# Grant Application: Zk-CosmWasm: A Programmable Selective Disclosure WebAssembly Smart Contract Virtual Machine **URL:** \ **Category:** Applications\ **Created:** [January 9, 2026, 7:20pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/grant-application-zk-cosmwasm-a-programmable-selective-disclosure-webassembly-smart-contract-virtual-machine/54211 "2026-01-09T19:20:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 10
**Author:** ![hard-nett](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/zcash/user_avatar/forum.zcashcommunity.com/hard-nett/32/39467_2.png) [@hard-nett](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/u/hard-nett)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2026, 5:35pm UTC](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/grant-application-zk-cosmwasm-a-programmable-selective-disclosure-webassembly-smart-contract-virtual-machine/54211/10 "2026-07-21T17:35:54Z")
Hi! Reopening this grant track with hopes of our efforts refining clarity of both value add for Zcash and progress made since we originally opened this will make this a much more easy yes for the grants committee. Here is the new grant prop with our initial details:: > > > \### Terms and Conditions > > \- \[x\] I agree to the \[Grant Agreement\](https://9ba4718…c-5c73-47c3-a024-4fc4e5278803.usrfiles.com/ugd/9ba471\_f81ef4e4b5f040038350270590eb2e42.pdf) terms if funded > \- \[x\] I agree to \[Provide KYC information\](https://9ba4718c-5c73-47c3-a024-4fc4e5278803.usrfiles.com/ugd/9ba471\_7d9e73d16b584a61bae92282b208efc4.pdf) if funded above $50,000 USD > \- \[x\] I agree to disclose conflicts of interest > \- \[x\] I agree to adhere to the \[Code of Conduct\](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcg-code-of-conduct/41787) and \[Communication Guidelines\](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/zcg-communication-guidelines/44284) > \- \[x\] I understand all milestone deliverables will be validated and accepted by their intended users or their representatives, who will confirm that the deliverables meet the required quality, functionality, and usability for each user story. > \- \[x\] I agree that for any new open-source software, I will create a \`CONTRIBUTING.md\` file that reflects the high standards of Zcash development, using the \[\`librustzcash\` style guides\](https://github.com/zcash/librustzcash/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#styleguides) as a primary reference. > \- \[x\] I understand when contributing to existing Zcash code, I am required to adhere to the project specific contribution guidelines, paying close attention to any \[merge\](https://github.com/zcash/librustzcash/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#merge-workflow), \[branch\](https://github.com/zcash/librustzcash/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#branch-history), \[pull request\](https://github.com/zcash/librustzcash/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#pull-request-review), and \[commit\](https://github.com/zcash/librustzcash/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#commit-messages) guidelines as exemplified in the \`librustzcash\` repository. > \- \[x\] I agree to post request details on the \[Community Forum\](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/c/grants/33) > \- \[x\] I understand it is my responsibility to post a link to this issue on the \[Zcash Community Forums\](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/c/grants/33) after this application has been submitted so the community can give input. I understand this is required in order for ZCG to discuss and vote on this grant application. > > \### Application Owners (@Octocat, @Octocat1) > > @hard-nett > > \### Organization Name > > Discover Decentralization DAO > > \### How did you learn about Zcash Community Grants > > Zechub DAO member Lowo while connecting with open source contributors in cosmos eco, and social media. > > \### Requested Grant Amount (USD) > > $230,000 > > \### Category > > Infrastructure > > \### Project Lead > > \`\`\`project-lead.yaml > Name: Austin Hardnett > Role: Technical Lead / Principal Architect > Background: 5 years domain specialized in cosmwasm & broader cosmos-sdk stack > Responsibilities: > - Project creator & lead > - Proof system integration > - Security review coordination > - Milestone delivery oversight > - Community support and feedback integration > - SDK documentation and tutorials > - Developer onboarding materials > \`\`\` > > \### Additional Team Members > > \`\`\`team-members.yaml > \- TBA:: coordinating availability with our additional team member for design-space hackathon and community-audit curation > \`\`\` > > \### Project Summary > > > This is a followup sponsorship proposal to our original project, now including much more