About
What this is
This is a reference site about zk-SNARKs — not an organization.
“zksnark.foundation” is a domain name chosen for the topic, in the same
.foundation style as other single-topic reference sites in this small
network (see below) — it isn’t the name of an institution, and nothing on
this site should be read as one.
Why it exists
zk-SNARKs are one of the hardest topics in this whole space to get an honest, working introduction to: most explanations either wave at “magic math” or dive straight into polynomial commitments and pairings without ever letting you run anything. This site takes a narrower, more honest path — it doesn’t pretend to implement a full zk-SNARK in your browser (see what a zk-SNARK is for exactly why not), and instead gives you a real, working proof-of-knowledge scheme to run yourself, with the scope of what that demo does and doesn’t show stated plainly rather than implied.
Every historical claim and citation on this site is sourced to a specific paper or primary reference (see History and Further reading); nothing is stated from memory without a source. The interactive demo computes real values in your browser — see Interactive and Code — nothing is mocked or precomputed.
Part of a small network of reference sites
This site shares its design and editorial approach with a small, growing set of independent reference sites on specific cryptographic primitives: Pedersen Commitments (Torben Pedersen’s commitment scheme), Garbled Circuits (Yao’s garbled circuits), VDF (Verifiable Delay Functions), and TEE (Trusted Execution Environments). Each covers one topic; none of them is an organization, and they aren’t affiliated with each other beyond sharing a template.
Who maintains this
This is an independent educational project maintained by one person, with public source and open contributions (see below). It is not affiliated with Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali, Charles Rackoff, Amos Fiat, Adi Shamir, Claus-Peter Schnorr, Nir Bitansky, Ran Canetti, Alessandro Chiesa, Eran Tromer, Jens Groth, Ariel Gabizon, Zachary Williamson, Oana Ciobotaru, Zcash, IACR, or any of the other researchers and organizations whose work it cites and links to.
Proposing a correction or addition
The site’s source is public on GitHub at github.com/Qubitpower/zksnark-foundation. If you spot an error — a wrong date, a broken link, a math mistake in the demo — please open an issue or a pull request there.