a16z Crypto updates Jolt zkVM to natively support zero-knowledge proofs and questions the misuse of the "ZK" label.

PANews reported on March 4th that, according to The Block, a16z Crypto criticized the common use of the term "ZK" in some developer environments in a blog post about its Jolt zkVM. The article points out that most zkVMs do not actually possess zero-knowledge properties unless expensive "wrapping" procedures are applied. The author also mentions that "zk" is often used as a synonym for "simplicity," meaning proofs are "brief and verification is fast," rather than true zero-knowledge privacy. With the community's growing focus on privacy, this misuse of the term is becoming a real problem.

a16z's open-source Jolt zkVM received a major upgrade on Tuesday, natively supporting zero-knowledge proofs. Jolt uses the NovaBlindFold folding scheme to create blinded proofs to prevent information leakage, making it suitable for privacy applications. The zero-knowledge proofs generated after the upgrade are only about 3 KB larger than the original non-ZK proofs.