ZKValidator running a validator group on Celo
ZKValidator is now running a validator group on Celo, the eighth network we are offering validating services on to date. We are also proud to be running the validating infrastructure in-house expanding on our internal devops operations. The strategic decision to validate on Celo stems from the demonstrated alignment the Celo ecosystem has with furthering privacy and zero-knowledge adoption in blockchain systems, central to ZKValidators core values.
If you would like to join us in supporting privacy and zero knowledge tech in the blockchain space, you can stake your Celo to ZKValidator — follow the instructions detailed on our webpage.
What is Celo?
Celo is a proof-of-stake, EVM-compatible, open source and mobile-first platform that makes financial dApps and crypto payments accessible to anyone with a mobile phone. Users on their mobile devices sync with the Celo blockchain using light clients, this enables rapid syncing with low bandwidth requirements. After syncing from the genesis block, only the latest epoch block and verification is required by the light client, with verification entailing a minimum of two thirds of the validators signing the block header, a feature of the byzantine fault tolerant consensus algorithm used in the Celo blockchain. Light clients then transmit transactions to full nodes, with full nodes incentivised to pass these transactions onto validators by earning gateway fees. Validators then order transactions, add them to blocks and reach consensus with other validators in the set.
How do Celo and ZKValidator align?
Celo has shown a strong commitment to implementing zero-knowledge proof technology into the network and ensuring the privacy of their users data is maintained.
The Plumo Ultralight Sync is one such implementation of zero-knowledge proof based technology utilised as a scaling solution. The time for a light client to sync increases in direct proportion to the time it has not been synced for. With an epoch in the Celo blockchain lasting approximately one day, a light client can take some time to sync if it is not used for a while. In the near future, these light clients interacting with the Celo blockchain will be able to sync even faster through zero-knowledge proof technology. The Plumo Ultralight Sync harnesses the power of SNARKs (Succinct Non-interactive ARguments of Knowledge), a type of cryptographic proof. With Plumo, the light client can verify the state of the blockchain by checking a SNARK that verifies multiple previous epochs and the latest epoch block header rather than all of the last blocks in each epoch enabling considerably faster syncing.
The privacy of a Celo user’s mobile phone number is ensured through the Oblivious Decentralised Identifier Service (ODIS). ODIS was developed to ensure that a user’s phone number isn’t publicly associated with Celo blockchain accounts and balances. To link a blockchain address to a phone number, both the phone number and a secret pepper is required. The pepper is sought out by querying ODIS in a privacy-preserving manner and the decentralised design of ODIS means that no single participant can compute the pepper for a single phone number. This was achieved through a distributed key generation (DKG) ceremony prior to the deployment of ODIS.
At the end of 2021, Celo sponsored the ZK Hack, an event dedicated to zero-knowledge education that ZKValidator co-hosted. Members of ZKValidator have also actively participated in the Plumo setup and we are grateful to the Celo Foundation for supporting our validator group. We are excited to be a part of the Celo ecosystem.
Head over to our website to learn how to stake your Celo to ZKValidator and earn 6% APY. To stay up to date, follow us on twitter or reach out directly to susannah@zkvalidator.com with any questions or suggestions of how we can further support privacy and zero knowledge tech.
