In June, Polygon Labs announced the acquisition of Toposware, reinforcing its commitment to leading the next wave of ZK technology. The Toposware team has been successfully integrated with Polygon Labs’ existing ZK development teams, driving innovation across key areas such as the AggLayer, Polygon CDK, Polygon zkEVM, and, with community approval, an upgrade of Polygon PoS to a ZK validium. This integration combines their collective ZK expertise to further advance Polygon technology. With the integration now complete, we will archive this channel.

For more:
Check out the blog: https://polygon.technology/blog
Follow Polygon Labs on X/Twitter: https://x.com/0xPolygon
Join the Polygon R&D Server: A place for the developers to stay up date on the research and development of AggLayer and related innovations, Including CDK and Miden: https://discord.com/invite/0xpolygonRnD
Join the General Polygon Discord Server: A place for the community to stay up to date on the most recent Polygon developments and engage in AMAs, Game Nights and DeFi Showcases: https://discord.gg/0xpolygoncommunity

In the dynamic landscape of Web3, ZK-EVMs emerge as a sophisticated tool designed to implement the Ethereum Virtual Machine specification, this is what we will unpack in this post. Toposware has been collaborating with Polygon to build the most cost-effective implementation to date of a Type 1 ZK-EVM, supporting all opcodes and precompiles in the Shanghai EVM hard fork, and soon the upcoming Cancun hard fork. This means all new and existing smart contracts deployed to Ethereum and compatible chains are now able to take advantage of the power of zero-knowledge proofs.

The true strength of a ZK-EVM lies in its ability to prove computations through a robust cryptographic approach. The Toposware and Polygon teams took on the heroic engineering task of creating a custom-built EVM capable of tracing the execution of the EVM along with all state changes. This allows computation of a STARK proving that all state transitions occurred properly.

The process begins with the interpreter constructing a detailed record of all the operations performed during the transaction. This record, or execution trace, is then passed to a STARK prover, which generates a proof asserting its accuracy/validity. Although the proof is substantial in size, it is optimized for fast verification via a STARK system, targeting an Algebraic Intermediate Representation (AIR) with degree 3. Following this, the transaction proof undergoes a series of recursive SNARK proofs, each more compact than the last, which accelerates the verification process and enables the final transaction proof to be significantly more succinct than the initial one.

By focusing on individual transactions, the ZK-EVM prover can process transactions concurrently, enhancing overall efficiency by requiring less memory than proving an entire block. These transaction proofs are then aggregated in a binary tree structure until a single, unique block proof is generated. This ensures that consistency is maintained across the transactions, resulting in a verifiable proof for the entire block.

Ultimately, this cryptographic proof can stand alone or be combined with preceding block proofs, resulting in a single ZK-EVM proof that validates the entire blockchain back to genesis. This innovative approach holds the promise of a succinct, verifiable chain state, marking a significant milestone in the quest for blockchain verifiability, scalability, and integrity, and plays a central/crucial role in the Topos zkEcosystem.

We will now dive deeper into the details of the ZK-EVM that we have been building in collaboration with the Polygon Zero team!

Challenges with a Type-1 ZK-EVM

As mentioned above, the EVM was not designed with efficient succinct verification in mind, making it extremely challenging to design an efficient type-1 ZK-EVM:

1. The EVM Word Size: The native EVM word size is 256 bits long, whereas plonky2 operates internally over the 64-bit Goldilocks field. This requires performing word operations on multiple smaller limbs to handle them properly internally. Because the Goldilocks field cannot hold an arbitrary 64-bit word, we split each EVM word into 8 32-bit limbs, unfortunately incurring an overhead even for simple operations like the ADD opcode.
2. The EVM Fields Support: Ethereum transactions are signed over the secp256k1 curve, which adds major overhead when it comes to proving modular arithmetic, as we have to cope with modular reductions in the field of the proving system in parallel. This problem also arises in some recursive proving systems, known as “wrong-field arithmetic”. The EVM solves this by supporting precompiles for BN254 curve operations.
3. The EVM Hash Function: the EVM uses Keccak hash both for state representation and for arbitrary hashing requests through the KECCAK256 opcode. While fairly efficient on a CPU, expressing KECCAK as a sequence of degree-3 constraints yields an extremely heavy AIR, while some more recent primitives tailored specifically for zero-knowledge proving systems would be orders of magnitude more efficient here. On top of that, the EVM supports additional hash functions through its precompiles (SHA2–256, RIPEMD-160 and blake2f), all of them being quite heavy for our proving system.
4. The EVM State Representation: Ethereum uses Merkle Patricia Tries with RLP encoding. Both of these non-zk-friendly primitives incur a huge overhead on transaction processing within the ZK-EVM.

With those considerations in mind, let’s dive into the design of the ZK-EVM.

The ZK-EVM Design

As mentioned above, the ZK-EVM is designed to be efficiently verifiable by an AIR of degree 3. However, generating a single execution trace for a given transaction would yield a considerable overhead for the prover. Indeed, recall that the execution trace to generate a STARK proof can be assimilated to a large matrix where columns are registers and each row represents a view of the registers at a given time. From the initial register values on the first row to the final ones, each internal transition’s validity is enforced through a set of dedicated constraints.

