Aligned Layer

ZK Industry News: March 27th to April 2nd, 2025

✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨ We're bringing you industry highlights each week so you can stay aligned with the latest developments in ZK. Here's what happened from March 27th to April 2nd, 2025. Ingonyama published a new blog post about Hardware-friendliness of HyperPlonk The article is an extension

Aligned Monthly Recap - March '2025

The past month has been busy and exciting — check out this thread for a recap of our highlights! ✅ Aligned by Numbers. ✅ Educational content and blog posts. ✅ Events. ✅ Alignment Sessions. ✅ Community Calls. ✅ Aligned by Numbers: Brief summary Learn about our partnerships, operators, number of verified proofs, details about the Aligned Builders

What is a zkVM and why should you care about them?

You've probably heard the term zkVM buzzing around lately, especially in the context of ZK-rollups and scaling Ethereum. This guide is meant to demystify them so you can understand what they are, how they work (at a high level), why you should care about them, and what

ZK Industry News: March 20th to 26th, 2025

✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨ We're bringing you industry highlights each week so you can stay aligned with the latest developments in ZK. Here's what happened from March 20th to 26th, 2025. StarkWare published an article outlining the importance of incentivized integrity and public verifiability in the development of

Alternatives to re-execution

The goal of blockchains Blockchain technology has emerged to provide a decentralized and secure way to record and verify transactions across a distributed network of participants. The main objective is to eliminate the need for intermediaries, by enabling peer-to-peer transactions. This is achieved through cryptographic techniques that ensure

Neutral, standardized benchmarking of zkVM proving times

Zero-knowledge virtual machines (zkVMs) are virtual machines that let you write and execute code in common languages like Rust or C and generate proofs demonstrating the integrity of computations. This makes building with ZK much more accessible to developers, and is a key part of Ethereum’s scaling roadmap.

ZK Industry News: March 13th to 19th, 2025

✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨ We're bringing you industry highlights each week so you can stay aligned with the latest developments in ZK. Here's what happened from March 13th to 19th, 2025. Ingonyama released ICICLE-Snark, offering enhanced performance for ZK applications ICICLE-Snark outperforms other implementations in Groth16

Bridge Over Troubled Fiats: Zk-Setu On & Off Ramp Solution Cuts Out the Middleman

Bridging fiat and crypto can often feel like navigating a maze of intermediaries, hidden fees, and potential censorship. Zk-Setu, a project built by Gautam, Shivansh & Ayush for the Aligned hackathon, breaks through these barriers by offering a trustless, zero-knowledge-proof-based P2P escrow platform for fiat-to-

Hackathon Spotlight Vol. 04: Vote Like No One’s Watching: AGYSO ZK-DAO-VOTE Privacy-Preserving DAO Voting

On-chain voting has always promised transparency—but what happens when that transparency undermines privacy? Bribery, social pressure, and herd behavior can distort results, making DAOs less democratic than intended. AGYSO ZK-DAO-VOTE sets out to change that, offering a protocol that keeps votes secret while ensuring every vote

ZK Industry News: March 7th to 12th, 2025

✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨ We're bringing you industry highlights each week so you can stay aligned with the latest developments in ZK. Here's what happened from March 7th to 12th, 2025. Starknet posted its vision & plan to become the first Layer 2 to settle on both Bitcoin

ZK Industry News: February 24th to March 6th, 2025

✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨ We're bringing you industry highlights each week so you can stay aligned with the latest developments in ZK. Here's what happened from February 24th to March 6th, 2025. Starknet v0.13.4 is now live on Starknet Testnet This version includes Cairo Native, a

Aligned Monthly Recap - February '2025

The last month has been full of exciting updates for Aligned! Check out this thread for a recap of our highlights! ✅ Educational content and blog posts. ✅ Alignment Sessions. ✅ Podcasts. ✅ Community Calls. ✅ Educational content We posted a major thread promoting educational content, focusing on advanced blockchain topics like SNARKs and the

ZK Industry News: February 17th to 23rd, 2025

✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨ We're bringing you industry highlights each week so you can stay aligned with the latest developments in ZK. Here's what happened from February 17th to 23rd, 2025. Justin Drake and Federico Carrone discussed Ethereum's Native Rollup Roadmap on The Rollup Podcast The

ZK Industry News: February 10th to 16th, 2025

✨ ZK-Newsflash! ✨ We're bringing you industry highlights each week so you can stay aligned with the latest developments in ZK. Here's what happened from February 10th to 16th, 2025. Brevis introduces Pico: A Modular and Performant zkVM It outperforms RISC0, SP1, and OpenVM by 70%–150%

Hackathon Spotlight Vol. 03: Building Trust in Vector Spaces with Verifiable Nearest-Neighbor Search

How can we be sure that a vector database returns the truly best match? This hackathon project by Erhan uses verifiable computation and zero-knowledge proofs to mathematically guarantee the accuracy of nearest neighbor searches, enabling more transparent and trustworthy AI-powered applications. The Semantic Revolution Semantic generally refers to

Aligned Hackathon Spotlight Vol. 02: Spectre ZK Light Client Re-implementation and Integration with Aligned

