Astar Network, previously Plasm Network, is taking the next big step in Zero-Knowledge (ZK) projects and scalability solutions. Astar’s parent company, Stake Technologies, announced that the Web3 Open Grant they received would be used to fund the team’s ZK Plonk Project on Polkadot.  Implementing ZK Plonk On Substrate Pallet The company is working towards easy implementation of the ZK Plonk by Polkadot developers with the help of a plonk Substrate pallet. Created by Aztec, the ZK Plonk is also called Universal zkSNARK because of its fixed verification time and the universal reference string that builds proofs with any type of circuit. Thus, there is no need to recreate a trusted setup for every circuit created.  With ZK Proofs, one can prove a statement without disclosing any information. In terms of ZK proofs, there are two different main procedures, sender’s proof generation and prover’s proof verification. As the verification times are fixed and exact, the waiting period is not long, even for complicated proofs. Users can also use the original reference string. The plonk will be a core technology in terms of scaling and privacy solutions. zk-SNARKS and zk-STARKS are both popular ZK systems.  Web3 Foundation Investing In Decentralized Protocols The Web3 Foundation has been working with multiple companies to enhance the Web3 ecosystem. So far in 2021, the foundation has funded over 48 grants, with over 250 different projects being accepted in its grants program since inception. In December 2020, the then Plasm Network (now Astar) received an open grant from the  Web3 Foundation to implement ZK Rollups. The first milestone of the project, deploying the ZK Rollup contracts on Substrate and Astar Network, was then accomplished in March 2021.  Bringing Other ZK Systems To Polkadot Astar Network is a dApp hub on Polkadot that supports Ethereum Virtual Machine and layer 2 solutions like ZK Rollups. Back in March 2021, Astar Network Founder Sota Watanabe announced that Web3 Foundation accepted the first milestone of their ZK Rollups grant. He also spoke about the Ethereum ecosystem believing that it is likely to be all-in on rollups in the coming months.  “Under this condition, rollup compatibility will be a key function to foster Ethereum dApps on Polkadot.” With Polkadot’s ZK Rollups support, developers could build a multi-chain application and migrate to Polkadot without sacrificing the Rollups solution built on Ethereum. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.