Having a solely dedicated table for an entire EVM execution would require thousands of columns, and the matrix, while highly sparse, would still be treated by the prover as a fully dense one. Instead, we exploit the fact that some pieces of the execution can be viewed completely independently from the rest, which allows splitting the EVM trace into different STARK modules, each responsible for ensuring the integrity of their underlying computation.

These smaller STARK modules however do not operate on independent values. This requires an additional set of constraints, to enforce that values haven’t been tampered with when shared between several STARKs. For this, we use Cross-Table-Lookups (CTLs), based on the logUp argument [https://eprint.iacr.org/2022/1530.pdf] designed by Ulrich Haböck to cheaply add these copy-constraints in the overall system.

Thanks to the CTLs, we can split the ZK-EVM into a primary STARK module, the central processing unit CPU Stark, and 6 auxiliary state machines, each responsible for a set of specific operations. The CPU is then in charge of orchestrating the whole flow corresponding to the EVM transaction execution, dispatching some instructions to the secondary modules, and fetching the result. Note here that “dispatching” and “fetching” means that initial values/final values resulting from a given operation are being copied with the CTLs to/from the targeted secondary state machine.

As an example, the diagram below depicts a high-level overview of a BITWISE XOR (opcode 0x18), between two 256-bit words. The CPU is in charge of reading the inputs from the Memory module, sending them with the XOR instruction to the Logic module, and fetching from the latter the expected output, to be sent back to Memory to be written at the targeted address.

Let us dive in the different auxiliary state machines orchestrated by the CPU:

• The Arithmetic Module: This STARK aims at enforcing arithmetic operations. These include all the existing arithmetic opcodes (like ADD, MUL, SDIV, …), as well as the BYTE opcode returning the i-th word of an EVM word. Additionally, it supports custom instructions, which usage is restricted to prover mode (i.e. end-users cannot use them in their contracts) to simplify certain operations. This allows to alleviate greatly part of the overhead induced by the 2nd challenge mentioned above.
• The Keccak Module: This STARK is used to prove Keccak hash permutations and alleviate part of points 3 and 4. As Keccak internal operations are defined on bytes, the associated trace is particularly wide (it has as many registers as 20 CPUs aligned side-by-side!), which renders it particularly heavy to recursively verify when reducing the proof size.
• The KeccakSponge Module: While Keccak Stark’s sole focus is on a single Keccak permutation, we may need to hash arbitrarily long sequences of bytes (think of the EXTCODEHASH [https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/evm/opcodes/] opcode for instance). For this, this module acts as an intermediary orchestrator between the CPU and the Keccak modules, keeping track of the actual state of the hasher and feeding successive inputs to the Keccak module, before feeding back to the CPU the final output.
• The Logic Module: This STARK is used for BITWISE operations on EVM words (namely AND, OR and XOR opcodes). It is not heavily used in general, which allows for a layout tailored for prover efficiency, with a relatively wide trace and fairly short length.
• The Memory Module: While the CPU is in charge of handling all internal operations, the Memory STARK ensures consistency across all memory segments, as well as the state of the EVM stack. Because every operation incurs memory reads and/or writes, this makes this STARK usually the longest one and the heaviest to prove, with a trace length easily reaching a few million rows for complex contracts or heavy precompiles.
• The BytePacking Module: While the Memory usually operates on EVM words, some scenarios only deal with bytes. This is the case when reading the transaction RLP encoding, or when parsing a contract bytecode. This makes the process of memory copying overly heavy in those cases. The BytePacking module allows us to amortize this, as its name indicates, by packing sequences of at most 32 bytes into a single EVM word, and perform the reverse operations whenever we need to get back to the original bytes. This helps alleviate part of the overhead induced by the 4th point above.

This makes up for the high-level design of the ZK-EVM, focusing on a single transaction proof. In the future, we will cover in more depth the internals of the ZK-EVM, with a focus on the custom EVM interpreter and the CPU logic, how proofs are aggregated to succinctly verify an entire block, and we will delve into some of the massive optimizations that came along the way!

The Topos Builders Program’s first set of projects is well underway. The Topos Builders Program launched with the Topos testnet — a vast and open landscape that encourages early adopters to become pioneers in the first ZK native ecosystem. This program aims to build a thriving and supportive community with resources and learning support. As we continue to expand the Topos ecosystem, we are thrilled to announce the launch of the Topos Community Fund, a new initiative that aligns seamlessly with the ethos of the Topos Builders Program. This new grant program is designed to catalyze innovation and foster the development of transformative projects within our vibrant ZK ecosystem. The Topos Community Fund is set to empower a wide array of visionary projects that resonate with our mission of building a trustless, secure, and interconnected digital world.

The Topos Community Fund is more than just a financial resource; it’s a launchpad for creativity and collaboration, offering project owners not just funding but a platform for growth and community engagement. The program’s multi-stage process, involving proposal submissions through GitHub, thorough reviews by the community, live presentations to the community by grant finalists, and an engaging voting system on Discord, ensures a transparent and inclusive selection of projects that truly embody the spirit of innovation. This initiative is a testament to our commitment to supporting those who dare to dream big and strive to make a tangible impact in the Topos ecosystem.

