Client-Side Proving – Unlocking the Next Generation of Private, Verifiable Applications

This panel explores the expanding frontier of client-side ZK applications— zk-identity, proof of humanity, zkLogin, zkMail, private payments, decentralized trading, and even provable AI—highlighting how local proof generation is revolutionizing user sovereignty, privacy, and security.

As zero-knowledge (ZK) technologies move from research to real-world deployment, client-side proving emerges as a pivotal capability for unlocking entirely new paradigms in both on-chain and off-chain computation. This panel explores the expanding frontier of client-side ZK applications— zk-identity, proof of humanity, zkLogin, zkMail, private payments, decentralized trading, and even provable AI—highlighting how local proof generation is revolutionizing user sovereignty, privacy, and security.

We will explore the diverse landscape of proving systems available today, contrasting the leading approaches such as SNARKs, STARKs, and emerging paradigms such as recursive proofs and hybrid models, and combinations with TEEs. By dissecting their respective performance characteristics, cryptographic assumptions, hardware requirements, and developer tooling, we aim to illuminate the design tradeoffs facing builders in this space.

We'll discuss advances in browser-based proving, mobile optimization to push the boundaries of what’s feasible directly on user devices—shifting the locus of trust and computation away from centralized servers and towards the edges of the network.