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Discussion Details

Core
Type
ACTIVE

Extended Symbolic

10 comments
Submitted: 1 Apr 2025, 15:04 UTC (Epoch 549)
Updated: 30 Apr 2025, 08:12 UTC (Epoch 555)
# ID:62
zk

zkfold

Budget$300,000 (404,338 ADA)
ADA Rate$0.74
Preferred CurrencyUnited States Dollar (USD)
Contract TypeMilestone Based Fixed Price

Description

Extended Symbolic project aims to develop a new Haskell DSL for writing zero-knowledge smart contracts on the Cardano blockchain. The goal is to simplify the development process by abstracting the complexities of ZK cryptographic protocols, allowing developers to build efficient, scalable smart contracts without requiring expertise in ZK cryptography.

Problem Statement

Cardano is capable of verifying zero-knowledge proofs on-chain. This enables more robust and scalable smart contracts. There needs to be a high-level language for such smart contracts.

Proposal Benefit

The project has the potential to significantly impact the development of smart contracts on Cardano, reducing fees and increasing efficiency.

Providing developers with a proper tool to tap into the power of zero-knowledge protocols enables them to create smart contracts and DApps that are on another level in terms of efficiency and user experience. Moreover, with more developers adopting this approach, we are reducing the on-chain data footprint and compressing user transactions, effectively scaling Cardano on layer one.

Key Proposal Deliverables

Milestones

  1. Compiler specification. Outputs: specification docs
  2. Integration with the proving backend. Outputs:
    1. a compiler from IR to the proving backend (zkFold’s PlonkUp) format
    2. zkFold’s circuit IR and zkFold’s PlonkUp specs
  3. Export/import to Circom. Output: CLI and usage examples
  4. Optimization of basic types. Output: performance benchmarks
  5. Optimization of cryptographic functions. Output: performance benchmarks

Cost Breakdown

Budget for 12 months:

  1. Project maintenance. 1 developer at 10k $ per month - 120k$

  2. Advanced in-circuit optimization. 1 cryptographer at 10k $ per month - 120k$

  3. Advanced tooling and compatibility. 0.5 developer at 10k $ per month - 60k$

Resourcing & Duration

Budget for 12 months:

  1. Project maintenance. 1 developer at 10k $ per month - 120k$
    1. Bug fixes
    2. Test coverage
    3. Basic performance optimization
    4. Code refactoring
  2. Advanced in-circuit optimization. 1 cryptographer at 10k $ per month - 120k$
    1. Optimization of the compilation process
    2. Optimization of algebraic and bitwise operations
    3. Optimization of hashing algorithms and elliptic curve cryptography
  3. Advanced tooling and compatibility. 0.5 developer at 10k $ per month - 60k$
    1. Integration with different proving backends
    2. Export/import to and from Circom
    3. Export/import to and from Rust

Experience

zkFold team has successfully completed the first part of the project. The zkFold team consists of expert Haskell, Rust, and ZKP developers.

Maintenance & Support

We have included maintenance costs into the projects´s budget

Supplementary Endorsement

The initial phase of the development has been completed and successfully shared with the community:

  1. https://x.com/zkFold/status/1870155682969706985

  2. Extended video of the functionality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXNeAGuA0Is

Roadmap Alignment

Does your proposal align with any of the Intersect Committees?

Open Source Committee

Does this proposal align to the Product Roadmap and Roadmap Goals?

Developer / User Experience

Administration and Auditing

Would you like Intersect to be your named Administrator, including acting as the auditor, as per the Cardano Constitution?

Yes

Ownership Information

Submitted On Behalf Of

Company

Social Handles

https://x.com/zkFold

Key Dependencies

None

Supporting Links

No supporting links provided
Created:4/1/2025
Updated:4/30/2025
ID:62
Poll Results
Votes: 7
Should this proposal be funded in the next Cardano Budget round?
YES
4 (57%)
NO
3 (43%)

Comments (10)

awen
Apr 30, 2025, 08:13 AM UTC

The North American Community Hub’s workshop feedback, summarized here, finds zkFOLD’s Extended Symbolic proposal innovative but not critical for Cardano’s core operations. Unclear KPI metrics and lack of urgency suggest Project Catalyst as a better fit to refine scope and prove ecosystem relevance. Signed: North American Community Hub

nagamaru_sasa
DRep: f8d68d00...cff7ab43
Apr 30, 2025, 08:13 AM UTC

Hi zkFold team,

Thank you for your proposal. I have a couple of questions to better understand the potential impact and adoption path for Extended Symbolic:

DSL adoption strategy: To maximize the impact of this new Haskell DSL for zero-knowledge smart contracts on Cardano, do you have any plans for collaboration with specific projects or developer communities? How do you envision expanding its adoption within the Cardano ecosystem and beyond?

PlonkUp advantages: Could you explain in more detail what sets PlonkUp apart from other ZKP solutions like Circom, zkSync, or others? Specifically, I’m interested in what makes PlonkUp especially well-suited for Cardano or for certain use cases.

Looking forward to your insights!

sipo
DRep: 53f6a8fa...a117bdb4
Apr 30, 2025, 08:13 AM UTC

I have read with great interest the proposal for the "Extended Symbolic" project. The approach of facilitating smart contract development using zero-knowledge proofs has tremendous potential to enhance Cardano's scalability and efficiency.

I would like to ask a few questions:

  1. Open Source Plans: Will the deliverables of this project be released completely as open source? If so, what license do you plan to adopt?
  2. Practical Use Cases: What specific use cases would become feasible by using this zero-knowledge proof language? We would appreciate examples of applications that might be particularly relevant to the Japanese market.
  3. Educational Programs: Do you have plans for educational programs or workshops to promote the adoption of this tool? Please share details about your support system for developers in non-English speaking regions.

I wish you success with your project and look forward to your response.

yuta
DRep: 94f7bb25...7af35e2c
Apr 30, 2025, 08:13 AM UTC
  1. What are the main KPIs of this project? Are there clearly defined, measurable indicators to objectively assess development progress?

2 .How will the results of "performance benchmarks" and "compatibility tests" be reported? Will they be publicly available?

  1. What are the specific outputs of "Maintenance" and "Advanced optimization," and are there corresponding KPIs or evaluation criteria for each?

  2. Has this proposal been sufficiently socialized within the Cardano community and received broad support? Are community responses via X, Discord, etc., visible and documented?

  3. Do the shared YouTube video and X post contain meaningful feedback or engagement (e.g., retweets, comments)?

  4. Has the proposal received support or collaboration from third parties (e.g., other developers, researchers, dApp teams)? (In particular, Cardano's ZK-related engineers ENCOIN, STARSTREAM, MIDNIGTH, etc.)

  5. Is the zkFold “PlonkUp” backend open-sourced and maintained? Is it reusable and verifiable by external developers?

  6. How does this new Haskell DSL differentiate itself from existing smart contract stacks (e.g., Plutus, Aiken), and how is coexistence envisioned?

gaia
DRep: cc37fee8...c5e00444
Apr 30, 2025, 08:13 AM UTC

Costing is innacurate -

If ADA to USD is 0.74, then USD cost is $299,210

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