The program has in-depth learning guides and resources to empower builders. In addition to securing funding and kickstarting development journeys on the Topos Protocol, builders will benefit from expert support and guidance throughout the program. We’ve developed and tailored learning journeys to help builders develop a greater understanding of the Topos stack. Topos is the universal standard for a connected world. Therefore, to maximize a connected world we want builders who see connection as integral. Topos Builders Program endeavors to support those who pursue connection — trustlessly, inclusively, securely, and efficiently.

As we embark on this exciting journey, we invite all members of our community to participate — whether by submitting project proposals, contributing insights, or participating in the decision-making process. This is an opportunity for each one of us to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of the Topos ecosystem and to further our collective vision of a trustless and connected world.

The Community Fund and the Topos Builders Program will be a place to foster innovative ideas that align with the Topos protocol mission: creating seamless and secure interchain communication without relying on trust in validators. Expert guidance and learning support will be readily available, ensuring that even newcomers can contribute their projects of immense value to the ecosystem.

This is just the beginning of Topos collaboration with new ecosystem pioneers. While we’re initially seeking Solidity developers, the Topos Builders Program will evolve to encompass a diverse array of tools and applications. Future initiatives may include multiple rounds of funding for projects that wholeheartedly embrace the values championed by the Topos community. Sign up to receive the latest updates and learn more about the Topos Community Fund on Discord.

How to Apply

Application is a simple two-step process and needs to be executed in order:

1. Create a new issue using the application template. Once you’ve filled in the template, submit the issue.
2. Fill in an application form. You will need to include a link to the submitted issue.

Important Dates

• Jan 18: Round 1 Applications Open.
• Jan 31: Marketing, submission collection, panel member selection.
• Feb 19: Round 1 submissions close.
• Feb 20: Initial review of projects.
• Feb 26: Selection for community vote.
• Feb 29: Live pitches on Discord.
• Feb 29 — March 4: Community vote.
• March 18: Payout upon completion of milestones.

The Finer Details

• Round 1 applications are open until either the program receives its maximum number of applications or February 19, 2024. This means you should apply as soon as you can to be sure your submission is included in this cohort.
• Throughout the process, your email address will be your identifier. It is acceptable to use a temporary email address to preserve your privacy, but you must have access to the emails sent to that address for the duration of the grant period (up to 20 weeks). Not having access to the emails will mean you will not be able to receive your grant. It will not be possible to change emails during the grant period.
• It is important to read the T&Cs as some exclusions and conditions may mean you cannot be accepted for a grant.
• To receive payments you will need to submit milestones that comply with our Milestone Guide.

Application Requirements

• For most projects in this round of grants, you need to be proficient in Solidity. Support and learning materials will be provided during your build phase to help you navigate the Topos Protocol, but not to learn Solidity.
• Code produced as part of the grant must be open source and must not rely on closed-source software for full functionality. Please license your code under Apache 2.0.
• If selected as a finalist, you must provide a 5–10 minute presentation on your projects live on Discord to the Topos community on February, 28th 2024.
• We do not fund projects that have been the object of a token sale.
• We do not fund projects that actively encourage gambling or criminal activity.
• You must be eligible to receive a grant under section 2 (Eligibility) of the T&Cs.

Payment

Grants will be awarded over two payment milestones. Grant Recipients submit a payment milestone issue through GitHub and a form. For the payment to be unlocked, milestone submissions will need to be accepted by Toposware Inc.

Milestone 1 — 20% of the grant payment, and submission is one week after the project kick-off.

Milestone 2 — The remaining 80% of the grant payment and is expected to be submitted at the end of the project timeline (from three to ten weeks, depending on the agreed timeline for the project).

Find out more about the Milestones here: Milestone Guide.

After you Apply

If you are selected by the community panel as a finalist, you will be required to present a 5–10 minute presentation on your submission live on Discord to the Topos community in order to continue the grant process.

If you are awarded a grant via the community vote, you will need to accept the grant and go through the acceptance process. Full details will be emailed to you with your notification of the award.

Your grant should not be treated as final, nor the funding as fully approved, until you have passed the acceptance process.

Applying for a grant through the Topos Builders Program makes you a foundational member of the Topos Builders Community! Topos is defining the future of equitable human interaction. This decentralized future will be inclusive, secure, and interoperable by design.

Visit the Topos Community Fund GitHub or the Topos Community Discord for more information.

About Topos

Topos is the first zkEcosystem — a universal standard for a trustless, connected world. Through novel advancements in cryptography and distributed systems, Topos functions to rearchitect scalable digital interactions between untrusted parties. Topos enables Web3 and enterprises to interoperate securely and natively to drive super-additive value.

Topos’ permissionless EVM-based multichain architecture empowers developers with flexible and infinitely scalable building blocks to create the composable products of the future. Leveraging zero-knowledge proofs at its core, Topos delivers cryptographic security and zero-leak network privacy to power enterprise use cases — on a global scale. With Topos, secure, trustless, and scalable interoperability will unlock the global adoption of Web3 and Web 2.5.

