# Introduction

NEBRA is a research & development organization working to make the zero-knowledge future a reality. We research and build technologies, infrastructure, and products to facilitate the mass adoption of zero-knowledge proofs. 

Our first step towards this goal is to scale the proof settlement capabilities of Ethereum in a trustless and censorship resistant manner. To achieve this, we are developing [Universal Proof Aggregation](https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/869) technologies, to aggregate proofs generated from different circuits, different proof systems and different parties. 

### The Problem: expensive ZKP onchain settlement

One of the biggest problems preventing the zero-knowledge future from becoming reality is the high cost of onchain settlement (verification). The table below shows the cost of verifying different kinds of zero-knowledge proofs on Ethereum today:

| Proof System | Gas Cost  | FIAT cost (30 gwei gas/ Ether 3000 USD) |
| ------------ | --------- | --------------------------------------- |
| Groth16      | 250,000   | 22.5 US Dollar                          |
| Halo2-KZG    | 400,000   | 36 US Dollar                            |
| STARK-FRI    | 1,500,000 | 105 US Dollar                           |

This expensive proof verification cost means that only a few kinds of applications can be built today (namely those that can justify the high verification cost), and only a subset of users (those that can afford it) have access to proof verification. We believe that a future where onboarding to vote privately on a DAO costs $20 will exclude a majority of the world, a majority who we believe blockchain technology should also serve.

NEBRA proposes using zero knowledge proofs themselves to scale zero knowledge proof verification. As a result, zero knowledge proof settlement on Ethereum can be more accessible to the general public. The core idea is to use highly efficient recursive SNARKs ([IVCs](https://iacr.org/archive/tcc2008/49480001/49480001.pdf)/[PCDs](https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/61151)) to get a near unlimited amount of recursion (almost) for free. This means we can recursively prove multiple zero-knowledge proofs **off-chain**, and verify only *a single aggregated proof* **onchain**. This significantly improves on the status quo, and provides nearly unbounded efficiency.


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