Zero-knowledge proof experts predict that ZKP technology will continue to develop and be adopted in 2025. They emphasized that improvements in proven performance and developer tools will make the technology more practical in terms of privacy and scalability. While there is consensus on where the technology is heading, experts are divided on what factors will drive continued growth and adoption of ZKP in the year ahead.
Specifically, Holonym co-founder Nanak Nihal predicts that ZKP proof performance will significantly improve, which is a key factor in making the technology practical in terms of privacy and scalability. Nihal also expects ZK developer tools to become easier to use, attracting more developers to adopt the technology.
Funtico chief marketing officer Den Manu shares Nihal’s sentiments. Manu also said he expects ZKP to become a “cornerstone” for applications that require privacy and scalability. Nihal expects ZK clients to become “increasingly practical” in 2025, while Manu expects the ZK protocol to be widely integrated across platforms.
Funtico CMO added that by 2025, multi-layer blockchains (L2) will rely heavily on ZK-rollups to minimize network load. According to it, this significantly improves transaction throughput and makes blockchain applications more efficient and accessible.
Omar Azhar, vice president and head of business development at Matter Labs, said he expects "the core technology itself to improve another 10 to 100 times." Azhar explained that this will significantly reduce the cost of generating ZK proofs of transactions. Regarding ZKsync, which he said has improved 10 times since its launch two years ago, Azhar said: "This is expected to continue until 2025. As ZKvms matures, I also hope that we will not be limited to ZKevms alone, An example is the upcoming new prover for ZKsync, which will enable developers to build in other languages such as C++, Rust, etc. This will open up the design space for different types of applications and their scale.”
However, Sander Görtjes, CEO of Hello Labs, believes that ZKP “will remain an emerging concept” as a hallmark of secure execution. Görtjes added that his team expects to “focus less on technological breakthroughs” and more on educating the public about the unique advantages ZKP offers.
Regarding the uses of the ZK protocol outside of finance, Görtjes assessed that the technology’s ability to prove the correct execution of small programs on specific data is crucial for enabling confidential transactions in the healthcare industry. However, fellow expert Azhar asserts that progress needs to be made on the "identity front" before a large number of healthcare organizations can be built to leverage ZKP. (Bitcoin.com)