The Topos Builders Program Announces Community Fund was originally published in Topos Protocol on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Boston, MA — December 7th, 2023- Toposware, a pioneer in Zero-Knowledge technology, has announced a strategic partnership with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA). This collaboration marks a significant milestone in the advancement of Zero-Knowledge solutions business adoption, with a primary focus on enhancing enterprise scalability and overcoming challenges related to interoperability, privacy, and scalability. The partnership will propel the following:

Empower Enterprise Adoption of Zero-Knowledge Technology: The partnership between Toposware and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) will empower enterprise adoption of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) Zero-Knowledge technology, which can supercharge business growth by facilitating secure, real-time transactions among non-trusting entities, promoting security, and fewer intermediaries.

Enhance Enterprise Scalability: With a focus on addressing challenges related to interoperability and scalability, Toposware is poised to bring zero knowledge to the enterprise ecosystem. This investment will further enable the company to engage leading enterprise clients with the launch of its Enterprise Early Access Program. Through its innovative solutions, Toposware aims to revolutionize the way enterprises approach scalability and interoperability. With a strong focus on zero-knowledge technology, the company is well-positioned to address the growing challenges faced by businesses in today’s digital landscape.

Improve Native Interoperability: Enterprises within the Topos ecosystem can create independent networks with easy interoperability, reducing shared network dependencies and eliminating intermediaries. This innovative approach addresses critical scalability challenges.

Increase Data Privacy and Security: The permissionless addition of new independent networks ensures boundless scalability while maintaining cryptographic security and data privacy. Enterprises can deploy private networks within the Topos ecosystem while safeguarding sensitive data and intellectual property.

Redefine Trust: By implementing zero-knowledge proofs as the basis for settlement and verification, Toposware is revolutionizing the traditional trust model. This groundbreaking approach allows businesses within the ecosystem to interoperate with complete confidence, eliminating the need to trust any other actor.

Tom Harvey, Enterprise Lead for Toposware, expressed his excitement about pioneering Zero-Knowledge technology in the enterprise sector through their partnership with the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance (EEA). “This collaboration aims to accelerate the adoption of enterprise zero-knowledge technology, driving innovation and efficiency across industries.”

James Harsh, EEA Director of Sales, shared “The EEA is excited to add Toposware to our Member Community as we work together to accelerate the business use of Ethereum. With leaders like Toposware joining the mission, 2023 looks to be another exciting year of continued adoption of Ethereum around the world!”

As Toposware and the EEA embark on this partnership, the future of enterprise blockchain technology is set to transform with zero knowledge, offering new levels of control, security, and collaboration to organizations globally.

Understanding the Impact of the Reset

The reset is a comprehensive clearing of all ledger entries and historical data on both the Topos and Incal subnets. This means that post-reset, users have to recreate accounts, assets, offers, liquidity pools, and other ledger entries. This process is crucial for maintaining the integrity and performance of our network, and we appreciate the community’s continued support and understanding as we build.

Key Upgrades in the Latest Testnet Reset

The upcoming Testnet reset is not just about starting fresh; it’s about bringing substantial improvements to our system. Here are the key upgrades to look forward to:

1. Validator identity separation from the p2p layer: Adding a distinct ValidatorId to identify the double echo messages instead of identifying them within the p2p layer, thus bringing more flexibility and resilience to the network topology.
2. CLI Interface Overhaul: We are streamlining our Command Line Interface (CLI) for a more user-friendly experience and working toward the near future goal of utilizing one unique config file to allow users to easily operate nodes.
3. WebSocket Stream Block Listener Integration: This feature will significantly improve real-time data processing and responsiveness.
4. Token Deployment and Management Enhancements: We’re refining the process for deploying new tokens in dApps and adding checks to prevent the duplication of token symbols.
5. Global Query Feature in Topos Explorer: A new query feature will provide enhanced data accessibility and analysis capabilities. Users can now query the chain for data of multiple types: blocks, certificates, transactions, and accounts.

What do you need to do to prepare?

We urge all members of the Topos community to familiarize themselves with the necessary steps to recreate their test accounts, digital assets, and redeploy smart contracts. The comprehensive documentation, available at Topos Technology Documentation, is a helpful guide through this process.

If you run a local instance of the Testnet, upgrade to the latest release version found on Github.

Looking Ahead

This Testnet reset and the accompanying upgrades are not just about improvements; they symbolize our commitment to a trustless, secure, and interconnected digital world. As we continue to evolve and adapt, our focus remains on providing a platform that is not only technologically advanced but also aligned with the needs of our community.

We eagerly await your participation in the new and improved Testnet environment post-reset. Let’s continue to work together to build a more connected and efficient blockchain ecosystem.

Stay Updated

For the latest updates and discussions, join us on our Discord channel. Your insights and contributions are invaluable in shaping the future of Topos.

Cross-chain transactions are a fundamental piece of the value proposition in Web3. Enabling communication and exchange between different blockchains, these transactions are integral for increasing interoperability and unlocking a plethora of possibilities, such as seamless access to diverse DeFi services and interaction between smart contracts on various chains to dramatically improve composability when building systems that may want to integrate with the services of multiple chains, or even web2 resources, while remaining both permissionless and secure.

