Nil Foundation behind ZKP-based Proof Market raises $22 million.

The Nil Foundation, the startup behind the zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) protocol Proof Market, has raised $22 million at a $220 million valuation. The funding round was led by Polychain Capital, The Block reports.

Funding was also provided by Blockchain Capital, StarkWare and Mina Protocol.

Founded in 2018, Nil Foundation developed the Proof Market protocol. It enables blockchains and Layer 1 and L2 protocols to generate zero-knowledge proofs on demand.

The Nil Foundation’s development aims to tackle the cost issue of creating proofs associated with ZKP, which has led many projects to rely on centralized intermediaries.

According to Nil Foundation founder and CEO Mikhail Komarov, the Proof Market protocol sits somewhere between an auction and a marketplace.

\”It’s not just about the cost of the proof, but its timeliness. That’s another nuance we’ve had to deal with,\” he said.

According to the executive, prices for ZK proofs often depend on both the cost of computations and equipment costs. The startup is launching several generators. Komarov hopes that other players will also participate in the initiative.

The funds will be used to further deploy Proof Market.

Earlier, Vitalik Buterin, founder of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, called ZK-Rollups the central element of the blockchain scaling concept.

In September 2022, the BNB Chain team announced the launch of zkBNB based on zero-knowledge proofs.

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