zkFold submitted a winning build in the zero-knowledge proof track of the Cardano EMURGO BUILD 2023 Hackathon.
Throughout this months-long Cardano blockchain hackathon, EMURGO received more than 100 submissions from participants building in one of the following three tracks: derivatives (DeFi), aggregators, and zero-knowledge proofs (ZK). Three winners were announced for each developer track.
In this Q&A as part of the Hackathon winner series, we talk with zkFold about the concept behind their project, thoughts on the largest ever Cardano hackathon, and their plans to use the prize to develop their project further for the Cardano ecosystem.
What was the idea behind zkFold?
zkFold: Our founder Vladimir has extensive experience developing on Cardano. After launching a previous startup on Cardano, he noticed how to add more value to the ecosystem and decided to launch a zero-knowledge scalability project on Cardano. The idea of zkFold came up naturally. We have a great team of talented developers and decided to prove our ability to build something useful and work together as a team. As a result, our participation in the Cardano EMURGO BUILD 2023 Hackathon was a great chance for us to showcase the value of our project.
What was the process for building zkFold for the two-month Cardano hackathon?
zkFold: Initially, we built a high-level plan for the final zkFold product. In the next step, we broke down epics into tasks, assigned them to our team members, and started building in an Agile model. This process identified areas we knew very well and those we needed to be better equipped with. So, that was a process of using our existing knowledge and learning at the same time. Now, we are pretty sure zkFold has all the skills required for our next milestone, zkWrapper.
How did the Cardano EMURGO BUILD 2023 Hackathon help zkFold?
zkFold: The Cardano EMURGO hackathon was a great chance for us to gauge two points.
First, we wanted to see if the team could work together while possessing the knowledge and skills required to build our project.
Second, it was super important for us to hear Cardano community feedback. The fact that we are here today proves that we are building a well-desired product for the community that will improve the Cardano ecosystem. We are thankful for all the feedback we have received.
How does zkFold add value to the Cardano ecosystem?
zkFold: zkFold is all about scaling Cardano with zero-knowledge proofs. With zkWrapper, we expand the capabilities of Cardano layer-one, making complex smart contracts possible and economically viable. Our main product, zkFold, will add zk-rollups as a layer-two (L2) scalability solution in the future. It will massively decrease transaction costs and increase transaction throughput.
Read more: Q&A with STAND (Cardano EMURGO BUILD 2023 Hackathon)
How does the zkFold project plan to use the awards to support the Cardano ecosystem? What are the next steps for your project?
zkFold: We have several important roadmap milestones that people are aware of. The grants and investments will be fully used on the product development according to our roadmap. The next steps for our project are to finalize the zkWrapper protocol, come up with a detailed development plan, and start building our first product. We are also participating in Cardano’s Project Catalyst’s Fund10 and we believe our proposal will be interesting for the Cardano community.
How can people learn more about zkFold?
zkFold: We suggest checking our zkFold proposal on the Project Catalyst (https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/104032) first. We describe all the details over there. On top of that, for any other questions please feel free to visit wrapper.zkfold.io for more information.
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