Bridging Distinct Blockchains

Cross-chain protocols act as the linchpin in these transactions, functioning as a bridge between two blockchains with potentially different protocols, rules, and governance models. They extend the utility of blockchains by enabling any given product on one blockchain to integrate and provide services seamlessly on another, thereby enhancing the overall value proposition of both. However, ensuring reliable and secure transactions between two independent blockchains, each with its unique consensus mechanisms and security models, has not historically been straightforward.

There are diverse solutions which have attempted to solve this challenge, each with its own tradeoffs of security, trust, performance, and decentralization. But while these processes are designed to ensure the integrity, security, and consistency of transactions, the challenges associated with conducting transactions across different ecosystems remain substantial. This is where the innovative solution provided by Topos may come into play.

Addressing the Challenges: Topos’s Innovations

Blockchains are designed as self-sufficient ledgers, with the state of a given instance of a blockchain being the only correct interpretation of the history of that instance. With Topos, this state can be proven to be correct, and thus, consistent. However, this property of consistency does not naturally apply between blockchains, as each operates without the capability to confirm the accuracy of external data sources, including the state of other blockchains.

Addressing this issue often involves relying on external actors, such as oracles or bridges, which are tasked with monitoring one chain’s state and conveying it to the receiving chain. The use of oracles and bridges for cross-chain transactions, however useful, introduce a wide range of assumptions and potential weaknesses which can affect the decentralization, security, trustless qualities, and performance of the transactions. Topos addresses these potential issues for ensuring secure, decentralized, trustless, and performant cross-subnet transactions by leveraging the power of three important proofs — inclusion proof, validity proof, and non-equivocation proof.

Topos stands out in addressing these challenges, offering secure and efficient solutions for interoperability within the blockchain universe through its protocol and ecosystem. It introduces cross-subnet messages, a set of objects, and actions designed to perform cross-chain transactions securely and natively.

Topos defines a subnet as:

A network that is sovereign in execution and performs certificate submissions in order to settle its state and interoperate with other subnets.

A subnet performs certificate submissions in order to settle its state and interoperate with other subnets. It can be a blockchain, and in many cases will be a blockchain, but it doesn’t have to be a blockchain. Essentially, if it can submit Topos certificates to a sequencer, it can be a Topos-compliant subnet.

So let’s consider a scenario where a token exists across multiple subnets. In this scenario, Alice may hold a balance of tokens on Subnet A. She wants to execute a transaction, sending one of those tokens to Bob on Subnet B. Through Topos’s protocol, this cross-subnet transfer becomes straightforward, secure, and efficient. The transaction is executed, with ZK proofs and cryptographic mechanisms ensuring the transaction’s legitimacy.

Topos leverages validity proofs of execution, allowing for the verification of state transitions without requiring each actor to perform them or access sensitive data. The information needed for verifying the proof is included in a certificate and exchanged over the Transmission Control Engine (TCE).

One final factor to consider is non-equivocation. To guarantee the uniqueness of a subnet’s state and prevent any form of equivocation, Topos depends on certificates exchanged over the TCE network. The TCE network ensures that nodes do not deliver conflicting certificates, providing the non-equivocation proof needed for secure transactions.

After a certificate is created, it must be signed by the subnets validators. Each subnet, when it registers with the Topos subnet, will present a unique public key which will be used as the subnet’s ID. This key must remain static for the life of the subnet, even if the private key is regenerated multiple times. This, in turn, provides strong integrity guarantees for each certificate signed by the emitting subnet because it can always be authenticated, even across many rounds of private key changes. Subnets are agnostic to the actual signing algorithm used to achieve this, but Topos provides one, ICE-FROST, which does.

Conclusion

Topos isn’t just another blockchain protocol. It stands out with its commitment to uniform security, ensuring that each subnet within its ecosystem is as secure as the entire system. Such uniformity in blockspace quality provides a safe haven for developers, enabling them to deploy dApps without compromising on security.

Furthermore, Topos champions scalability. By compressing transaction executions and facilitating cost-effective verification through validity proofs, Topos promises an exponentially scalable blockspace supply, accommodating an ever growing number of subnets.

Equally important is the protocol’s focus on non-equivocation and privacy. While the former ensures the prevention of double-spending attacks, the latter maintains privacy by allowing a subnet to prove the validity of its state transitions without revealing details about its state.

Navigating the intricate landscape of cross-chain transactions, Topos emerges as a beacon of innovation, addressing the challenges associated with ensuring secure and reliable transactions across different blockchains. By fostering interoperability and enhancing the capabilities of blockchain technology, Topos is paving the way for a more interconnected and harmonious digital ecosystem.

Boston, MA — November 1st, 2023 — Toposware, a pioneer in zero-knowledge technology, is proud to announce the successful completion of its $5 million strategic seed extension round.

The round was led by Evolution Equity Partners and featured participation from prominent investors such as Triatomic Capital, K2 Access Fund, Polygon’s Founder and Chairman Sandeep Nailwal, as well as key leaders across global insurance, finance, manufacturing, healthcare, consulting and tech. The key highlights of this raise include the following:

Strategic Partners: This latest funding round was purposefully constructed to bring key VCs and industry leaders onboard with direct experience in building global standards, scaling ubiquitous products to massive market share, and aligning access and utility within target market sectors.

