Introducing the ZK Ecosystem Map! This post is evolved from a Twitter thread I published not too long ago.

Zero knowledge (ZK) is an explosive area within the cryptocurrency and cybersecurity communities, and I made this Ecosystem Map to help outline what's going on.

TLDR;

1. Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKP/ZK) are a way to prove something is true without saying how or why you know it is true

2. ZK is an increasingly optimized technology that helps scale trustless decentralized systems

3. The number of serious projects in the ZK Ecosystem has grown over 50x in the last 5 years

4. Specialized hardware is being built to improve the performance of ZK

ZK enables a new generation of technology built on a core of individual privacy even in public spaces.

You can follow this guide to learn more about ZK while exploring the map:

The Map

The ZK Ecosystem Map segments the ecosystem into 3 categories:

1. Infrastructure - Systems and tools have emerged that empower developers

2. Networks - L1/L2/... that natively integrates ZK

3. Applications - Apps built on ZK

Infrastructure

ZKPs must be written in arithmetic circuit language, which is even less fun than Rust. Many systems and tools have emerged that empower developers to build protocols and applications more easily on top of ZK cryptographic primitives.

7 Categories of Infrastructure currently exist.

1. Programming Frameworks & Tools (19 projects) These make it easier to build and integrate ZK.

2. ZK Coprocessors (15 projects) They make easy the use of whatever virtual or physical machines get the job done best, and unlock anything offchain to be plugged in onchain.

3. Proof Networks / Markets (11 projects) Proof Networks aim to allow applications to outsource their proving mechanisms to third-party operators.

4. Hardware Acceleration (8 projects) GPUs, FPGAs and ASICs are helping to improve proof generation and verification times.

5. App-chain Infrastructure (9 projects) Low-code tooling for developers to build, test, and deploy general-purpose or app-specific L2/L3 chains.

6. Interoperability & Bridging (16 projects) Bridging systems become more trust minimized as they remove the need for users to rely on humans and replace trust with code.

7. ZK Machine Learning (ZKML) (20 projects) ZKML, a frontier field of cryptography, focuses on proving the correctness of onchain machine learning (ML) model inferences using ZKPs.

Networks

L1 and L2 networks have emerged with ZKP infrastructure to solve problems related to blockchain scalability (e.g. congestion) and onchain privacy.

4 Categories of Protocols currently exist.

1. Privacy Focused L1s (24 projects) These blockchains offer encryption by default, ranging from ZKP to FHE.

2. ZK-EVMs (9 projects) ZK-EVMs leverage zero-knowledge proofs to make cryptographic proofs of execution of Ethereum-like transactions.

3. ZK-VMs (13 projects) ZK-VMs are leverage zero-knowledge proofs just like ZK-EVMs, but aren’t EVMs.

4. ZK-Rollups (19 projects) A zero-knowledge rollup is a L2 scaling solution that moves computation offchain and proves state changes onchain using ZKPs.

Applications

ZK infrastructure and network layers are fertile soil where an emerging crop of end-user applications that leverage ZKPs for onchain payments, identity, compliant DeFi, and consumer use cases is growing.

4 categories of Applications currently exist.

1. DeFi protocols (10 projects)

2. Consumer apps (12 projects)

3. Private payments (8 projects)

4. Identity / Reputation (18 projects)

Where Are We Going

Both hardware and software improvements for ZK are being shipped week over week, quarter over quarter, and year over year which are successfully supporting an increasingly wider and wider realm of implementations.

Moreover, the ZK Ecosystem has become multi-chain and multi-VM. No longer is ZK constrained to ETH or opBNB; ZK touches all EVM and blockchain ecosystems; even a whole sector of zkVMs has arisen.

ZK Coprocessors are an important and effective tool for getting the most out of ZK-enabled systems. They make easy use of whatever virtual or physical machines get the job done best and unlock anything offchain to be plugged in onchain. Over the past 5 years, ZK proved it can come to market. Over the next 5 years, ZK will either make a bold statement or back away in shame.