Zcash developers to boost scalability and privacy for Filecoin and Ethereum

The Electric Coin Company (ECC), the team behind ZCash, has signed an agreement with Protocol Labs, the Filecoin Foundation and the Ethereum Foundation to explore Halo 2 R&D and how the technology might be used in their ecosystems. ECC aims to implement Halo Arc in ZCash in January 2022, with Halo Arc launching. Initially the upgrade was planned for October 1.

Electric Coin Co. has entered into an agreement with @protocollabs, the @FilFoundation, and the @Ethereum Foundation to explore Halo 2 R&D, including how the technology might be used in their respective ecosystems.https://t.co/KWrnsDhT5h#eth #filecoin #zcash

— Electric Coin Company 🛡️ (@ElectricCoinCo) September 20, 2021

ECC intends to implement the Halo Arc technology in ZCash in January 2022, with the launch of Halo Arc. Initially the upgrade was planned for October 1.

Protocol Labs and Filecoin Foundation are advancing Filecoin — the protocol, a marketplace, and a cryptocurrency for cloud storage. The Ethereum Foundation supports the development of technologies and solutions for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

“The result of the partnership could be the use of Halo 2 for Filecoin scalability. These are the ideas we will work on. In addition, the technology could improve interaction among Filecoin, Zcash and Ethereum, and this could open up opportunities for greater privacy in projects,” said ECC Vice President of Development Josh Swihart.

Under the terms of the agreement, ECC’s parent organization Bootstrap — a nonprofit — will receive $2 million. Filecoin Foundation, Protocol Labs and Ethereum Foundation will join the joint research and development into the use of recursive proof systems in the Zcash protocol.

The group will collectively study the following projects:

• Implementation of recursion in the Halo 2 proof system. The solution will form the basis for scaling Zcash, and could potentially enable zero-knowledge proofs for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM);
• Integration of Halo 2 into the Filecoin proof system. This is expected to help scale the network by reducing the amount of data that must be verified;
• Implementation of Halo 2 for the developing verifiable delay function (VDF). This foundational software element promises many use cases, including for smart-contract applications as a source of randomness, as well as for leader selection in Proof-of-Stake consensus protocols Proof-of-Stake.

The partners will work together with hardware provider SupraNational to accelerate cryptographic computations. This will aid in the design of GPU and ASIC, as well as in the development of the VDF.

According to ECC’s vice president of engineering Steven Smith, the industry has entered a multi-chain era, and cross-network proof verification “opens up a number of interesting possibilities.”

“Imagine a scenario where people write smart contracts on Ethereum, using Filecoin for storage and protected ZCash for payment. We are at an early stage, but this partnership is about possibilities,” Swihart said.

As a reminder, the Filecoin mainnet launch took place in October 2020. In the same month, Protocol Labs entered into a collaboration with ConsenSys to integrate Ethereum products.