Zkps Evolve From Theory To Reality To Bring Mainstream Blockchain Adoption

What Happened

“Aztec’s Noir and Risc0’s zkVM make ZK practical, letting developers turn existing codebases into ZK-enabled apps without needing to be cryptographers,” Vulic said.

Market Context

In addition, a number of large banks have started to incorporate crypto offerings into their business models. For example, Spanish banking giant BBVA recently became the first major lender to roll out 24/7 retail cryptocurrency trading.

Why It Matters

“A few years ago, writing a ZKP application meant designing custom circuits in low-level maths, something only cryptographers could do,” Vulic said. “Today, we are seeing new tools and languages that make ZK development accessible to any skilled programmer.”

Details

The blockchain sector is growing rapidly as more and more enterprises are beginning to leverage Web3 technology. A 2025 survey conducted by Boosty Labs found that nearly 90% of companies are experimenting with or have already implemented blockchain.

Privacy Remains the Missing Link for Mass Adoption

Privacy remains a key missing link for mass blockchain and crypto adoption.

According to findings from the consulting firm EY, enterprise transactions have been slow to take off due to the lack of privacy tools. A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of EY further reveals that enterprises are most concerned with privacy and security.

Tomer Weller, chief product officer at the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), told Cryptonews that while privacy was acceptable to sacrifice for early crypto adopters, it has become a non-negotiable for mass adoption—especially for enterprises that require privacy when using a public ledger.

The Role of ZKPs for Blockchain Privacy

Yet while privacy remains a major challenge for businesses using blockchain, Weller believes that many of these issues can be resolved through zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs).

“ZKPs enable both the openness that makes blockchains secure and trustworthy, along with the privacy that real-world users demand,” Weller said. “ZKPs allow someone to prove something is true, like ‘I have sufficient funds’ or ‘this transaction is compliant,’ without exposing the underlying data.”

Weller added that while zero-knowledge technology has been one of the most talked-about areas in blockchain for years, the concept has now matured to demonstrate scalability and privacy for Layer-1 (L1) networks like Stellar.

The Evolution of ZKPs: From Theory to Reality

To put this in perspective, Weller explained that SDF recently implemented tools to allow Web3 developers to easily write zero-knowledge applications in well-known programming languages.

This is important, as Weller noted that building zero-knowledge applications (often referred to as “zk circuits”) has historically been challenging. For instance, ZK circuits typically require domain expertise in zero-knowledge cryptography. For example, most ZK applications in existence today were built using the Circom DSL, also known as “domain-specific language.”

“Circom is a very powerful programming language, but equally challenging to master,” Weller said.

To make ZK applications more approachable, SDF recently partnered with privacy-focused Layer-2 Aztec Network to build a Noir programming language (NoirLang) verifier compatible with Stellar’s smart contract runtime.

Weller pointed out that “NoirLang” is a more modern ZK DSL that is very similar to the common programming language Rust. As a result, the learning curve required with NoirLang is less steep than that of Circom, making ZK applications more accessible.

Milica Vulic, developer relations engineer at zkVerify and a PhD candidate in Zero-Knowledge Proofs, further told Cryptonews that advancements such as these show how ZKPs are moving from academic theory into developer reality.

For example, Vulic noted that in addition to NoirLang, “Leo” is another programming language that lets developers write circuits in a high-level syntax, similar to traditional programming languages.

Vulic added that L1 blockchains can now integrate with existing zero-knowledge stacks, as demonstrated by Stellar.

Additionally, Vulic mentioned that open-source kits like zkVerifyJS and APIs through Horizen’s Relayer allow developers to verify proofs with a single function call instead of building infrastructure from scratch.

“The result is a shift from ‘cryptographers only’ to ‘any developer can plug in ZK.’ This evolution is what will push ZKPs from specialized use cases into mainstream applications,” Vulic stated.

The Rise of zkVMs