# ZK Knowledge Base in Roam Research
<!-- ## What, So What, Now What?
### What
Zero Knowledge Proofs have exploded onto the scene and have become a key piece for the future of Ethereum. The two broadest technical pain points currently for Ethereum are arguably scalability and privacy. ZK tech can be utilized to help with both issues.

**Scalability:** zkps offer the ability to bring computation off chain without sacrificing the security of the main chain. TLDR is that this means cheaper txs. In their strongest form, ZK Rollups lock assets and store their state source of truth on a contract on Ethereum main chain. A separate blockchain then runs and compresses the state changes into a zk proof which verifies that the transactions were valid. If the validators on the separate blockchain (L2) censors transactions, users have the ability to force through valid txs on the main chain contract and retrieve their assets.

**Privacy:** Main stream adoption of Ethereum as the neutral settlement layer likely requires a significant change to current radical transparency. Businesses don't want all parts of their contracts public, and users are looking to escape the current capitalist surveillance state we live in. ZK tech allows for inputs to be obfuscated while still confirming the validity of transactions. From TC's merkle tree inclusion proofs to Aztec's layer two infrastructure zkps offer multiple angles of attack to solve the privacy question.

As such an important piece of the Ethereum road map, the goal should be to advance research and understanding to the largest group of people possible. That is the best way to continue the torrid pace that has constituted the past few years in the space. -->

<!-- #### Beginners:
ZK is at the intersection of cryptographic math, computer science, and blockchain. This makes learning from scratch a very difficult task for all but the most determined students. With a different approach we -->

<!-- ### So What? -->

### Problem
ZK has exploded over the past few years from a relatively obscure research topic, to a fully functional and useful tool in production. With the rapid pace of advancement, the educational resources have not kept pace. It is hard to start learning about zk tech, stay abreast of progress happening, and connect the different important concepts.

### Solution
The concepts in zk are very dense, with Jordi Baylina himself taking a month to understand Vitalik's early snark paper. Into this challenge we propose a new knowledge bank system called Roam Research. Roam is built to harness the power of bi-directional hyperlinks, kind of like Tim Berner Lee's Enquire on steroids. The goal of this project is to utilize the hyperlink system to connect concepts between multiple resources. This has the effect of both allowing researchers to quickly find info on a foundational concept, as well as connecting ideas that are not immediately obvious candidates to be connected.

### Team
Currently the team consists of 6 researchers, 5 of whom are on grants with the PSE team. I would serve as a project owner, organizing the project towards the long term goals and encouraging additional contributions from outside the team. A friend who is a world class educator and tutor has offered to mentor me through the process in a science based manor.

### Goal: To create the preeminent learning resource for ZK Tech on the web

### Road Map
The key to unlocking the power of Roam Research, and differentiate this knowledge bank from others is in the linking and categorization mechanism. This linking requires content to all be on the site.
* 1a: Contact the authors for all informational content and post the content as pages in a graph
* 1b: Create the organization within the Roam graph for the research team to begin posting information (concurrent with 1a)
* 2a: Create pages for each relevant topic composed of information from the different learning resources.
* 2b: Create bidirectional links between different pieces of content.
* 3: Comb through the information to understand where we are most deficient in information and ask the team to prioritize those areas. (concurrent with 1b)
* 4 . Open the Graph to the public and allow them to add content in a lightly permissioned way
* 5 . Build a curriculum for different knowledge tracks potentially including:
* Beginners
* Intermediate
* Bleeding Edge
* Non-math Track
* Learn by Coding

### Future Road Map
* Tag the type of track and knowledge required for each piece of content
* Create like and ranking buttons for pages
* Create requests for different concepts or subjects not included to help content creators understand what knowledge gaps exist.
* Capture the path users take through resources and present it as recommended options for the next article to read
* Allow for content creation based on different tracks for each page of subject matter
* For instance, when new papers come out users could do a non-jargon version of the technical research papers or a juperbook version of implementation in code
* This could really help users still understand the high level of new platforms like Halo 2 without needing to wade through complicated math
* Reward creators with some kind of (NFT?) signal for their contribution to the project. Maybe for the purpose of showing knowledge for being hired.

<!-- ### Existing Projects:
* My own project: [ZK Learning Resources.md](https://github.com/outsider-analytics/ZK-Circuit-Performance-and-Security-Data/blob/main/ZK_Learning_Resources.md)
* Technical compilation that stopped being updated in 2019: https://zkp.science/
* Full cryptography course from Tari Labs University I only scratched the surface of: https://tlu.tarilabs.com/cryptography
* Justin Martin's accessible "where do i start" resource list with good context: https://hackmd.io/24W3m1kERC-8BrI0giBRNQ?view
* Tolks' Substack ZK Landscape: https://page1.substack.com/p/the-zero-knowledge-landscape?s=r
* Matter Labs' "Awesome" list: https://github.com/matter-labs/awesome-zero-knowledge-proofs#readme
* AtHeartEngineer's zk Tech reddit with little overlap from other sources: https://www.reddit.com/r/zkTech/
* Domenico's notion page, don't miss the ZK Research section! https://humorous-kick-fcd.notion.site/ZK-cryptography-e3e36f6130d5470cbae3be7003763476 -->