Enterprise Scalability: With a focus on addressing challenges related to interoperability, privacy, and scalability, Toposware is poised to bring zero-knowledge to the enterprise ecosystem. This investment will further enable the company to engage leading enterprise clients with the launch of its Enterprise Early Access Program.

Topos Builders Program: Toposware’s recently launched Testnet and Topos Builders Program are driving increased adoption and developing the next generation of zero-knowledge infrastructure. The first Topos Builders Program cohort is currently oversubscribed by 500% and is on track to attract projects and talent into the ecosystem from day one.

Core Infrastructure: The Toposware team’s growth plans continue with the recruitment of world-class talent to fulfill its goals of building disruptive technology for a trustless connected future. With a current emphasis in the Americas and Europe, Toposware is focused on further building out its engineering team to deliver core zero-knowledge infrastructure and community roles for ecosystem adoption.

Taher Elgamal, Evolution Equity Partner and “Father of SSL”, commented on the significance of Toposware’s technology,“creating infrastructure that fundamentally changes the way parties digitally interact is a daunting undertaking, however, the opportunities are massive. Evolution Equity Partners is excited to support Toposware as they lead from the front — propelling zero-knowledge innovation to mainstream utility. We believe the team has the passion and expertise to set zero-knowledge proofs as a core component of the next-generation of global technology infrastructure.”

Toposware’s CEO, Theo Gauthier, expressed his enthusiasm for the company’s future, stating, “Toposware is entering a new phase of growth and development where we are laser-focused on applying the differentiated utility of zero-knowledge to real-world use cases. We couldn’t be more excited to be supported by this world-class investor group and look forward to leveraging their collective experience to accelerate the execution of our goals — bringing developers, product teams, organizations, and users together to create novel value.”

About Toposware

Toposware is a research and engineering company building disruptive technology for a trustless, connected future. Our team takes a collaborative, academic approach to innovating and engineering infrastructure, protocol standards and products to enable inclusive value creation within a decentralized future. We are committed to solving the hardest problems in cryptography and distributed systems to advance novel open internet standards. Learn more at www.toposware.com or https://linktr.ee/toposware.

After a great deal of quiet, focused work, the Topos Testnet, a test and development deployment of the Topos ZkEcosystem, was launched recently. It’s now time to start building and experimenting on Topos. Topos brings ease of deployment, uniform security, and scalability, through an innovative application of cryptography and Zero-Knowledge Proofs. Topos provides a permissionless ecosystem where anyone can participate, deploying their own subnet and interoperating with other subnets.

Before continuing, we should say a few words about Topos subnets. The Topos Glossary defines subnet:

A network that is sovereign in execution and performs certificate submissions in order to settle its state and interoperate with other subnets.

This definition is notable for what it doesn’t say. The word “blockchain” isn’t in the definition. It doesn’t say that a subnet is a blockchain. This is important. A subnet performs certificate submissions in order to settle its state and interoperate with other subnets. It can be a blockchain, and in many cases will be a blockchain, but it doesn’t have to be a blockchain. Essentially, if it can submit Topos certificates to a sequencer, it can be a Topos compliant subnet. Of course, there’s more to it than that, but stay tuned for more on that in the future!

​​The Topos Playground — What to Expect or What is the Topos Playground?

The potential with Topos and its subnets is exciting, and one tool introduced by Topos to bridge the understanding gap and to facilitate running a full Topos deployment locally is the Topos-Playground. The Playground provides a simple CLI that can be used to start, stop, and manage a locally deployed devnet. In addition, looking into the structure of the Playground provides an insightful glimpse into the functionalities and the structure of the Topos ecosystem.

Key Features of the Topos Playground

The Playground is built on top of Docker and uses Docker to run a number of different systems which collectively provide a functioning Topos network.

The first of these is the Topos Subnet. This is composed of four Polygon Edge containers, the first of which generates keys and formulates the genesis block of the subnet. It also ensures that the consensus is set to Istanbul Byzantine Fault Tolerant (IBFT). In addition, a sequencer container is launched. The sequencer maintains communications with the TCE Network, which will be introduced in a moment.

The playground launches one other subnet, Incal. This subnet mirrors the Topos Subnet in terms of network topology, with four Polygon Edge nodes, and a sequencer node. The Topos Subnet is a core component of the Topos Ecosystem. Incal, however, is intended to represent a generic subnet. One of the features of Topos is that it is permissionless. Anyone can register a subnet within Topos. After the TCE Network is launched and active, Incal will be available as a registered Topos Subnet.

The piece of the ecosystem which is responsible for ordering and settling certificates is the TCE (Transmission Control Engine) Network. The playground bootstraps the TCE with one node, and then it launches four replicas, creating a five-node TCE Network. Once this network is launched and is running, Incal and the Topos subnets will synchronize with it.

