Breaking Ground in Bitcoin: Polyhedra ZK Research Breakthrough

We are thrilled to announce our team’s latest milestone in Bitcoin Zero-Knowledge (ZK) research, presented in a detailed technical whitepaper. In this document, we unveil an innovative method for verifying ZK proofs directly on the Bitcoin blockchain, promising significant advancements in scalability.

In light of recent developments such as the approval of Bitcoin ETFs and the upcoming halving event, interest in Bitcoin research is at an all-time high. Our team identified critical shortcomings in existing approaches, particularly those highlighted in the BitVM whitepaper. One major concern was the potential for collusion between the prover and the challenger, which threatened the integrity of proofs allowing for the malicious creation of invalid proofs.

To address these challenges, we pioneered an alternative approach using FRI (Fast Reed-Solomon Interactive) style ZK proofs as the final layer of on-chain verification. FRI proofs offer superior efficiency, requiring fewer arithmetic operations compared to other ZK proof systems like Groth16 or Plonk. This efficiency is crucial given the substantial computational costs associated with operations on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Our whitepaper elaborates on how the FRI-based ZK proof system strikes a delicate balance between privacy, scalability, and security. Furthermore, the scalability benefits of our approach could alleviate performance bottlenecks in the Bitcoin network by reducing the computational burden of verifying transactions, thus enabling optimistic rollups on Bitcoin.

This research represents a significant leap forward in Bitcoin ZK proofs, unlocking new use cases and capabilities within the Bitcoin ecosystem. As our whitepaper gains traction, we anticipate it will inspire further research and development, fostering innovation in Bitcoin technology.

Practical Applications and Implications

Looking ahead, we envision the Bitcoin ecosystem evolving similarly to Ethereum’s L2 infrastructure, with a division between optimistic rollups (such as Arbitrum and Optimism) and ZK rollups (such as Starknet and Polygon).

In the Bitcoin ecosystem, projects like Babylon and BitVM provided valuable contributions, but limitations persisted, akin to challenges faced by optimistic rollups on Ethereum. These challenges include extended withdrawal periods and reliance on full data availability.

The missing link for trustless Layer-2 scaling solutions on Bitcoin lies in native ZK proof verification. Overcoming this obstacle is paramount to realizing the full potential of Bitcoin and enabling general-purpose programmability on the network. Our progress in this area is fundamental to advancing Bitcoin’s scalability and usability, solidifying its position as the leading blockchain platform.

Read the full article: https://hackmd.io/@polyhedra/bitcoin