If you care about the long-term future of blockchain, you cannot avoid ZKP (Zero-Knowledge Proof). It is not just about 'protecting privacy'; it is the only ultimate solution to Ethereum's scalability.
Today, we will break down the core trends of ZKP in three minutes:
1. The two pillars of application: Privacy and Scalability 🏗️
• Privacy: Proving its authenticity without disclosing original data (such as balance, identity).
• Scalability: ZK-Rollup compresses thousands of transactions into a very small proof, and the mainnet only needs to verify the proof.
🚀 Latest developments: The industry expects that 2026 will be a key year for Ethereum's ZK scaling, during which validators will directly verify ZK proofs, achieving exponential growth in TPS.
2. SNARK vs STARK: Who is the future?⚔️
These are the two most mainstream technical paths currently:
• ZK-SNARK: Matured earlier, proof size is small, verification is extremely fast, but usually requires a 'trusted setup'.
• ZK-STARK: Transparency: No trusted setup is required, making it more decentralized.
• Scalability: Performs better when handling large-scale computations.
• Post-quantum security: It is based on hash functions and can resist attacks from future quantum computers.
3. The next breakout point: ZKML (Zero-Knowledge Machine Learning) 🤖
When AI meets blockchain, the biggest question is: How do you prove that the results given by AI are calculated by a real model and not fabricated?
• ZKML allows AI models to run in a privacy-preserving environment while generating a 'proof' to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the model inference process.
• Application scenarios: Privacy-preserving medical diagnosis, anti-fraud model verification, and even Worldcoin's iris biometric verification.
4. Ultimate challenge: Post-quantum security 💎
With the development of quantum computing, traditional encryption algorithms face threats. The forefront discussion of ZKP is focused on how to construct post-quantum secure protocols (such as STARKs and partially lattice-based SNARKs). This is not only for current privacy but also to ensure that assets remain secure a decade from now.
💡 Summary:
SNARK wins now (ecosystem maturity), STARK wins in the future (high performance + quantum resistance). ZKML is the key to pushing Web3 into the era of artificial intelligence.
Which ZK path do you favor? The more mature SNARK series projects (such as ZKsync, Scroll), or the STARK series that emphasizes transparency and quantum resistance (such as Starknet)? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments! 👇