For most users, their primary interface with the Playground will be through the ERC20 Messaging dApp. This application consists of a simple web server and a frontend application, which uses ethers.js to invoke smart contracts. Using the ERC20 Messaging Frontend, one can register tokens on a subnet, and invoke cross-subnet messages, using those tokens. In this example, the cross-subnet message, being a simple token transaction, seems trivial. Topos cross-subnet messages, however, can transfer any arbitrary data between independent subnets in the Topos ZkEcosystem. So while the playground example is simple on the surface, under the covers, these actions involve all of the components of the playground to create a transaction on one subnet, have the certificate, issued by the sequencer on that subnet submitted to the TCE, and have the transaction picked up and acted on by another subnet, and could potentially carry a much more interesting data payload than a token transaction.

The final important component within the Playground is the executor service. The Topos Executor Service executes cross-subnet messages on receiving subnets. It listens for certificates and then submits the transaction payload and the Merkle proof of inclusion for execution.

How to Use the Topos Playground

To see all of this come together, take a look at this video. It demonstrates starting the topos-playground, using it to register a token on two subnets, the Incal subnet and the Topos Subnet, and then running cross-subnet transactions between the two subnets.

Join the Topos Community

The Topos Playground is not just a tool, it’s a community-driven initiative. We encourage you to join our vibrant community of developers on Discord or Github, where you can share your experiences, learn from others, and contribute to the evolution of the playground. Together, we can shape the future of web development and make it more accessible to everyone.

If building on this platform intrigues you, the Topos Builders Program could be your next destination. Apply to join the next cohort of people building on Topos. And for those with questions or seeking more insights, the Topos Discord server is open to everyone. We welcome anyone to join, to participate, and to ask questions.

Toposware, a leader in Zero-Knowledge, announced it has joined Hyperledger Foundation, a global ecosystem for enterprise-grade blockchain technologies. As a Hyperledger Foundation member, Toposware aims to enhance enterprise scalability for Zero-Knowledge solutions. Toposware is a frontrunner in applying these technologies to address the current challenges of interoperability, privacy, and scalability.

Toposware CEO, Theo Gauthier expressed enthusiasm about joining esteemed Hyperledger Foundation members like Alastria, CasperLabs, Chainyard, Filecoin Foundation, and IBM in advancing open-source enterprise blockchain. “We are looking forward to accelerating the adoption of Enterprise Zero-Knowledge technology with the Hyperledger Foundation. Zero-Knowledge holds immense untapped potential, and we are exhilarated to be pioneering this with enterprises. The adoption of Zero-Knowledge technology will be a game changer that will lead to enhanced performance, efficiency, and revenue generation.” He emphasized how Zero-Knowledge technology can supercharge business growth by facilitating secure, real-time transactions among non-trusting entities, promoting security, and fewer intermediaries.

“Hyperledger Foundation hosts an extensive open source ecosystem that is continuously advancing enterprise-grade blockchain and related technologies,” said Daniela Barbosa, Executive Director, Hyperledger Foundation, and General Manager Blockchain and Identity at the Linux Foundation. “Our members take a leading role across our many projects and labs, contributing resources and expertise that help the whole market innovate. We welcome Toposware to our membership ranks and look forward to their contributions on the Zero-Knowledge front.”

Traditional blockchains update a distributed ledger by every participant re-executing every transaction — state machine replication. Topos architecture eliminates this burdensome process — ecosystem participants efficiently verify only proofs rather than transactions — enabling massive settlement throughput at a global scale. Enterprises can create independent networks within the Topos ecosystem, ensuring native interoperability, reducing shared network dependencies, and eliminating intermediaries, thus addressing scalability challenges. Enterprise will have the ability to launch independent networks and join the Topos ecosystem with native interoperability. This eliminates shared network requirements and the need for intermediaries, including between counterparties with disparate structures and tech stacks to solve the problem of scalability. In addition, Enterprises can deploy their own private networks and interoperate with the broader Topos ecosystem without revealing sensitive data and IP. The addition of new independent networks is permissionless, and reliable causal broadcast replaces consensus. The Topos ecosystem is scalable to millions of participants while retaining cryptographic security and data privacy. Additionally, enterprises can deploy private networks and seamlessly interact with the broader Topos ecosystem. This permissionless approach uses ZK technology to allow the Topos ecosystem to scale boundlessly while maintaining cryptographic security and data privacy.

Tom Harvey, Enterprise Lead for Toposware, expressed excitement about pioneering Zero-Knowledge technology in the enterprise sector as a member of Hyperledger Foundation, aiming to accelerate enterprise blockchain technology adoption.

“We are excited to bring our expertise in future-proof solutions powered by Zero-Knowledge to the Hyperledger ecosystem. Business growth is supercharged by the ability to transact and transfer value in real time between non-trusting, often competing entities. Enterprises need control and security of their own networks and data while enabling disintermediated collaboration without privacy risk. Zero-Knowledge technology will be a game changer and lead to the next generation of performance, efficiency, and revenue,” says Tom Harvey.

By basing settlement and verification on zero-knowledge proofs, Topos is redefining the trust model for a scalable infrastructure of independent sovereign networks, ensuring that businesses in the ecosystem do not need to trust any other actor in the ecosystem.

