• Three German computer scientists form ZeroSync Association to bring Zero-Knowledge Proofs to Bitcoin.
• The association receives sponsorship from Geometry Reaserch and StarkWare Industries.
• Geometry Reaserch is a crypto investment firm while StarkWare Industries is the software company behind StarkNet.

A trio of German computer scientists has established a Swiss non-profit association in order to introduce scalability to Bitcoin using zero-knowledge proofs (zk-proofs), a cryptographic technique that is becoming increasingly popular on Ethereum. Bitcoin currently depends on proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, which has a few limitations when it comes to scalability. Ethereum, on the other hand, switched to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism via the Merge Upgrade.

What are Zero-knowledge Proofs?

Zero-knowledge Proofs, also known as zk-proofs, is a cryptographic technique that uses cryptography to demonstrate the validity of information without revealing the data to the public.

By using zk-proofs on Bitcoin, nodes can sync almost instantly instead of taking hours or days to download the current 500GB blockchain data.

The ZeroSync Association Already Has a Working Prototype

ZeroSync has already created a prototype that allows users to validate who owns what and the transaction history on Bitcoin without downloading the entire chain or relying on a third party. The prototype can check Bitcoin consensus rules but not transaction signatures. It also needs to be optimized for better security and speed.

Once in operation, ZeroSync will enable the verification of Bitcoin transactions through cryptographic proof rather than trusting nodes, an idea proposed by Bitcoin founder Satoshi.