[Grant Application]: zkBridge powered by Polyhedra Network

[AntPoly]

Project Description

Polyhedra Network (https://polyhedra.network/) designs and implements zkBridge, providing trustless and efficient cross-chain infrastructures for layer-1 and layer-2 interoperability. zkBridge uses zero-knowledge proof constructions to efficiently convince the receiver chain that a certain state transition happened on the sender chain. With zero-knowledge proofs, zkBridge offers strong security without relying on external assumptions and a significant reduction in on-chain verification costs.

Our team members graduated from renowned universities, such as UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Tsinghua University, SJTU, MIT, and Princeton University. The engineering team specializes in cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs and has experience in deploying large-scale blockchain and ZKP systems. We are backed by top VCs such as Binance Labs, Polychain Capital, Animoca Brands, dao5, and Hashkey Capital.

Category

Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP)

Timeline

Regarding technical integrations:

• We have already deployed zkBridge on Taiko.
• Within 1-2 months, we will connect more chains with Taiko
• Within 3 months, we will provide additional middlewares based on zkBridge to dApps on Taiko

Regarding ZKP research:

• Within 3 months, we plan to research and draft a proposal on the proof market which can be used for both Taiko and zkbridge. The proof market can be built based on our most recent publication Pianist: Scalable zkRollups via Fully Distributed Zero-Knowledge Proofs (https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1271), co-authored by Polyhedra Network's co-founder Tiancheng Xie, Jiaheng Zhang and several other academic researchers. The Pianist research paper is accepted by the 45th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P 2024). Pianist introduced an innovative approach to distributed zero-knowledge proof generation.
• Within 6 months, we plan to conduct ZKP researches with Taiko team to further optimize the proposal and publish potential research blogs.

Regarding ecosystem co-promotional events:

• We also plan to run co-promotional events that allow users to get familiar with Taiko through the use of zkBridge.
• We expect to have one campaign in September on the Mystery of Pandralia (https://medium.com/@polyhedra/explore-the-mystery-of-pandralia-with-polyhedra-network-b6cf1d1fdc7f), and one more campaign startingg October through the end of the year.

Project Plan

Polyhedra network launched zkBridge Mainnet Alpha (https://zkbridge.com/) on April 2023, supporting cross-chain interoperability for 20+ layer-1 and layer-2 blockchain networks such as BNB Chain, Ethereu, and Arbitrum. zkBridge is the first trustless, efficient, secure, and universal cross-chain interoperability protocol secured by zkSNARKs. The team invented and implemented deVirgo, a novel distributed proof system to accelerate proof generation, and recursive proofs to reduce the on-chain proof verification cost of zkBridge.

LayerZero and Polyhedra Network have entered a strategic partnership to revolutionize cross-chain bridges with zkBridge technology. The deep integration of the zk light client on LayerZero will enhance the security, performance, and cost-efficiency of the cross-chain infrastructure and the interoperability of the entire Web3 space.

Project Impact

We have 620k+ followers on Twitter and 500k+ members in Discord, who are all believers of a fully-interoperable and multi-chain future. With zkBridge, users will be able to seamlessly transfer any assets or data bwtween Taiko and other blockchain ecosystems.

Team Information

Abner Jia co-founder and CEO
PhD graduated from Tsinghua University (Yao Class), also was a postdoc ressearcher from UC Berkeley. Research and engineering in: blockchain systems, ZKP protocols, web3 infrastructures, large-scale social networks, cloud computing systems, etc. He has published papers on top conferences in the Internet and blockchain fields including WWW, IEEE/ACM ToN, ACM CCS, JSAC, ICSE, ICDCS, etc. He is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in starting businesses, product design, and team management.

Tiancheng Xie co-founder and CTO
PhD graduated from security group, UC Berkeley. Undergraduate from ACM Class, SJTU. He is broadly interested in cryptography and algorithms, especially in zero-knowledge proof. His main research breakthrough is the new core algorithm of the Virgo protocol, the speed of proof generation is more than 10x faster than baseline, and also apply the protocol to blockchain systems.

Jiaheng Zhang co-founder and Chief scientist
PhD graduated from RISELab, UC Berkeley. Undergraduate from ACM Class, SJTU. His research interests lie in computer security and cryptography, especially zero-knowledge proofs and their applications on blockchain. He has published papers on top conferences including CRYPTO, S&P, and CCS. He received the Facebook Fellowship in Security and Privacy in 2022.

Point of Contact

TG: @abnerjia90 Email: Abner@polyhedra.network; Antonio@polyhedra.network

Previous Work

zkBridge: Trustless Cross-chain Bridges Made Practical (https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3548606.3560652)

Additional Information

For more information:
https://polyhedra.network/
https://zkbridge.com/

Agreement

• I agree to comply with the terms and conditions of the grants program