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.

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.

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.

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

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$

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

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

We have included maintenance costs into the projects´s budget

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

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