I hope we can become the Chainlink of this field, where users do not need to perceive our existence, yet clients can build their technology stacks that seamlessly transition from Web2 to Web3 with our assistance. Vitalik Buterin’s idea of founding Ethereum was sparked by a beloved character from “World of Warcraft” that Blizzard had altered, and it still represents the original intent of this industry: how to effectively break the fear of centralized servers in widely popular high-concurrency applications (such as games).

As he stated in his latest speech at Token2049, there are two wrong paths: either sacrifice usability for decentralization or become an ecosystem that only attracts itself. However, “we are not destined to be trapped in these two choices; we can balance decentralization and usability.”

To achieve this, the entire blockchain industry has undergone significant changes over the past decade, evolving from monolithic blockchains to modular blockchains, from Layer 1 to Layer 2, with increasing TPS and transaction volumes. Yet, we still have not seen true mass adoption, leaving many practitioners in confusion.

Take rollups, for example. Current rollups tend to focus on extreme compatibility with existing blockchain applications while achieving exponential transaction capacity expansion. This seems to balance decentralization and usability. However, with the infrastructure set up, many Layer 2 solutions have become “ghost towns.” Why is that?

One reason is that the underlying assumption of current rollup infrastructure is that the usability and attractiveness of existing blockchains are sufficient to attract Web2-level applications and developers. However, in the 2023 GitHub rankings of programming languages, the popularity of languages like Solidity, Cairo, and Move does not even make it to the first two pages. For users, the fragmentation between various Layer 2 solutions, long finality confirmation waiting times, and centralization issues arising from governance by committees have been widely discussed in the industry, so there’s no need to elaborate further.

Imagine a scenario where developers can use their most familiar programming languages, whether Rust, C++, or Go, to create the games they want, without needing any extra knowledge of cryptography, based on the development logic they already understand. Users would not have to incur additional time and monetary costs to manage their game assets and data, no longer worrying that a centralized entity miles away could wipe out their years of leveling up with just a click or arbitrarily change the rules. How would developers and users choose in such a scenario?

This is not a pipe dream; it’s precisely what the protagonist of this article, Delphinus Lab, along with several other zkVM projects, is working on.

Why zkVM?

“The future of Ethereum will be multi-chain—similar to the multi-chain vision of Cosmos, but with Layer 1 providing data availability and shared security.” —Vitalik Buterin

The future world belongs to multi-chain solutions. Just as every company today has a website, in the future, every company or project will have a dedicated rollup connected to Ethereum (or another decentralized value network). User operations within this project will be packaged and sent to the Ethereum mainnet for verification, with the dedicated rollup ensuring the optimal experience for users, while the Ethereum network will be responsible for overall security, core data storage, and, most crucially, settlement services.

However, as we mentioned earlier, the current multi-chain vision is not friendly to the most mainstream developers and applications in this world. Data shows that Web3 developers account for only about 0.07% of all developers worldwide, and the number of Solidity developers is even smaller. This makes it unlikely to significantly increase the number of developers through zkEVMs competing for existing Solidity developer resources or to attract developers to master a new, steep learning curve language. On the other hand, applications developed using traditional Web2 languages cannot natively run as blockchain-native contracts, which blocks a crucial avenue for scaling on-chain applications.

We need a win-win scaling solution that can both accommodate traditional development environments and seamlessly integrate applications into the current blockchain ecosystem in a trustless manner.

Currently, ZK technology is recognized as the most mainstream approach for integrating programs into blockchains in a trustless manner. However, many people still perceive ZK as “difficult to learn” and “hard to implement.” This is because, in the early days of ZK technology, developers commonly used specialized ZK languages like Cairo and Noir to develop ZK applications, which are actually more challenging for programmers to utilize flexibly compared to blockchain development languages like Solidity.

