A list of officially recognized zero-knowledge proof projects on the Solana network

Overview of ZK on Solana: Solana's zero-knowledge (ZK) and verifiability ecosystem is emerging as a dark horse, offering cost-efficient, scalable, and privacy-focused solutions for developers. Key benefits include 1000x cost savings, asynchronous execution, and decentralized prover networks.
Privacy & Verifiability Projects:
- Arcium: Enables confidential on-chain computations (e.g., AI training on encrypted data, private DeFi transactions).
- Bonsol: A verifiable computation system for creating provable executables integrated into Solana smart contracts.
Anonymity Solutions:
- Darklake: Aims to be Solana’s first MEV-resistant DEX.
- Dark Protocol: ZK-powered governance anonymity protocol.
ZK-Based Extensions:
- ZK Compression: Reduces on-chain storage costs by 1000x (used by Backpack Wallet, Tribe.run, and Airship).
ZK Virtual Machines (ZKVMs):
- RISC Zero & Succinct: Enable arbitrary computation proofs (e.g., ZK light clients, DePIN networks, secure logins).
Network Scaling with ZK:
- Solforge: Uses ZKP methods for state update proofs and LightSVM.
- Termina: Optimizes SVM deployments for latency, privacy, and cost.
- Sonic SVM: ZK-extended stack for gaming/apps.
- Bullet: Ultra-low-latency ZK rollup by Zeta Markets.
ZK Programs: Anza’s ZK Token Proof enables encrypted SPL token transfers for privacy-preserving use cases.
Future Outlook: Solana is rapidly evolving into a ZK powerhouse, with innovations like ZK compression and system calls enhancing scalability and privacy.

Compiled by: Felix, PANews

The ZK (zero knowledge) and verifiability space on Solana is a dark horse that you may not be aware of. Here is a brief overview of ZK, verifiability, and privacy projects on Solana.

Overall, Solana’s infrastructure helps:

Improve network performance

Save 1000 times the cost for application developers
Asynchronous Execution
State Growth Solution

Improved safety

Privacy and confidentiality of on-chain applications
Verifiability
Decentralized Prover Network

Even zk-rollups are implemented on Solana.

Let’s explore each one below:

Privacy and Verifiability
Anonymity
ZK-based extensions and zkVMs
Using ZK's network extension stack
ZK Programs

Note: These categories are grouped for simplicity and may overlap.

Privacy and Verifiability:

Arcium: Helps bring confidentiality to on-chain applications by providing a trustless, verifiable, and efficient framework for running cryptographic computations.

For example: AI models can be trained on encrypted data, and DeFi can use it for confidential transactions.

Bonsol, built by Anagram, is a native verifiable computation system on Solana that enables developers to create: fully verifiable executables on private and public data → mathematically guarantee their validity → integrate the results into Solana smart contracts to prove them on-chain.

Anonymity

Darklake: Building a transaction-based crypto AMM that aims to be the first DEX on Solana to provide real-time, MEV-resistant order execution.

Dark Protocol: Building a market governance anonymity protocol powered by ZK-snarks.

ZKP-based extensions

ZK Compression: A new Solana account primitive with ZK proofs + state compression powered by Light Protocol and Helius, reducing rental costs for Solana application developers by 1000x (leveraging zero-knowledge proofs and compression to reduce the amount of data stored on-chain).

Teams have started building ZK compression from:

Backpack Wallet — users hold tokens without paying rent
Consumer social app Tribe.run — creators can send tokens at low cost
Airship (launched by Helius)

ZKVMs

RISC Zero and Succinct help prove arbitrary computation on the chain, without being restricted by the chain computation. This can achieve:

Solana light client powered by ZK
Streamlined DePIN network
Secure and seamless ZK login

Solana Network Scaling Stack

zkSVM is being applied:

1. Solforge Network: A network extension stack using ZKP methods and ZK compression for:

Enable extension to stream state update proofs
LightSVM, optimized for proof generation

2. Termina: A SVM network deployment platform that meets the needs of specific use cases by reducing latency, improving privacy, and lowering computational costs.

3. Sonic SVM: SVM stack for games and applications, also being extended with ZK and Hypergrid.

4. Bullet is an ultra-low latency rollup launched by Zeta Markets that can be scaled to extremely high throughput, and all state transitions are provable.

Additionally, teams like Aerius Labs are experimenting with ZK proofs.

ZK Programs

Other initiatives include the ZK Token Proof initiative launched by Anza, which enables encrypted transfers – encrypting SPL token balances and transaction amounts to preserve privacy for use cases such as accounts payable.

From the recently released ZK compression to the various system calls that are coming online, Solana is becoming a powerful engine for ZK