Blockstream is a Bitcoin infrastructure firm that develops digital asset infrastructure. Their suite of technologies power the Bitcoin ecosystem and makes it easier for individuals to businesses to securely transact over the Bitcoin network. The company develops infrastructure ranging from storage systems to infrastructure that facilitates transfer of bitcoin and other digital derivatives and assets. The company has also achieved tremendous success in raising a total of $210 million from investors including Mosaic Ventures and Horizon’s Ventures. ZeroSync on the other hand, is a non-profit organization that is based in Switzerland. ZeroSync also doubles as a bitcoin chain verifier by utilizing a Giza STARK verifier that runs in WebAssembly to verify a proof of the bitcoin chain in your browser. So far, the organization has managed to generate proof for the first few thousand blocks but work is still in progress to scale up. The non-profit firm is sponsored by Starkware and Geometry through research grants.
ZeroSync has therefore partnered with Blockstream to enable some Bitcoin transactions to take place without requiring internet. These transactions involve the transmission of of ZK(Zero Knowledge) proofs. The partnership will therefore, facilitate the broadcast of ZK proofs via Blockstream’s satellites. This partnership is set to benefit many people across the globe as Bitcoin nodes will be able to sync from any location on the globe, including regions with poor network coverage. The syncing is set to be efficient since it will take place in few seconds rather than in several hours or days. Plans are in progress to conduct the first testing of the new broadcast technology before the end of the year. This partnership is aimed at utilizing Blockstream’s satellite to provide free global access to Bitcoin by broadcasting the blockchain to the entire planet including areas with poor internet coverage.
ZK proofs can be leveraged to increase privacy and security on the bitcoin blockchain. This will mean that transactions will occur in a confidential manner and only the parties involved in the transaction can access transaction details. The technology will also enable scalability of the bitcoin blockchain by significantly reducing the volume of data that needs to be processed and stored on the chain. Funnily enough, the technology will utilize an old system to achieve its functionality. The system being referred to here is the batch system that is commonly used in traditional financial institutions where data is accumulated first and then processed in batches as it arrives. Similarly, the solution developed by the partnership between ZeroSync and Blockstream will combine multiple transactions into a single proof therefore substantially reducing the computational load on the network.
