Overview
There has been an explosion of Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) applications and zk-Rollups, especially Ethereum zk-Rollups.
ZKP computation power is different from POW. While POW requires many machines to achieve decentralization, ZKP is a service that each project needs, and its cost is an essential factor. A comparison is shown in the table below.
| Aspect | POW Miners | ZKP Provers |
|---|---|---|
| Computation Purpose | Decentralization | To generate a proof |
| Computation Content | A large number of random, repeated, and similar functions. | Complex mathematical operations with deterministic results. |
| Computation Redundancy | Necessary | Unnecessary |
The adoption of ZKP is still facing challenges from both the side of ZKP projects and the operators of ZKP provers due to these features.
Challenges for ZKP projects
Currently, each ZKP project has to make a considerable effort to build a proving system, including algorithms and infrastructure, while keeping it low-cost. Some questions that come up while building a zk-related project include:
- Which proving system could be used?
- How to design the circuit?
- How to set up the proving system?
- What is the performance of the proving system? How can it be optimized?
- How much does the proving system cost? How can the overall cost be reduced?
Challenges for ZKP Prover Operators
The ZKP prover operators meet some new challenges other than POW miners.
- Some ZKP projects may require a gas fee to submit proof or staking as a prover, which introduces costs and risks for the provers.
- Some projects may use bid or random selection solutions to avoid redundant computation, which may underutilize the prover's capacity when it hasn't won the task. This diminishes the potential revenue for a prover.
- The various ZKP projects have different algorithms and prover software, making it difficult for provers to adapt to these various projects.
The Design Target of ZKPool
The ZKPool's mission is to make ZKP flow in the digital world. ZKPool aims to create a bridge between Zero-Knowledge Proof applications and provers.
ZKPool strives to offer a solution that addresses the challenges in the proving system.
The ideal solution is to provide the following to the ZKP projects:
- Provides fast and high-throughput performance.
- Offers affordable and transparent costs.
The design principles of ZKPool include:
- Economic efficiency: Striking a balance between the low-cost requirements of ZKP projects and the higher profit expectations of ZKP provers.
- Transparency: Ensuring transparent revenue distribution.
The Roadmap of ZKPool
The ZKPool will have the following milestones:
- ZKPool-1.0: Build on at least one ZKP project (Completed)
- ZKPool-2.0: Fully decentralized ZKP computing pool via UMP (Universal Modular Prover)(Ongoing)