How can blockchains use ZK proofs? 

1.
2.

Scaling 
 
Privacy 

*ZK-EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) projects enable highly scalable blockchains. 

Recent developments 

 
 

Hardware costs are decreasing rapidly. 

Educational materials are proliferating, including 
online courses, tutorials, and books. 

High-level programming languages, 
such as Noir and Leo, are maturing. 

Several ZK-EVM projects*, including ZK Sync, 
Polygon zkEVM, and Scroll are launching. 

a16z crypto 

State of Crypto 

2023 

Trends to Watch: Zero Knowledge Proofs 

21 

The zero knowledge field is gaining momentum 

ZK-related academic publications by year¹ 
 
250 

Github stars for key ZK repositories² 

17,500 

15,000 

12,500 

10,000 

2,500 

0 

200 

150 

100 

50 

0 

6,000 

4,000 

2,000 

0 

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Daily transactions verifying ZK proofs on Ethereum³ 
 
8,000
State-of-Crypto2023