With the rapid development of ZK technology in recent years, this problem has gradually been tackled, and developing a general-purpose zkVM is no longer an unattainable dream. In 2022, Delphinus Lab released the first open-source zkVM supporting WASM, marking a critical step in their efforts to achieve trustless integration of applications. Readers can refer to the paper titled “ZAWA: A ZKSNARK WASM Emulator” by Sinka Gao and his colleagues published in IEEE for technical details. As stated in this paper, “…we proposed and implemented the first ZKSNARK Wasm virtual machine that supports the Wasm specification, capable of generating concise zero-knowledge proofs of correctness for execution results. Additionally, by providing ZAWA, existing programs compiled to Wasm can meet the emerging privacy and trust requirements in cloud computing and edge computing without any modifications.”

For readers unfamiliar with what Wasm is, it is a bytecode supported by major mainstream web browsers. It provides an efficient compilation target for source languages such as C, C++, and Rust, which can be compiled into your browser to run at near-native speed on your CPU. In 2019, it was officially accepted as the fourth new web standard by the W3C, possessing significant revolutionary performance potential.

As for what zkWASM is, we recommend reading the Ultimate Guide to zkWASM by Sandeep, co-founder of Polygon. In this blog post, Sandeep boldly asserts that zkWASM combines the flexibility of traditional programming with privacy-focused zero-knowledge proofs, bringing new use cases to decentralized technology while ensuring robust security, privacy, and interoperability. It has the potential to disrupt the blockchain industry.

Why does Sandeep make such a claim? First, Wasm, as a binary instruction format, was originally designed to be portable and high-performance, supporting almost all programming languages you can think of, including C++, Rust, Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, Ruby, Swift, and more. Since nearly all web browsers have built-in Wasm interpreters, this means developers can choose the most suitable language based on their preferences and project needs, enhancing development efficiency and code quality. With the addition of ZK technology, zkWASM becomes even more powerful. Developers can write privacy applications in their preferred programming languages without any prior knowledge of zero-knowledge proofs. It can be said that zkWASM offers a combination of security, scalability, interoperability, and privacy protection. It not only addresses the issues of blockchain and dApps but also accelerates the implementation of ZK-ML and on-chain ML, representing an ideal “strong synergy.”

Stay optimistic, but not blindly so.

Due to the rapid progress of zkVMs in recent years, some optimists in the zkVM space, like Bobbin Threadbare from Polygon Miden, even believe that:

“The optimal solution under the current circumstances is to build a zkVM based on WASM or RISC-V, ideally supporting languages like Rust, Go, C++, and even Solidity. If such a general-purpose zkVM exists, it would be a dimensionality reduction attack on zkEVMs.”

However, as the creator of the zkWASM open-source virtual machine, Delphinus Lab takes a more cautious approach. In their envisioned roadmap from 2022, although zkWASM is the most critical adhesive in the overall strategy, it is far from sufficient to support the grand blueprint of “trustlessly linking Web2 applications to Web3.” The reason lies in the following formula:

“Developer Willingness = Economic Incentives Tool Maturity Reusable Code Volume” – Sinka Gao, Founder of Delphinus Lab

From the right side of the formula, we can see that a general virtual machine does not hold significant weight in driving developer willingness. Just as the Linux kernel requires strong devices, drivers, and POSIX APIs to demonstrate its value, zkVMs must not only be robust themselves but also leverage mature platforms, a rich community codebase, and established economic effects to achieve a positive cycle of business and technology.

For readers seeking further understanding of zkVMs, they will find that, apart from Delphinus Lab’s zkWASM, many other top-tier teams and solutions are active in this space, such as RISC-ZERO, Succinct’s SP1, Valida, and Nexus (which has adopted Jolt in version 2.0). Currently, the primary competitive metric for these virtual machines is the number of instructions that can be proven in a given time frame. For example, RISC-ZERO’s performance data from mid-2024 indicates that it can prove one million RiscV instructions on a GPU 4090 in about 10 to 12 seconds. Meanwhile, Delphinus Lab is also making ongoing efforts to optimize the performance of zkWASM. Currently, zkWASM supports a 64-bit instruction set, requiring 15 seconds to prove one million instructions on a GPU 4090, consuming 64GB of memory.

