbling on SvelteJS. He is passionate on contributing to the open-source community. Being a big fan of Vue.js, his projects are mostly based on Vue.js or JavaScript.

Areas of Expertise:

• Stripe Community Expert
• Creator of Vue-Stripe
• OSS Community Building
• Web Development
• Mobile Development
• JavaScript
• VueJS
• HTML, CSS, Javascript

Nad is a natural geek growing up. He has been coding since the art has been introduced to him at age 15. This has led him to choose Computer Science as his undergraduate degree at the top university in the country. Since 2016, he is mostly involved in designing healthcare systems—developing APIs like EMRs and full scale health information management solutions.

Areas of Expertise:

• System Analysis & Design
• API Development
• Kubernetes
• gRPC
• Blockchain
• Zero-knowledge cryptography protocols
• Programming Languages: C, Javascript, Rust, Go

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

For this specific project, no.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

It's a standard practice in our team to be guided by the following principles during development:

• Stable code (to minimize application downtime)
• Simple code (simplicity is key, the simpler it is the faster to test and change)
• Testable code (acts like documentation so that changes will immediately show errors)
• Team velocity (story points delivered per sprint)
• Knowledge share (collaborative meetings and proper documentation)

Tasks and deliverables of the Dev Team are placed in GitHub from which we track, monitor, manage activities that are pending, ongoing, and done.

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Success During Development

Tasks and features are listed accordingly that contain the tasks/activities required and their corresponding due dates to accomplish each.

We monitor success by ticking off each task done per module. For delayed items, these are regularly brought up in daily standups and weekly meetings to discuss blockings/issues and what needs to be done to address them.

Success as a Project

Once the APIs for Private Application is deployed in its own site at knowzero.org and available for developers to use, this is considered DONE.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

Entirely new one.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

N/A