“ZK is a rare technology - unquestionably, unambiguously correct directionally. There’s a future where every computation that secures economic value will be proven with zero-knowledge.” -
@Ismael_H_R, Founder of
@lagrangedev
In Ismael's view, ZK sits alongside AI and quantum as R&D that will compound for decades. In that world, anything tied to value - blockchain consensus, DeFi risk checks, even cloud AI workflows - ships with a proof.
What does that world look like? Blockchains don’t just assume their state transitions - they accompany them with validity proofs. DeFi apps don’t just query prices - they prove the pricing logic ran correctly. Cloud services don’t just run AI - they attest which model ran and what it actually computed.
To get there, Ismael argues that we need two guarantees:
• Safety (cryptographic correctness): the proof says the computation was done right.
• Liveness (timely delivery): the proof arrives when the system needs it.
A proof alone buys safety; a resilient proving infrastructure - often decentralized or market-based - buys liveness. If a validity proof or a risk-check proof doesn’t arrive on time, withdrawals stall, liquidations misfire, and users take real risk. This is why mechanism design (auctions that match proof demand to compute supply, incentives, penalties for missed deadlines) are becoming an imperative part of the ZK story.
The scope of ZK also extends far beyond blockchains. As more economic activity rides on inference - from finance to healthcare to autonomy - verifiability matters: proving which model ran, that inputs weren’t tampered with, and that outputs are consistent.
If the “GDP of knowledge work” leans on AI, the trust layer will be ZK.
Watch Ismael's full talk 'The Holy Grail of Decentralized Proof Generation at Scale' from
@Zk_Hub_Global at
@EthereumDenver:
piped.video/watch?v=zv1JsaI7…