The results of “Privacy Proof” annual awards are here. Second patient - “Exciting innovation of the year” category.
Exciting Innovation is a great category to explore potential next-gen privacy. It covers both scientific papers and daily-apps that can enhance your privacy stack. Cryptography and it’s advancements lies at the heart of this category.
“Privacy Proof” is an annual awards facilitated by the Web3Privacy now collective. It aims to feature key projects, news, innovations & doxxers of the market selected by 90+ enthusiasts, developers, researchers, cryptographers, cypherpunks, and community builders from Vitalik Buterin to Zooko behind the Ethereum, Nym, Logos, Railgun, Aztec, ZK Sync, dappnode, Electric Coin & Co. & many other organisations.
All contributions are public & can be found on X & Fileverse
And Key News and Events of the year award goes to…
Winner
Note: we decided to split winners into 2 brackets - the most voted research or project & the most voted cryptography (like ZK or FHE). This will help to unite different votes under common “stack” and introduce complex applicability of specific cryptographic tooling.
Research or project direction
We have two winners that received the same amount of votes. Clearly reflecting on complexities of the privacy landscape: on one hand - anonymity, on another - compliance.
note: Privacy Pools paper has been presented in 2023. It hit “Runner up” innovation category Privacy Proof 23’. 2024 version represents “proof-of-innosence” development, 0xbow implementations, ongoing security audit behind Chainway solution.
Runner-up
Nym & Noir language by Aztec team hit “second" place or Runner up with the same amount of votes! Here consumer VPN stands alongside ZK-language. It’s a striking representation of hard-to-achieve equilibrium: daily privacy + cryptographic advancement at the same time.
Cryptography domains
Winner
ZK advancement - ZKLM, ZKP for digital IDs, ZKvm, zk<>mpc (cosnarks), ZK TLS and ZK email parsing advancements in speed and complexity, MegaHonk (Aztec zk research), repurposing signatures already in everyday use for privacy-preserving applications (zkemail, Anon Aadhar, OpenPassport, ZKpassport), zkLLM…
Runner up
FHE advancement - fhEVM co-processors: enabling FHE on Ethereum, Base etc, FHE/MPC VMs, Confidential auctions in DeFi, Confidential erc20 framework (Inco + Circle research collab), FHE implementations like Enclave…
Longlist >>
Protocols and apps
Aztec Noir and launch of Devnet was a major step forward for privacy
Fileverse (incl ddocs)
Holonym and privacy preserving KYC (proof of clean hands)
Zama & Zero Knowledge Proof on PoW upcoming on Alephium
Research
Bounty: Obfustopia.io
fhEVM co-processors: enabling FHE on Ethereum, Base etc
Threshhold MPC chains for key management
Noir language gaining popularity
Not TEEs
Buenos Aires adds ZKP into city app
TEE research
$ZEC in a Brave wallet
zkML
Anon DAOs
Paper: Secret Sharing with Snitching (anti-collusion research)
General approach: Combining TEEs with MPC or threshold cryptography for layered security
Ongoing advances in ZK tech and use cases especially
Zero-Knowledge Location Privacy via Accurate Floating-Point SNARKs
Peer to peer/user-owned networks (Clan, Urbit)
Advancements in MPC and FHE, and people experimenting with interesting ways to use them (Gauss Labs, TLSNotary, Fhenix)
Repurposing signatures already in everyday use for privacy-preserving applications (zkemail, Anon Aadhar, OpenPassport, ZKpassport)
The research on Post-Quantum zero-knowledge credentials going on at Qubip.eu (EU/Horizon grant nr.101119746)
Post-quantum key agreements in Signal and iMessage (PQXDH & PQ3)
Zero knowledge proofs for common crypto matter
Confidential auctions in DeFi
Advancements in threshold encryption (traitor tracing, silent setup, IBE, scalability)
zkTLSDisintermediation via zkTLS and protocols like DiStefano
Private Shared State with Noir (eg. MPC-ML, Private games etc)
UltraHonk
MegaHonk (Monk)
Secure communication becoming more researched
zkLLM: Zero Knowledge Proofs for Large Language Models
RLN (privacy-preserving rate-limiting for p2p networks)
AeriusLabs zkSnap (private voting)
Client side proving efforts from many teams (@PrivacyScaling, @worldcoin, @aztecnetwork, @0xPolygonMide, @penumbrazone)
Local AI Available to Everyday People
co-Snarks
Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs)
Split Learning for Deep Learning Models
AE2EE with Prism (prism.deltadevs.xyz)
In-browser Light Node with Celestia
In-browser-extension RPC node with Penumbra
Brave’s zkTLS could be a gamechanger.
E
Passkey integrations becoming common
Angelus by Mathcastles
Practical MPC (Cursive)
Zcash sustainability fund
Decentralized Compliance
Deployment of Federated Learning & Analytics at Google
Non-native field arithmetic
FHE/io
Linux plausible deniability filesystem encryption
ZK TLS and ZK email parsing advancements in speed and complexity
zkTLS/Email based applications
More legit ZK, TEE, MPC applied research to return “cryptography” to “crypto”
TEE development
ZKvm
Naomi Brockwell’s excellent work on practical privacy insights
zk-proofs starting to become usable in practice (Nym’s unlikable payments, Namada mainnet etc)
coSnarks
Being able to run LLMs locally
ZKP for digital IDs
FHE/MPC VMs Confidential
ZK STARKs
ZKLM on Mina
FHEConfidential erc20 framework (Inco + Circle research collab)
Fair & Capital - efficient economies with MPC
ZKLMStateless mesh networking with fully decentralized coordination