3 German computer scientists bringing scalability to Bitcoin using zk-proofs

The three German scientists formed ZeroSync Association to bring Zero-Knowledge Proofs to Bitcoin.
The association has received sponsorship from Geometry Reaserch and StarkWare Industries.
Geometry Reaserch is a crypto investment firm while StarkWare Industries is the software company behind StarkNet.

Bitcoin currently uses the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism which in a way limits its scalability. Its rival blockchain Ethereum also used PoW but changed to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism through the Merge Upgrade.

Three German computer scientists have created a Swiss non-profit association called ZeroSync Association to help bring scalability to Bitcoin using zero-knowledge proofs (zk-proofs), a cryptographic technique whose popularity on Ethereum has surged considerably.

What is Zero-knowledge Proofs?

Zero-knowledge Proofs, commonly referred to as zk-proofs, is a cryptographic technique that uses cryptography to prove the validity of information revealing the information to the public.

By deploying kz-proofs on Bitcoin means nodes will be able to sync almost instantly compared to hours and sometimes days that it takes to download the chain’s current 500GB data.

ZeroSync Association already has a working prototype

At the moment, ZeroSync has already developed a working prototype that allows users to validate who owns what and the transaction history on Bitcoin without having to download the entire chain or using a third party.

The prototype can however only verify Bitcoin consensus rules but not transaction signatures. The prototype is also a bit chunky and still needs to be optimized for security and speed.

When fully deployed on Bitcoin ZeroSync will allow verification of transaction of Bitcoin using cryptographic proof instead of trusting honest nodes as suggested by the Bitcoin founder Satoshi.