ZKP Vault¶
A knowledge vault covering Zero-Knowledge Proof papers, frameworks, cryptographic primitives, and tooling — from foundational theory to production-ready implementations. Built as an Obsidian notebook and mkDocs site, working toward a blog post on the most important elements of the ZKP ecosystem.
The vault is organized in four ways:
- Resource Index — 63 external resources (papers, blogs, books, docs, code) by type and topic
- The ZK Stack — from foundational theory down to working tools
- Framework Decision Guide — evaluation criteria and framework comparison for e-ID credential proofs
- Encyclopedic Index — every entry, organized by category
Resources Index¶
| Type | Count | Browse |
|---|---|---|
| Papers | 32 | Resources/papers |
| Blogs & Explainers | 9 | Resources/blogs |
| Books | 1 | Resources/books |
| Wikis & Standards | 1 | Resources/wikis |
| Documentation | 13 | Resources/docs |
| Code & Repositories | 7 | Resources/code |
Full index with by-topic view: Resources/README.md.
The ZK Stack¶
| Layer | Contents |
|---|---|
| Theoretical Models | Interactive proofs, ZK families |
| Cryptographic Primitives | Commitments, Sigma protocols |
| Proof Systems | Groth16 → PLONK → STARKs → … |
| Intermediate Repr. | R1CS · AIR · PLONKish · ACIR |
| Tooling & Applications | Noir · Halo2 · RISC Zero · SP1 |
| Resources | Books, blog posts, papers |
| Applications | Real-world use cases |
Framework Decision Guide¶
Evaluation criteria
Framework shortlist
| Framework | Ease | Fast | PQ | Mobile | Maintained | Audited | Sign+Hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noir | Easy | Yes | No | Possible | Yes | No | Yes |
| Circom 2 | Medium | Unclear | No | WASM | Mixed | No | Hash only |
| gnark | Medium | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes (9×) | Yes |
| RISC Zero | Medium | Mixed | Yes | Verifier | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Docknetwork | Medium | Yes | Partial | Yes | Mixed | No | Yes |
| Ligero Prover | Easy | Partial | Yes | WASM | Yes | No | Yes |
| Halo2 | Hard | Unclear | No | Unknown | Some | No | Hash only |
| Spartan | Low-level | Yes | No | Likely | Mixed | No | Yes |
Background reading (recommended order)
- ZK Families Overview — understand the landscape
- Proof Systems — read the system your shortlisted framework is built on
- Intermediate Representations — understand what your circuit compiles to
- Resources — Thaler book for depth, Evolution of ZKPs for history
Encyclopedic Index¶
Theoretical Models¶
- Interactive Proof Model — formal definition of the IP model (Goldwasser–Micali–Rackoff)
- ZK Families Overview — SNARKs / STARKs / Bulletproofs / PLONK / Spartan compared
- ZK Proof Taxonomy — abstraction levels from native sigma protocols to zkVMs
- Schwartz-Zippel Lemma — polynomial identity testing, foundational for many ZKP protocols
Cryptographic Primitives¶
- Pedersen Commitments
- Sigma Protocols (Damgård)
- Sigma Protocols (Proposal)
- Proof Systems for DL
- Camenisch-Michels Safe Primes
- ZKAttest
Proof Systems¶
- GMR85 – Knowledge Complexity · Fiat-Shamir · NIZK (Blum) · Scalable MPC (DI06)
- QSP/GGPR13 · Pinocchio · Groth16 · LegoGroth16
- Ligero · Ligero++ · Bulletproofs · Bulletproofs+
- FRI · zk-STARKs · Hyrax · Libra · Spartan
- Sonic · PLONK · TurboPLONK · HyperPLONK
- plookup · HONK · UltraHONK
- DV Dynamic zk-SNARKs
Intermediate Representations¶
Tooling & Applications¶
| Name | Type | Based on |
|---|---|---|
| Noir | Circuit DSL | ACIR + Barretenberg (UltraHONK) |
| Barretenberg | Library | PLONKish / UltraHONK |
| Circom 2 | Circuit DSL | zk-SNARK / R1CS |
| gnark | Library | Groth16, PLONK |
| Halo2 | Library | UltraPLONK / PLONKish |
| ZoKrates | Circuit DSL | SNARKs (archived) |
| Docknetwork | Library | Bulletproofs, LegoGroth, ZKAttest |
| Ligero Prover | Library | Ligero |
| Spartan Framework | Library | Spartan |
| RISC Zero | zkVM | zk-STARKs |
| SP1 | zkVM | STARK + Groth16 |
| OpenVM | zkVM | Plonky3 / STARK |
| Pico | zkVM | Plonky3 |
| Valida | zkVM | Plonky3 (archived) |
| Powdr | Optimizer | vmLLVM / zkVM |
| Arithmetic Circuits | Concept | — |
| Sumcheck Protocol | Concept | — |
| zkVM | Concept overview | — |
Applications¶
- Applications overview — privacy, scalability, enterprise, gaming use cases (notes not yet written)
Resources¶
See Resources Index above for all 63 entries by type and topic.