gm, readers.

At Automata we work on protecting privacy and fairness. And in this newsletter, we find more reasons to talk about it. Explore headlines and catch up on the biggest crypto news in Web3 privacy.

This week:

• Wormhole receives $70,000 grant for WorldID verification on Solana

• Worldcoin recruits former Google and Apple executives to lead privacy initiatives

Zooming into ZK:

• Pi Squared secures $12.5M to pioneer universal ZK circuit with Proof of Proof technology

• StarkWare and Polygon achieve 100x speed increase with new STARK prover 'Stwo'

• zkSync rebrands to Elastic Chain to enhance scaling and interoperability

• Bitcoin Virtual Machine introduces BitZK for Ethereum-like scalability

• zkSync refutes insider minting allegations for Libertas Omnibus NFTs

• Aptos launches Aptos Connect, a keyless wallet application that users ZK-proofs for user verification

• ZERO Network by Zerion goes live on Testnet, Mainnet launch expected this year

• Astar Network plans to burn 350M ASTR tokens, 5% of total supply

We dive into the details, so you don’t have to:

Researchers at StarkWare and Polygon have developed a new STARK prover, named Stwo, which promises to be 100 times faster than current STARK-based provers. Leveraging the eighth Mersenne prime (M31) for computations, Stwo enhances scalability, enabling quicker and cheaper proof generation and verification. This innovation, set to be implemented by 2025, will replace the existing Stone prover and benefit various proving systems, including Starknet and Plonky3.

ZK Sync has rebranded its Hyperchains to Elastic Chain, aligning with the recent ZKsync 3.0 network upgrade. The Elastic Chain aims to resolve liquidity fragmentation and improve user experience in multichain ecosystems by offering native, trust-minimized, and low-cost interoperability through recursive ZK proofs. The Elastic Chain network will utilize the newly launched ZK token for governance and transaction settlement, promising a streamlined and secure multichain experience, similar to emerging solutions like Polygon CDK and AggLayer.

The Bitcoin Virtual Machine (BVM) team has launched BitZK, a zero-knowledge proofs service designed to enhance Bitcoin's scalability by enabling roll-ups and migration of applications from Ethereum. This service addresses the increased on-chain activity spurred by protocols like Ordinals and Runes, which highlighted the need for effective Bitcoin scaling solutions. BitZK is the first service to bring Bitcoin ZK-rollups to Mainnet.

The Worldcoin Foundation has awarded a $70,000 grant to Wormhole to integrate WorldID verification on the Solana blockchain. This integration will enable Solana-based protocols to verify user IDs authenticated on Ethereum, enhancing cross-chain interoperability and security. The Wormhole state bridge service will monitor the World ID contract on Ethereum and securely transfer changes to Solana.

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This newsletter is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional financial advice or interpreted as investment advice. Cryptocurrencies are volatile assets and you should always do your own research before making any informed decisions when investing or trading.