2024 Electric Capital ZK Market Map: Core Infrastructure

But can performance determine everything? We can return to the annual rankings of programming languages on GitHub, where the top three languages—JavaScript, Python, and Java—are precisely the scripting languages with the lowest performance.

Performance is merely an “enabling” metric for digital infrastructure; it is not a deciding factor, nor should it be distorted into an end goal, leading to an arms race disconnected from practical use cases. Our original intention has always been to create more incremental killer applications. If we predict that the “enabling” issues will eventually be resolved, then the performance of ZK backends (such as STARK, GKR, Jolt, KZG + folding, etc.) will ultimately align with Moore’s Law through engineering and hardware optimization. So, aside from performance, what else remains on the right side of the equation?

As Charlie Munger said, we need to fish where the fish are plentiful. For the mass adoption of Web3, this “plentiful fishing ground” will be the browser. At this stage, we cannot definitively say which zkVM will emerge victorious, or whether a multitude of solutions will flourish. However, Delphinus Lab believes that Web3 adoption will still begin with mini-programs, and the browser is the heavyweight origin of these mini-programs. Whether it’s the initial browser version of ChatGPT or various CMS platforms like Shopify and WordPress that are first available in browsers, the web is indeed the only true universal platform accessible on any device. Moreover, web applications are constantly evolving, from once-simple functions like searching and emailing to now supporting games, video editing, music production, and more.

WASM was specifically designed for browsers. Some researchers have likened WASM to a magic engine, enabling immediate execution of web applications anywhere with just one click, without the need for downloading or installation. zkWASM inherits this advantage, allowing users to interact with these applications in the browser just as they would with ordinary applications, without requiring any special hardware or software.

There can only be economic benefits where there are use cases and users. What zkWASM aims to solve is the “last-mile” problem for countless small and medium-sized Web2 applications seeking to step into the Web3 world. Compared to traditional JavaScript, WASM offers the capability to run efficiently in browsers, unlocking the potential to bring many other applications to browser terminals. zkWASM will further facilitate the entry of these applications into the Web3 realm, serving as a catalyst for the large-scale adoption of Web3.

Delphinus Lab Roadmap

A Vision for Collaborative Ecosystems

“I hope we can become the Chainlink of this field, where users don’t need to be aware of our presence, but clients can build their own technology stacks seamlessly transitioning from Web2 to Web3 with our help.” \
— Sinka Gao, Founder of Delphinus Lab

When technology moves from the lab to the market, simply discussing the technology is not enough. The ability to engineer technology into usable products, along with strategic ecosystem approaches, will play a significant role in determining the success or failure of that technology.

From the outset, Delphinus Lab has taken a pragmatic approach focused on wholeheartedly serving small and medium-sized clients. In its collaboration with Blade Games, Delphinus Labs not only helped introduce zkWASM for validating their tower defense game but also co-developed the industry’s first solution that allows verifiable games to be created directly from Unity. Game developers can use the familiar C# programming language instead of Solidity, Rust, or Cairo, eliminating the need for time-consuming and labor-intensive efforts to unify the rendering and animation of the Unity engine with the Solidity/Cairo game logic code based on Mud/Dojo.

Using this collaborative development solution as a foundation, Blade Games and several game studios have developed multiple verifiable on-chain games, such as Dune Factory, Craftpunk, and the recently beta-tested strategic game 0xPioneer. This makes them the first in the industry to leverage a modular ZK technology stack to create a fully on-chain game engine infrastructure.

