Why Aligned is building on Ethereum
Ethereum is becoming the backbone of a new global financial system—open, programmable, and secured by cryptography instead of institutions. For the past year, our focus has been on accelerating Ethereum’s roadmap by making Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proof verification cheaper, faster, and more scalable. By building essential infrastructure—like our Proof Verification Layer—we are working to help scale Ethereum and empower developers to use the latest ZK technologies.
We believe Ethereum is the best platform ever created for high-value, trustless applications. And more importantly, we’re not alone. Developers, institutions, and protocols around the world are converging on Ethereum as the settlement layer for decentralized financial services and products.
What is Ethereum?
Ethereum is more than a blockchain. It’s a decentralized computing platform that allows anyone to write and deploy smart contracts—programs that move and manage digital assets automatically according to pre-set rules. It’s secured by a global network of over one million validator nodes who stake more than 34 million ETH (over $86 billion) to maintain consensus and economically secure the network (Figure 1).
This level of economic security and operational decentralization is unmatched. Ethereum achieves reliability not just through geographic distribution, but also through a diverse set of software clients that ensure no single bug can bring the network down. It has operated continuously since launch, evolving through 16 successful upgrades with zero downtime.
Why does decentralization matter? Because it provides the security to ensure no central party can control, censor, or manipulate what happens on the network. This commitment to decentralization means Ethereum is uniquely suited for building trustless systems where value can move freely and reliably—without banks, intermediaries, or fragile infrastructure. While centralized blockchains operated by companies may achieve higher performance in the short term, trading decentralization for performance introduces significant counterparty risks for ecosystem participants.
Ethereum replaces institutional trust with cryptographic verification and transparent, immutable code. It provides a powerful coordination mechanism for humanity to make and keep commitments. That’s why developers choose it to build financial tools, marketplaces, and services that need to be tamper-proof and auditable by design.
With this foundation, we can build systems that allow you to transact with other parties without any intermediaries, and without even needing to trust your counterparty. While the traditional financial system faces a crisis of trust, Ethereum enables the seamless transfer of value in the same way that the internet facilitates the movement of information.
Why Ethereum?
By refusing to compromise on security or reliability, Ethereum is positioned as an ideal candidate to act as the global settlement layer for the next generation of financial products and services.
With the highest number of developers and most mature tooling of any blockchain platform, Ethereum stands as the most widely-adopted blockchain for decentralized applications. The broad network effects and ongoing innovation within the Ethereum ecosystem ensure its ongoing dominance as an open and permissionless global platform.
This has been made possible through a dedicated international R&D and entrepreneurial community which continues to push the technical boundaries of security, scalability, performance, and usability.
The result of these qualities is our belief that Ethereum is and will continue to be the best base layer for building the most important global financial applications, a belief which is echoed by the many institutions and organizations adopting Ethereum for use cases that demand the utmost security and reliability.
Institutions are choosing Ethereum to secure assets on a global scale
Ethereum has achieved substantial institutional adoption, establishing its position as the leading blockchain for enterprise use cases that require the utmost reliability and stability. Stablecoins, fiat-denominated tokens which are transforming the landscape of cross-border transactions and markets, are extensively deployed on Ethereum. As of today, Ethereum hosts the greatest share of the global stablecoin market, valued at approximately $240 billion (Figures 2, 3). Adoption continues to grow, with over $800 billion worth of stablecoin transactions settled on Ethereum each month.
Global financial institutions have recognized Ethereum’s reliability and have begun to extensively integrate its technology. Major firms like Blackrock, Fidelity, PayPal, and JPMorgan have launched Ethereum-based projects, including stablecoins and institutional-grade financial products. Crypto exchanges such as Coinbase and Kraken have launched their own Ethereum-based Layer-2 blockchain solutions, further entrenching Ethereum's role as the backbone of digital finance.
This momentum extends to the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) on Ethereum, including real estate, corporate bonds, and commodities. A reflection of its growing legitimacy and utility in traditional finance, leading asset managers and financial service providers are actively exploring or implementing Ethereum-based solutions to build the next generation of capital markets infrastructure.
We expect these adoption trends to continue, supported by technological improvements to the network, growing familiarity with these systems, and initiatives like the Ethereum Foundation’s Trillion Dollar Security initiative, an ambitious ecosystem-wide effort to help bring the world onchain.
Ethereum’s ecosystem and culture: a foundation for long term success and sustainability
Ethereum’s global community and culture extends its value beyond its current technical and economic properties. Among blockchains, it hosts the greatest number of developers and has the most mature set of developer tooling. This contributes to Ethereum being home to the largest and most diverse set of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, including market leaders like Uniswap, Compound, Sky (formerly known as MakerDAO), and Aave, which collectively process billions of dollars worth of digital assets each week—innovations made possible because Ethereum provided the infrastructure and culture to support them.
Ethereum has proven it can evolve without compromising its principles. Upgrades like EIP-1559 (which made fees more predictable) and the Merge (which transitioned Ethereum to Proof-of-Stake, cutting energy use by over 99%) show its ability to lead technologically while remaining decentralized and live in production.
With such robust economic and social layers, Ethereum has a clear path forward to support global adoption, and is likely to continue being the best place for developers to build and operate high-value applications for their users.
Scalability, zero-knowledge proofs, and the future of Ethereum
The ongoing development and adoption of Layer-2 solutions are transforming Ethereum into a platform capable of eventually supporting the transaction throughput needed on a global scale. Rollups significantly increase Ethereum’s throughput to hundreds of transactions per second while maintaining Ethereum's foundational security guarantees (Figure 4).
While optimistic rollups like Arbitrum and Optimism have provided early validation of the horizontal scaling strategy chosen by Ethereum, more recent advances in ZK represent a major unlock for Ethereum’s future and are ushering in a future dominated by ZK-rollups. Beyond scaling execution through ZK-rollups, ZK is also a key technology in the next evolution of Ethereum’s consensus design.
Aligned specifically focuses on advancing Ethereum through Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), a groundbreaking cryptographic innovation. ZKPs enable efficient and private validation of transactions without revealing sensitive data, making Ethereum not only more scalable but also enhancing user privacy—a crucial factor for institutional and mainstream adoption.
Our first product, the Proof Verification Layer, solves the bottleneck of high proof verification costs for Ethereum, allowing Ethereum to support a greater number and diversity of applications. We are now expanding our offerings to include an all-new ZK-rollup stack along with all the additional tooling developers need to access the trust and security provided by Ethereum.
Our Commitment to Ethereum
Aligned’s strategic focus on Ethereum is driven by a deep understanding of its network effects, advanced technology, and ecosystem strength. Our dedication to building solutions for developers to access Ethereum’s trust extends beyond our own products, and we are proud to support core protocol development through initiatives like us pledging 1.5% of the $ALIGN token supply to the Protocol Guild.
Ethereum’s robust infrastructure, continuous innovation, institutional adoption, and strong social layer collectively provide an unparalleled foundation for the future of finance and beyond. By investing in Ethereum, we are not merely betting on a blockchain—we are committed to shaping a transparent, decentralized future that can sustainably scale to billions of users worldwide.
Ethereum is not just a promising technology; it is the inevitable core engine of the decentralized digital economy. Aligned is proud to contribute actively to this transformational journey, driving Ethereum’s growth, security, and adoption as the definitive global financial platform.
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