About Hyperledger Foundation

Hyperledger Foundation was founded in 2015 to bring transparency and efficiency to the enterprise market by fostering a thriving ecosystem around open source blockchain software technologies. As a project of the Linux Foundation, Hyperledger Foundation coordinates a community of member and non member organizations, individual contributors and software developers building enterprise-grade platforms, libraries, tools and solutions for multi-party systems using blockchain, distributed ledger, and related technologies. Organizations join Hyperledger Foundation to demonstrate technical leadership, collaborate and network with others, and raise awareness around their efforts in the enterprise blockchain community. Members include industry-leading organizations in finance, banking, healthcare, supply chains, manufacturing, technology and beyond. All Hyperledger code is built publicly and available under the Apache license. To learn more, visit: www.hyperledger.org.

As the world continues to transition towards the Web3 era, blockchain technology is redefining the very foundations of the Internet, business, and societal structures. At the heart of this transformative movement, blockchain validators play a pivotal role in securing networks and maintaining the overall health of the blockchain ecosystem.

The Role of Validators in the Web3 Universe

In the context of a blockchain, validators are nodes that participate in the consensus mechanism, validating transactions, creating new blocks, and maintaining the decentralized ledger’s integrity. In return for their services, these validators are typically rewarded with native network tokens. However, in the expansive and diverse universe of Web3, it’s becoming increasingly important to establish a fair and equitable reward mechanism for validators.

Web3 aims to create a decentralized, trustless, and permissionless Internet, where users have full control and ownership over their data. It strives to eliminate centralized control and foster an open, inclusive digital ecosystem. As such, the ethos of Web3 calls for a reward mechanism that mirrors these principles, recognizing the contributions of all validators in a just and equitable manner.

The Need for a Fair Reward Mechanism

An optimally functioning blockchain network relies on a set of validators, each contributing to the network’s robustness and resilience. Chains differ greatly in how validators are chosen and even more in how they are rewarded, but one problem that is common to all is the so called “Verifier’s dilemma”, where rational operators are well-incentivized to simply skip doing the necessary work (or pretend to do it). Most Proof of Stake networks deploy a simple one-size-fits-all approach to reward distribution. A simplistic, one-size-fits-all approach to reward distribution may overlook the nuances of each validator’s contributions, leading to imbalances and potential threats to the network’s stability and growth.

Incentivizing validators adequately is not just a matter of fairness, it also impacts the network’s security and performance. A fair reward system encourages more participants to join and actively contribute to the network, enhancing the blockchain’s decentralization and security. Conversely, an unfair reward system may discourage validators, leading to centralization risks, reduced network security, and diminished performance.

Topos improves on this by designing an optimal reward distribution mechanism which takes into account actual validators’ contributions.

Shapley Value: A Beacon of Fairness

To address this challenge, Topos turns to cooperative game theory, particularly a concept known as the “Shapley Value”. Named after the Nobel laureate Lloyd Shapley, the Shapley Value provides a way to fairly distribute rewards among players based on their marginal contributions to the collective outcome.

In the context of Topos’ validators, the Shapley Value is used to quantify each validator’s contribution to the system, considering all possible combinations of validators. It can take into account the unique attributes of each validator, such as uptime, computational power, and network bandwidth, ensuring that each validator’s reward is proportional to their contribution.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of blockchain and Web3, the Shapley Value not only aligns with the current needs for fairness and decentralization, but also serves as a future-proof and adaptive solution for several reasons:

• Fairness: By ensuring rewards are distributed based on the value of each validator’s contribution to the network, the Shapley Value ingrains a sense of fairness. This fair distribution is crucial for maintaining validators’ enthusiasm and engagement, particularly as the network grows and diversifies.
• Incentivization: The Shapley Value model fosters a competitive yet cooperative environment among validators. By linking rewards to their contributions, it provides robust incentives for validators to optimize their resources and perform at their best, fueling the network’s overall growth and performance.
• Decentralization: With its ability to prevent the concentration of rewards among a few influential validators, the Shapley Value actively promotes and sustains the decentralization of the network. This is integral to enhancing the security and resilience of the blockchain, upholding the tenets of the Web3 ideology.
• Efficiency: The Shapley Value model encourages validators to operate in an efficient and resource-conscious manner. Validators are motivated to enhance their uptime, improve computational power, and maximize network bandwidth as their rewards are directly proportional to their contributions.
• Optimality: From a game theory perspective, the Shapley Value is considered an optimal solution in terms of fairness for reward distribution. It satisfies properties such as efficiency (total payout is distributed), symmetry (equal contributors receive equal pay), additivity (pay for playing two games equals the sum of the pay for each), and marginality (payment is proportional to marginal contribution), making it a balanced and equitable approach.

In light of these advantages, Topos has adopted the Shapley Value for reward distribution to ensure system validators align harmoniously with the underlying principles of Web3. The Shapley Value satisfies the game theoretical incentive requirements that the system needs for its security. By offering a fair, decentralized, and future-proof reward mechanism, the Shapley Value will prove instrumental in building a sustainable, robust, and resilient blockchain ecosystem. As we journey further into the era of Web3, the Shapley Value remains a steadfast beacon of fairness, illuminating the path to a more equitable and decentralized digital world.

The original to this post was published on Toposware here.

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