{"id":18216,"date":"2026-03-12T15:20:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T15:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptoted.net\/index.php\/2026\/03\/12\/ef-supported-teams-research-development-update-2\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T15:20:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T15:20:29","slug":"ef-supported-teams-research-development-update-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoted.net\/index.php\/2026\/03\/12\/ef-supported-teams-research-development-update-2\/","title":{"rendered":"EF-Supported Teams: Research & Development Update"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n
<\/p>\n

\n

Friends,<\/p>\n

Leaves have fallen for those in the global north, Summer is on the way in the south, and ETH is staked across the globe. The jolliest of holidays has arrived, the birth of the beacon chain. Moreover, incredible progress has been made in recent months by all<\/em> EF supported teams. But without the ability to interact in person recently, we might\u2019ve missed quite a bit from one another. So as this unique year draws to a close, we\u2019re excited to bring a whole host of detailed updates to you from some of the teams that help to move Ethereum forward in so many ways. It’s a long read, but there is a lot of progress to work through (or feel free to navigate around using the table of contents).<\/p>\n

As always, this series of updates focuses on EF-supported teams whose members are working to grow and improve Ethereum as a whole. Included in this edition are updates from many teams highlighted in the previous report<\/a>, and other new and rotating groups.<\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/a>Applied ZKP<\/h2>\n

Authored by Thore Hildebrandt<\/em><\/p>\n

The Applied ZKP team works to bridge the gap between cutting-edge research in zero-knowledge proofs, and application development on Ethereum.<\/p>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/a>Perpetual Powers of Tau<\/h3>\n

In September 2019, we launched the Perpetual Powers of Tau<\/a> ceremony (PPOT). PPOT aims to benefit the zero-knowledge ecosystem, particularly zk-SNARK projects built on Ethereum, by partially easing the burden of trusted setup ceremonies. Many zk-SNARK projects require two phases of parameter generation, and PPOT replaces the first phase, which can be shared by all circuits. Individual teams can choose any contribution from the ceremony to branch out and perform their own phase 2 setup.<\/p>\n

This ceremony supports circuits up to 2 ^ 28 constraints, which means that each contribution requires a 97G download, a 1-day computation, and a 49G upload. At the time of writing, we collected 63 contributions and all contribution files can be downloaded and independently verified against a public ceremony transcript<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Projects that are planning to use or have used the ceremony include tornado.cash<\/a>, Semaphore<\/a>, Hermez<\/a>, MACI<\/a> and zkopru<\/a>. The easiest way to contribute is to reach out to Wei Jie via Telegram @weijiek. Listen to this podcast<\/a> to hear Wei Jie speak about the ceremony.<\/p>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/a>Semaphore<\/h3>\n

Semaphore<\/a> is a generic privacy gadget which enables use cases such as mixers, anonymous login, and anonymous voting as well as reputation systems.<\/p>\n

Semaphore went through an audit and is currently conducting a phase 2 ceremony based on Perpetual Powers of Tau. There are 51 participants so far, please participate<\/a> to help make Semaphore secure. Join the conversation on the Semaphore Society Telegram chat group<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/a>MACI<\/h3>\n

Originally proposed by Vitalik Buterin, systems built with MACI<\/a> make collusion among participants difficult, while retaining the censorship resistance and correct-execution benefits of smart contracts. Although MACI can provide collusion resistance only if the coordinator is honest, a dishonest coordinator can neither censor nor tamper with its execution. See Wei Jie explaining how MACI works on Youtube<\/a>. You can use the MACI command-line interface<\/a> to run a demo.<\/p>\n

Recently, clr.fund conducted<\/a> a quadratic funding round in which results were computed using MACI. Bribery could become a major problem for Gitcoin when it reaches scale but MACI can help as it makes it impossible to prove who one voted for. MACI 1.0 is in progress<\/a>, join the Telegram group<\/a> to learn more and discuss.<\/p>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/a>MiMC Bounty<\/h3>\n

There is an ongoing bounty<\/a> for collision finding in the MiMC hash function.<\/p>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/a>Hubble<\/h3>\n

Optimistic Rollups (OR) allows greater layer 2 scalability with the use of on-chain data availability and fraud proofs. Hubble allows for the creation of optimistic rollup chains with the same interface so that people can enter the rollup space once and then move between chains instantly at negligible costs and remove the need to ever “exit” the low cost rollup world.<\/p>\n

Key features include mass migrations and a global account registry. Burn auctions will be used to decentralise the coordinator and to distribute MEV to CLR\u2019s. Transfers to new accounts are possible directly from L2 without having to deposit on L1. With the help of BLS signatures the team was able to achieve 2500 tps on ropsten<\/a>. The hubble BLS wallet aims to support other OR\u2019s such as Arbitrum, Optimism and Fuel.<\/p>\n

Hubble’s code is available on Github<\/a>. Contracts are frozen and the team is preparing for an upcoming audit.<\/p>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/a>zkopru<\/h3>\n

zkopru (zk-optimistic-rollup) is a layer-2 scaling solution for private transactions using zk-SNARK and optimistic rollup. It supports private transfer and private atomic swap within the layer-2 network between ETH, ERC20, ERC721 at a low cost. It also provides instant withdrawal with pay-in-advance features and compliance compatibility using spending key and viewing keys. Wanseob presented the system at zk-summit, the recording will be available on Youtube soon.
\nzkopru is entering the \u201cBurrito\u201d stage of its roadmap<\/a>, you can try it out on testnet<\/a> now. Also, the UI for its trusted setup and burn auction for the decentralized coordination are in pipe. An audit is scheduled to start in January.<\/p>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/a>Experimental directions<\/h3>\n