Nil Foundation and semiconductor startup Fabric Cryptography are working together to ensure their products are compatible in order to accelerate the deployment of zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs. ZK proofs are a type of cryptographic process that allow one party to prove to another that something is true without revealing any information about the statement itself. These proofs are widely held as one of the most important advances in blockchains due to their privacy-preserving attributes.
The two organizations said in a press release, “The strategic alliance between Fabric and Nil Foundation paves the way for almost unlimited, cost-effective, and high-speed ZKP-dedicated computing power readily available, making them a viable tool for every digital transaction, cloud service, and privacy-sensitive application.” Nil Foundation launched in 2018 as a research collective before morphing into a traditional startup. In January, it raised $22 million to build a marketplace for ZK proofs and has developed a zero-knowledge Low-Level Virtual Machine (zkLLVM). Fabric Cryptography, based in Silicon Valley, is developing a general-purpose processor for “next-gen cryptography,” including ZK proofs, called the Verifiable Processing Unit (VPU).
The zkLLVM software and VPU have been made compatible with each other, such that the zkLLVM software will see “major performance advantages” when running on Fabric’s hardware in order to accelerate the implementation of ZK proofs. This collaboration between Nil Foundation and Fabric Cryptography is a major step forward in the adoption of ZK proofs.