Draft:Aleph Zero

Aleph Zero is a blockchain infrastructure ecosystem developed by Cardinal Cryptography and overseen by Aleph Zero Foundation. It makes use of technologies such as AlephBFT consensus and zero-knowledge proofs to offer improvements on performance, ease of development, and data confidentiality for multiple blockchain platforms. AZERO is the native cryptocurrency within the ecosystem.

History

Aleph Zero was initially developed as an implementation of the AlephBFT consensus algorithm designed by Adam Gągol, Damian Leśniak, Damian Straszak, and Michał Świętek. Their thesis held that a combination of proof of stake (PoS) with key technologies such as a directed acyclic graph (DAG) and asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance could solve important blockchain problems around scalability, security, and speed.

Mainnet

After a $14.8 million funding round in 2021, Aleph Zero launched on Mainnet as a layer-1 blockchain project led by co-founders Antoni Zolciak, Matthew Niemerg, Adam Gągol, and Michał Świętek. The AlephBFT consensus algorithm was first implemented as Proof of Concept using Golang, where it has shown the potential to reach 89,600 transactions per second and then implemented using the Substrate framework for blockchain development, confirming its original thesis by launching as a network with subsecond transaction finality and minimal gas fee costs.

Smart contracts

The Aleph Zero development team began to work on adding smart contract capabilities shortly after Mainnet launch. These would be an essential component in allowing developers to make the most out of the network’s scalability and work on demanding blockchain use cases.

In order to achieve this, Aleph Zero decided to adopt a WASM-based environment that made use of ink! — a Rust-embedded domain-specific language (eDSL) that compiles to WASM — as its default programming language for smart contract development. This language held certain advantages from being an extension of the popular Rust programming language. Among these are type and memory safety and compatibility with existing Rust tools and libraries which are appealing to developers working on enterprise solutions.

Aleph Zero launched smart contracts on Mainnet in March 2023.

Ecosystem growth

The Aleph Zero ecosystem grew significantly since its launch on Mainnet and the addition of smart contract capabilities. Today, it counts over 30 projects developing applications for use cases that range from decentralized identity services to compliance solutions.

The Aleph Zero Foundation also launched the Ecosystem Funding Program in 2023 with a $50 million allocation for ecosystem projects. The program focuses on an integral approach that provides projects with support in the form of auditing, infrastructure, and marketing.

Among the Aleph Zero applications based on its core technology is Common, a decentralized exchange built by Cardinal Cryptography with a focus on data confidentiality, launched with initial Automated Market Maker functionalities in May 2024. Alongside Common, Aleph Zero launched the MOST bridge as a way for Ethereum users to participate in the DEX and port their funds to the ecosystem. The bridge’s security counts with key Aleph Zero partners such as Deutsche Telekom acting as “guardians.”

Future plans: EVM and data confidentiality

Aleph Zero has announced expanding its reach beyond a singular ecosystem and provide modular solutions across web3 with a focus on data confidentiality.

The announcement of a new EVM-compatible layer for the Aleph Zero ecosystem focused on end-user applications is the first step taken in this direction by the team. A new EVM-compatible layer-2 was launched on Testnet in June 2024 and developed in collaboration with Gelato. Aleph Zero is the 50th chain that is using the Arbitrum Orbit stack to develop an optimistic rollup.

Aleph Zero has also announced its work on the development of a data confidentiality layer called zkOS.

Key technology

Aleph Zero started as a research project and the Aleph Zero Foundation remains research-focused as it oversees the network’s development. Its core technology is based on important contributions developed by its team members.

Aleph BFT and DAG

The implementation of the AlephBFT consensus algorithm in the original Aleph Zero layer-1 chain is a PoS consensus algorithm in which a rotating committee of validators decides on the truthfulness of the state of the blockchain. However, in this implementation a DAG acts as an intermediary in the creation of the Aleph Zero blockchain. A DAG allows for faster transaction speeds and higher throughput.

The security of AlephBFT was audited in a Trail of Bits Security Assessment.

Zero-knowledge proofs

Besides the AlephBFT consensus algorithm, Aleph Zero has worked on the development of new advances in technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs. Aleph Zero team members Adam Gągol, Jędrzej Kula, Damian Straszak, and Michał Świętek have developed a new Threshold ECDSA that improves the robustness of threshold signatures.

This and other proprietary technologies are part of Aleph Zero’s work on an upcoming zkOS data confidentiality layer which will make use of ZK proving system optimizations using Halo2 and Poseidon 2 hash functions. The Aleph Zero team produced benchmark results where they can compute zero-knowledge proofs on user devices and browsers in less than a second.