██ Applied ZK in Kusama ▓▓▓ Hacking OpenGov for privacy Let's explore ZK applied to our favorite Kusama feature, governance!
1 / 15 About Me Founder of Virto Passionate about:
• 🐦 Kusama
• 🔓 Open Source
• 🔒 Privacy
• 🌐 Decentralization
• 🦀 Rust
2 / 15 About Virto ▍ "Web3 CTO as a Service"
We are the tech ally of founders who want to get into Web3 but don't know how. Our focus: Kusama as a simple to integrate Web2-like backend with all the tools
founders need for their project to succeed. 3 / 15 The Problem ▒▒▒▒ Real organizations need privacy
Current OpenGov: • All votes are public and traceable • Membership is always visible • Voters can be coerced 4 / 15 OpenGov Quick Overview ▓▓▓ Understanding the foundation Key components:
• Referenda: Manages polls and
lifecycle • Tracks: Different governance paths
• Voting Pallets: Implement who
votes, on what, with what weight 5 / 15 Communities Pallet ▓▓▓ Our gateway to privacy Current state: Perfect for privacy because:
• Permissionless creation of DAOs • Flexible membership model
• NFT-based membership • Extensible voting mechanics
• Public voting • Open vote counting 6 / 15 Privacy Levels ▓▓▓ Different needs, different solutions Level │ Membership │ Vote │ Count │ Use Case ──────┼────────────┼─────────┼───────────┼───────────────── 0 │ Public │ Public │ Public │ Current OpenGov
1 │ Public │ Private │ Public │ Board decisions
2 │ Private │ Public │ Public │ Voter protection
3 │ Private │ Private │ Encrypted │ Maximum privacy
7 / 15 Level 1: Anonymous Voting ▓▓▓ Public membership, private votes How it works: Circuit proves: "I am a member and cast
this vote" 1. Member generates ZK proof of membership 2. Submits vote with proof 3. Public counting proceeds 8 / 15 Level 2: Hidden Membership ▓▓▓ Private membership, open counting Key innovation: Circuit proves: "Voting happed
off-chain, here's the vote" • ZK-friendly merkle tree of DAO members kept off-chain • Member can proof she can vote with the given conviction 9 / 15 Level 3: Encrypted Counting ▓▓▓ Maximum privacy with homomorphic encryption Homomorphic counting: Perfect combination:
• Votes encrypted with HE scheme • ZK: Proves valid encrypted vote
• Tallying on encrypted values • HE: Enables private counting
• Decrypt only final result 10 / 15 Anonymous Proposals ▓▓▓ Using pallet-pass for ZK dispatching Process:
1. Generate ZK membership proof 2. Validate transaction comes from a DAO member 3. Submit referendum from community origin 4. Proposal appears without attribution 11 / 15 Virto's Developer Tools ▓▓▓ Making ZK accessible The challenge:
#[zink::circuit]
• Circuit development is complex mod membership_proof {
• Unfamiliar syntax for Substrate #[message]
devs fn verify_member(
• High learning curve &self,
#[private] member_id: Field,
Our solution: #[private] path: [Field; 8],
) -> bool {
• ink!-like DSL for circuits merkle_verify(
• Familiar contract syntax member_id,
• Seamless pallet integration path,
self.merkle_root
)
}
}
12 / 15
Implementation Roadmap ▓▓▓ From concept to reality Phase 0: Developer Tools Phase 2: Private Voting
• ink!-like DSL • Vote commitments & reveals
• Integration tooling • Level 1 privacy
Phase 1: Foundation Phase 3: Advanced Privacy
• Extend communities pallet • Homomorphic encryption
• Basic ZK membership proofs • Levels 2 & 3 privacy
• Anonymous proposals 13 / 15 Real-World Applications ▓▓▓ Who needs private governance? Corporate Governance:
• Board vote confidentiality • Shareholder privacy • IP protection DAOs & Communities: • Anonymous whistleblowing • Sensitive discussions • Anti-coercion protection Public Institutions: • Judicial decisions • Academic peer review • Grant allocations 14 / 15
Let's Brainstorm Together! ▓▓▓ How can we make Kusama governance private? Discussion topics: Your ideas are welcome:
• What privacy features matter most? • Novel privacy mechanisms
• Which use cases should we • Integration approaches
prioritize? • User experience improvements
• How do we balance privacy with • Governance model innovations
transparency? • What developer tools would help adoption? Let's hack governance together! Connect:
📧 daniel@virto.team 💬 @olanod:virto.community 15 / 15