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Hybrid ZK Proof of Stake & Useful Work

0KN's incentives are a key facilitator of the decentralized nature of the network. Rewards have an innovative approach to balance the use of a single token within the context of providing a high-resolution of component-specific incentives to properly sustain the network and its growing ecosystem. Network components include but are are not limited to protocol revisions, test networks, as well as different types of devices, supportive services, and their measurable differentiating characteristics.

Zero Knowledge Proofs​

ZKProofs protect the privacy of node characteristics and their operators by separating and privatizing personal information including crypto accounts, rewards, Implemented as runtime modules within 0KN's Application Chain, protocol consensus mechanisms are facilitated with cutting-edge flexibility and privacy. Protocols are able to evolve as needed and support a multitude of incentivized opportunities uniquely tailored to the characteristics of the decentralized service being rewarded.

Proof of Useful Work​

Unlike other decentralized systems that rely on useless computations for proof-of-work consensus, 0KN financial rewards are aligned to promote network decentralization, growth, and overall health by measuring and rewarding that which supports the network; i.e. useful work. In this manner, even lightweight nodes are able to contribute to the network's decentralized operations as full nodes. Within the decentralized 0KNetwork, useful work includes but is not limited to:

  • transmission of data (network)
  • storage
  • compute
  • proof validation

Proof of Stake​

Additionally and in tandem, proof-of-stake promotes network health by rewarding good behaviors and eliminating bad ones including but not limited to network spamming, DDoS, and malicious and/or poorly performing nodes.

Private Staking & Rewards Overview​

Due to the flexibility and cross-chain capabilities of the underlying ZK utilities provided by Mina and Protokit, many implementations are possible. The 0KN R&D targets the maximization of privacy within a optimal rewards model within the broader tokenomics of the system. The following diagram illustrates a high-level overview for one such approach as an example process whereby $0KN ERC20 may be staked on Ethereum L1 while receiving rewards privately in 0KN's ZK Privacy Token. ZKProofs are used to minimize the information made available to decentralized networked components so they only have what is necessary for their function. For example, the node operator's wallet address for receiving privacy tokens as rewards is never revealed, only privately registered as an ZK- Merkle Mapped association with a node ID and proof of Ethereum address ownership, then subsequently used to claim rewards.

Figure 1: Illustrative example flow for private staking rewards