The Good Tech Companies - ZK Tech is the Tool that will Mass Onboard Web3 Users

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

This story was originally published on HackerNoon at: https://hackernoon.com/zk-tech-is-the-tool-that-will-mass-onboard-web3-users. Google’s recent announcement that it is integrating Zero-Knowledge-Proofs (ZKPs) marks a hige win for web3 technology Check more stories related to web3 at: https://hackernoon.com/c/web3. You can also check exclusive content about #zk-protocols, #zksnarks, #zk-proofs, #galxe, #crypto-friendly-kyc, #kyc, #web3-adoption, #good-company, and more. This story was written by: @galxe. Learn more about this writer by checking @galxe's about page, and for more stories, please visit hackernoon.com. Google’s recent announcement that it is integrating Zero-Knowledge-Proofs (ZKPs) into its wallet services marks the first time that a technology incubated by the cryptocurrency industry has found wider adoption in the mainstream web2 world. This rollout signals that ZKPs' potential to improve user experience and data protection is not only vital within web3, but well beyond.

This audio is presented by Hacker Noon, where anyone can learn anything about any technology. ZK Tech is the tool that will mass onboard Web3 users, by Galax. By Yumen Shah, Chief Technology Officer at Web3 growth platform GalaxyGoogle's recent announcement that it is integrating zero-knowledge proofs, ZKPs, into its wallet services marks the first time that a technology incubated by the cryptocurrency industry has found wider adoption in the mainstream Web2 world. This rollout signals that Zcape's potential to improve user experience and data protection is not only vital within Web3, but well beyond. As the name suggests, zero-knowledge technology enables the verification of claims, like a person's identity, age, or credit score, for example,

without the need for the verifier to see the underlying information. Using ZKPs allows users registering for a new product or service to prove they meet the provider's requirements without explicitly exposing their information. Invented in 1989 by Goldwasser, Michali, and Racco, these proofs lived a shadow existence for decades despite the seemingly obvious privacy benefits. One reason for their lack of immediate application is that proofs remained computationally heavy. As hardware became more powerful and facilitated the verification of proofs, blockchain became a playground for ZKP adoption.

The first to implement ZKSnarks a proof type, was Zcash, a privacy coin that relied on proofs to allow userstow transact under the guise of anonymity. ZK Tech's role in scaling blockchain, in addition to their privacy benefits, ZKPs also provide immediate efficiency gains for the protocols implementing them. Instead of computing the entirety of the underlying information again, ZKPs reduce the workload to verifying a single proof instead. Filecoin, an incentive layer on top of the IPFS blockchain that pays data storage providers for hosting data, adopted ZKPs in 2020 to reduce the time it took to verify that data was stored correctly. This move didn't just benefit Filecoin's network efficiency, it also reduced costs for data storage providers by reducing the amount of information they had to disclose. To this day, Filecoin continues producing millions of proofs every day, making it one

of the largest implementations of ZK Snarks. Nevertheless, data storage and privacy coins aren't the only implementation of ZKPs in crypto. More recently, countless rollup teams have used proofs to reduce the amount of data they have to submit to the layer 1 chains they operate from. The problem with current crypto onboarding. While ZKPs have paved the way for scaling Ethereum and given rise to new privacy preserving apps, the inflow of new users into crypto remains low.

Often, new users enter Web3 through a centralized exchange to convert fiat into crypto. Due to the fragmented identity landscape, they must complete tedious know-your-customer – KYC – processes for each platform, creating a barrier to broader adoption. With an increase of regulatory scrutiny on the crypto space, and a desire to hold bad actors accountable, chances are that compliance won't be limited to centralized exchanges either. Rather, it's likely KYC processes will become a key risk hedging strategy for any project launching a protocol that potentially allows private transfers or exchange of meaningful funds. However, the reality is that, the easier the onboarding, the more likely users are to sign

up and go through with their transfer and so creating more barriers to entry into Web3 will, in fact, protect no one as it drives down revenues. Zero-knowledge proofs offer a path that solves this conundrum. One that solve a steep compliance question, but which dispenses with the user friction that hinders growth. The cost of repetitive KYC. The above problem isn't limited to Web3, either. It's a larger issue around how identity is managed online.

Traditional implementations of KYC processes posse three problems to the user. 1. Identity theft. A user's information might be copied and distributed without their knowledge. 2. Bundling. Usually, KYC procedures collect more data than is really necessary. 3. Lack of control. No transparency into what happens with the data. As trust in institutions wanes and hackers grow increasingly sophisticated, it's a tall order to ask users to trust anyone with data that makes them vulnerable to attacks. Meanwhile, storing sensitive data creates a burden that even well-established corporations

such as T-Mobile struggle with. ZKPs equals compliance without compromise. Aspiring crypto users expect the same smooth user experience from crypto exchanges as they receive from their mobile banking apps. Currently, though, this is far from the case. ZKPs have the ability to solve not just this issue, but to bring an enhanced level of security and privacy to providers and users. What's more, when combined with a digital identity system, ZKTech paves the way for

KYC solutions that don't force users through repetitive KYC. Instead, Attela's them to complete a KYC process just once, and then present only their ZKPFOR verification when onboarding to new platforms. On top of cutting costs for companies, such identity systems also provide an advantage for compliance with Counterterrorism Financing, CTF, and Anti-Money Laundering, AML, regulations as protocols would be able to verify whether any of the wallets tied to an identity had been involved in illicit activity. The path to mass adoption via ZK. Studies have found that up to 68% of consumers abandoned financial apps during onboarding due to the inherent friction.

In an industry already struggling with onboarding, forward-looking businesses can turn the implementation of ZK Tecento a competitive advantage, offering a seamless sign-up flow while establishing high levels of trust through data minimization. ZKPs represent a breakthrough technology that benefits business users, regulators, and users all the same, explaining its appeal to big Web2 giants such as Google. As more projects implement ZK-powered identity and KYC solutions, web 3 will become significantly easier to navigate from an onboarding perspective, and gain trust by adhering to existing regulatory systems.

For web 3 projects looking to scale beyond early adopters and tap into more mainstream markets, implementing ZK tech won't just be a question of optimization. Instead, this technology will become part of the essential infrastructure that will onboard millions into web 3 products and services that Thajon serve them in any number of ways. Thank you for listening to this Hacker Noon story, read by Artificial Intelligence. Visit hackernoon.com to read, write, learn and publish.