Welcome to the second post in our series showcasing the winners of the inaugural Aligned Builders Hackathon. Each article will highlight innovative use cases for ZK technology enabled by Aligned's Proof Verification Layer. You can see the first post, which discusses ZK use cases in gaming, here. Aligned

Aligned Mainnet Beta Sürümü

2024’ün Aralık ayında, 9 aylık geliştirme sürecinin ardından Aligned'ın ZK doğrulama katmanının artık Ethereum mainnet üzerinde beta aşamasında olduğunu duyurduk. Bu gelişmenin ne anlama geldiğini açıklamak üzere, Türkçe bir yazıyla karşınızdayız. Mainnet beta sürümü, geliştiricilerin artık Ethereum üzerinde ZK kanıtlarını %10’dan daha düşük bir maliyetle doğrulayabileceği

Aligned Hackathon Spotlight Vol. 01: A Framework for ZK Gaming

Welcome to the first post in a series showcasing the winners of the inaugural Aligned Builders Hackathon. Each article will highlight innovative use cases for ZK technology enabled by Aligned's Proof Verification Layer. The hackathon projects ranged from ZK-enabled games and private voting apps to light client

Aligned $ALIGN Token Ekonomisi ve Yol Haritası

Aligned, Proof Verification Layer mainnet beta aşamasına, kurulduktan dokuz ay sonra ulaştı. Proof Verification Layer (kanıt doğrulama katmanı), projelere ve kullanıcılara hızlı ve uygun maliyetli zk-proof doğrulaması sunarak sıfır bilgi (zk) tabanlı teknolojilerin geliştirilmesi ve benimsenmesi için önemli bir adımı temsil ediyor. Aligned Foundation, Aligned’ın yol haritasını hızlandırmak

2024 BY NUMBERS: THE ALIGNED RECAP

We’re proud to reflect on a transformative year for Aligned. Here's what we have achieved over the past year working to help a foundation for a scalable, trustless proof verification. Aligned accelerates Ethereum’s roadmap with zero-knowledge technology, enabling proof verification at just 10% of the

Design Strategies: How to Construct A Hashing Mode?

Recap In our previous blog, we explored the fundamental properties of cryptographic hash functions (CHFs) and discussed their crucial role in maintaining the integrity and security of data with 3MI Labs. In this post, we delve into the architectural strategies behind hash functions. These strategies, or modes of operation, are

The Aligned Foundation pledges 1.5% of $ALIGN to Protocol Guild

We are excited to announce that the Aligned Foundation has pledged 1.5% of the $ALIGN token supply to the Protocol Guild.  With this pledge, we affirm our commitment to Ethereum and to supporting the ecosystem’s continued development and long-term sustainability. 📣We invite you to join us for

The Alignment tide isn’t stopping: fourth wave of Alignment

It’s been a few weeks since we released the mainnet beta of our Proof Verification Layer, allowing users and developers to benefit from lower verification costs on Ethereum. After 9 months of work, testnets, audits, improvements to telemetry and reliability, the Aligned Foundation wants to thank the community and

Alignment Eligibility: The First Three Waves

We announced the mainnet beta of our Proof Verification Layer two weeks ago, after nearly 9 months of hard work that included its conceptualization, design, proof of concept, testnets, and extensive security audits. This was only made possible with the support of the community and all the developers, engineers, and

Now live on Ethereum: Aligned Mainnet Beta

After 9 months of development we are happy to announce that Aligned's ZK verification layer is now in beta on Ethereum mainnet. This means that developers can now verify ZK proofs on Ethereum for less than 10% of the cost and that they can submit thousands of proofs

Announcing The Aligned Builders Hackathon Results

We’re thrilled to officially announce the winners of the Aligned Builders Hackathon! The incredible talent and dedication of all participants made this an event to remember, showcasing the potential unlocked by ZKPs and blockchain technologies through the power of new zkVMs, overcoming bottlenecks with fast and cost-efficient verification

Introduction: Hash functions in Cryptography

Cryptographic Hash Functions (CHF) are fundamental to securing the digital world. From protecting passwords to enabling blockchain and zero-knowledge (ZK) systems, CHFs play a crucial role in ensuring the integrity, security, and privacy of data. This blog is the first in a series where we’ll explore the world

A Series On Hash Functions

The development and use of integrity/zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs has accelerated over the past few years. The introduction of general purpose ZK virtual machines, which allow us to write and prove Rust code, has made developing verifiable applications easier and faster. We have blockchains like Mina that prove every

Reflections on the first Aligned Builders Hackathon

What an incredible journey it’s been! The first Aligned Builders Hackathon has officially come to a close, and we’re beyond impressed by the talent and commitment from all our participants. From experienced developers to first-timers diving into ZK proofs and Rust, every team brought something unique to

Aligned Builders Hackathon: Judging Criteria and Submission Instructions

The inaugural Aligned Builders Hackathon is in its closing stretch, with over 250 hackers actively collaborating and innovating within our community. Over the last four weeks we have watched these projects come together and we’re eager to see what our participants will deliver. This hackathon is the first phase