ZK Research

Written during Maya ZK (closed January 2026). Hosted here so it doesn't get lost forever.

PlonK Deconstructed

An 11-part deep dive into the PlonK zero-knowledge proof protocol by Benjamin Bencik.

Mar 13, 2024

Overview

Introduction to SNARKs, zero-knowledge, and how PlonK works at a high level.

Mar 13, 2024

Arithmetization

Converting programs into polynomials through circuit arithmetization.

Mar 13, 2024

Math Toolkit for KZG

Mathematical background needed for KZG commitment schemes.

Mar 13, 2024

Polynomial Commitment Scheme

Understanding commitment schemes in general and the KZG polynomial commitment in detail.

Mar 13, 2024

Setup

Constructing polynomials from circuit values and computing the protocol setup.

Mar 13, 2024

Round 1

Wire polynomials, commitments, and hiding evaluations for zero-knowledge.

Mar 13, 2024

Round 2

The permutation polynomial and handling copy constraints.

Mar 13, 2024

Round 3

Combining constraints into a single polynomial.

Mar 13, 2024

Round 4

Computing openings to evaluate committed polynomials with a linearisation trick.

Mar 13, 2024

Round 5

Constructing the final argument in the prover algorithm.

Mar 13, 2024

Verification

The verification algorithm of the PlonK protocol.

Standalone Articles

Mar 11, 2024

Benchmarking GPU Acceleration for ZK-SNARKs

by Mohamed Amine Kthiri

Benchmarking the Icicle library for GPU acceleration of ZK primitives with Gnark on multiple GPUs.

Mar 4, 2024

A Brief Summary of Proof Aggregation

by Tomas Krnak

A survey of proof aggregation techniques: inner product arguments, recursive SNARKs, folding, and recursive STARKs.

📄 Halo2 Prover Acceleration

by Vladimir Marcin, Zhao Huang, Tibor Tribus & Giuseppe

GPU-accelerated Halo2 prover research paper.