The collaboration with MineMatrix is similar. The industry has long struggled with the issue of most airdrop benefits being claimed by bots, leaving real users with minimal rewards. Based on zkWASM technology, MineMatrix has developed a digital game template that allows users to prove their authenticity by solving engaging NP-hard problems without revealing their identity, thus ensuring fair distribution of airdrops. This template is entirely flexible and open, enabling projects to adjust storylines, modify game mechanics, or integrate NFTs according to their style or needs. The zkWASM-based mechanism provides clients with ready-to-use solutions at any time.

This has always been Delphinus Lab’s positioning. In addition to bringing Web2 developers into Web3 to build verifiable applications, it is even more important to empower the ecosystem. “I hope that our clients can develop their own technology stacks with our assistance, rather than turning us into their sole technological dependency,” says Sinka Gao.

In contrast, many other players in the industry focus on high-profile projects but often fall into the common trap of traditional B2B service companies, exemplified by the notion of “big companies, small projects.” It’s similar to how numerous financial IT firms list large state-owned banks as their clients, yet they might only be assisting in transforming the internal OA systems. On the other hand, when collaborating with small and medium-sized clients, they often take an overly comprehensive approach, providing only packaged solutions, which does not allow these clients to grow their capabilities.

Sharing capabilities is one aspect, but sharing profits is a much harder challenge. The relationship between Delphinus Lab and its validators is one of mutual benefit, rather than a simple vendor-client relationship. Take the collaboration among Delphinus Lab, zkCross, and Gevolut Network as an example. On the intuitive ZKCross Playground platform, developers can write code online, compile it into zkWasm-compatible bytecode, sign it with their private keys, and then upload it to a ZKCross node. The node handles the remaining tasks, such as proof storage, and stores the transaction and proof in the data availability (DA) layer of a modular blockchain (such as Avail), while also forwarding the generated proof to Gevolut Network.

Throughout this process, anyone can run a node and share in the validation rewards, as well as potential future airdrop incentives. Since June of this year, Delphinus Lab has opened node operation permissions to third parties. Anyone interested in becoming an external zkWASM node can join and earn a 3% reward incentive during the testing period.

There are many similar win-win collaborations, such as the joint release of the zkGo compiler with ETH Storage and Hyper Protocol, which marks the first time in the industry that conventional Go code has been compiled into ZK protocol-compatible Wasm code. Additionally, there’s the partnership with Pi Squared to integrate zkWASM proofs with its Universal Settlement Layer (USL), and collaboration with the open-source development tool Spin to assist its users in building and running verifiable applications using zkWASM.

Delphinus Lab also takes into account the perspectives of all participants in the industry, considering how each link in the value chain can derive reasonable rewards to promote healthy development. For example, in the gaming industry, they shared insights in a previously published article titled The Dilemma and Solutions of Web3 Gaming. They proposed constructing application rollup chains through a mini-rollup SDK, offering a one-click lending platform to allow users to borrow in-game tokens, thereby addressing the challenges of initial funding for game users. This approach also serves effectively as a native cross-chain bridge for game assets, enabling part of the value generated from game derivatives to be captured by the game itself.

At this stage, Web3 entrepreneurs need to focus not on how to divide a limited pie, but on how to make the pie bigger together. Only when the gates are wide enough and the paths are clear will a large number of developers and users be able to enter. With a continuous inflow of new participants, Web3 can avoid the trap of becoming an insular echo chamber or falling into the pitfalls of crypto nihilism.

Many believe that the current crypto cycle is a cycle of nothingness, with the market reduced to a game of rises and falls dependent on U.S. stocks. However, genuine foundational innovations are emerging at the margins, away from public scrutiny. As Vitalik stated, “We are not in the early stages of the cryptocurrency industry, but rather in the early stages of truly usable cryptocurrency.” The real builders in this industry should confidently predict that the market will eventually return to an “application cycle” characterized by real revenue, genuine monopolies, and authentic use cases. As Sinka hopes, within the next five years, zkWASM will prove itself to be a project capable of sustainable economic circulation, helping Web2 applications make that critical leap into Web3 and becoming a crucial driving force in the industry’s growth flywheel.

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