The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has announced a substantial financial commitment, investing “tens of millions” of dollars to advance zero-knowledge Virtual Machines (zkVMs), an advanced technology poised to increase scalability and security within the Ethereum ecosystem to improve.
Justin Ðrake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, revealed the investment via a after on )”
Ethereum Foundation invests millions in zkEVM research
The cornerstone of this investment is the zkEVM Formal Verification Project, detailed at Verified-zkevm.org. This initiative aims to apply formal verification methods to zkEVMs, ensuring their reliability and security. According to the project overview, the EF aims to achieve ‘bug-free zkEVMs’ by distributing subsidies and incentives in multiple phases over a period of 18-24 months.
“The project will raise awareness of formal verification methods applied to zkEVMs, document their application and increase their use,” the project overview said. In addition, it aims to improve coordination between different teams within the ecosystem, develop tools and standards for maintenance and extensibility, and explore better integration of formal verification methods into software development and maintenance processes.
The scope of the project is limited to RISC-V zkVMs capable of running an EVM compiled to RISC-V, producing a zkEVM. It is structured in three primary tracks:
RISC-V zkVM track: Focuses on verifying the correct implementation of a RISC-V CPU, arithmetic, and circuitry. It emphasizes the need to ensure that circuits have neither too few nor too many constraints and that calculations are accurate. Formal verification of precompiles is also included.
EVM track: Aims to demonstrate that an EVM running on RISC-V complies with the EVM specification. Candidates for verification must present performant and compilable EVM implementations on RISC-V zkVMs, such as revm/Reth.
Cryptography trail: Aims to verify the specifications, security proofs, and implementations of cryptographic primitives and protocols used by zkVMs, with an emphasis on FRI and Circle STARKs integrations.
The project emphasizes flexibility in approach to leverage community expertise and facilitate comparison of different methodologies. “We will support different approaches where possible to take advantage of the varied expertise within the community,” the project outlines, adding that successful methodologies could be prioritized in the next phases.
Applications for Phase 1, which focuses on building maintainable and extensible frameworks, are currently open. Proposals should include detailed overviews, technical approaches, project management plans, and team information.
Another key part of EF’s investment is the Poseidon Initiative, as described at poseidon-initiative.info. Poseidon and Poseidon2 are hash functions optimized for verifiable computing protocols, specifically designed to minimize circuit size over prime fields. These hash functions are an integral part of various Ethereum applications that use zero-knowledge proofs.
The initiative aims to improve the security analysis of Poseidon instances and determine their suitability for high-end applications within Ethereum. Phase 1 of the project will run until December 2025 and phase 2 is scheduled to open in mid-2025 and be completed in December 2026. The project is managed by the Ethereum Foundation Poseidon Group (EFPG), consisting of experts such as George Kadianakis, Dmitry Khovratovich and Antonio Sanso, and is overseen by an advisory board that includes well-known figures such as Eli Ben-Sasson of StarkNet and Daira-Emma Hopwood by ZCash.
A key feature of the Poseidon Initiative is its extensive bounty program, which offers a total of $130,000 in rewards for breakthroughs in cryptanalysis. Bounties are available for different security levels for different Poseidon instances, incentivizing researchers to discover vulnerabilities or validate security assumptions. For example, solving a 32-bit preimage attack on Poseidon-256 could earn a researcher $10,000, while higher levels of security could earn up to $15,000.
In addition, the initiative supports workshops, retreats and schools focused on Poseidon cryptanalysis, promoting collaboration and knowledge sharing within the cryptographic community. Short-term grants ranging from $20,000 to $40,000 are also available for research on critical security questions related to Poseidon variants, Groebner basic attacks, and non-algebraic attack vectors.
Although still in development, ethproofs.org is expected to serve as a platform for L2beat integrations for zkVMs, further improving transparency and accountability in zkVM performance and security metrics.
At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $3,590.
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