precise value add for Zcash for 52% less ask. We also include the commitment of curation a community driven audit & digital hackathon event, powered by our stack built in this grant, and request for sponsorship of prize rewards and compute credits for participants. > > The stack includes a proof-verification CosmWasm VM, various libraries and tooling for quick circuit on-ramping, Zcash focused smart contract design patterns (smart-accounts and custom vote-sdk commitment usage), various IBC/TAO light clients flavors, custom consensus vote-extension ingress/egress libraries for experimenting with native, trustless packet settlement that powers private voting and selective disclosure requirements. > > A fork of the zechub bounties ui was also made to allow support for native ui nesting in dao-dao-ui, along with various key derivation patterns used in zcash for authentication during participating during hackathon curation. Authentication registration and submission will all be powered by the capabilities available from our selective disclosure stack itself, bringing the value add to this grant immediately to the Zcash community. > > \### Project Description > > > We extended CosmWasm for multi-curve proof verification with modular verification-key storage, and ship IBC/TAO light clients that track Zcash under Crosslink hybrid finality and under pure PoW confirmation depth. > > Composition work (vote-sdk, smart-account auth) and JWT access derived from Zcash-native curves let builders gate actions and route access from existing wallet material. The result is portable verification of Zcash-grade proofs and headers where DAOs, selective disclosure apps, and cross-chain clients are all able to retain and extend properties of Zcash's design. > > > \### Proposed Problem > > Private coinholder voting, selective disclosure, and Crosslink finality assume strong Zcash crypto and consensus. Taking those guarantees into smart contracts and IBC apps still needs a verifiable execution path and light clients that do not rely on trusted bridge committees. Those options remain limited. > > \### Proposed Solution > > > Since zcash notes need state roots for inclusion proof integrity, we need to be able to verify the integrity of getting this critical data from a to z. Once this is assured, then the remote destination is able to make use of proofs that involve inclusion proofs, where the root is a public instance, briging integrity of the results of the zcash protocol into these remote ecosystems. This does require these remote ecosystem to have the capabilities to compute if a proof is vali or not. We had to make our remote system, the wasmvm, able to efficiently store and retrieve and use circuits, kinda just like the design space of smart contracts devops or the actor model, where you build it, and then upload it and then its referencable by other objects (smart contracts). We customized the vm's caching tiers so that the reusable parameters and circuits are stored in cache for quick retrieval and composition during app state computations, which is really what separates our design from just using native smart contracts to accomplish this task. > > We propose a few examples of designs within this stack that offers clear value and solutions for zcash: > > \- Proof-verification VM for Halo2-class / Zcash-aligned proofs in CosmWasm > \- IBC light clients: ICS-08-WASM Crosslink , Native POW > \- Public Zcash header/finality verify path and outsider loops (real headers + Crosslink finality where available; ZIP-221) > \- vote-sdk and smart-account composition for eligibility, private ballots, and gated execute > \- access gated design control powered by light client verification, extended with Zcash-native curves (wallet-derived auth) for dao events (ZIP-321) > \- Community-led audit and design-space hackathon for curating sustainable opportunity for participants to explore design space > > \### Solution Format > > > | Format | Description | > |--------|-------------| > | Proof-verification VM | CosmWasm / Wasmer path with modular verification-key API and tiered circuit caching (memory → LRU → filesystem) | > | Native Zcash crypto primitives | Curves and hashes usable from contracts (e.g. Blake2b, Blake3; Pallas/Vesta and related Orchard-class support as residual) | > | IBC light clients (IBC/TAO, 08-wasm) | Header path: frozen check, trusted height, confirmation depth, block commitment, Ed25519 batch, PoW anchor, finalizer roster | > | Consensus-state ingress loops | Real Zcash headers (+ Crosslink finality where available) into dual LCs; Consensus vote-extensions ingress zcash headers for availablility without any additional trust assumptions; grounded in ZIP-221 | > | vote-sdk composition | Eligibility and ballot commitments, DAO voting surface examples, circuit integrations | > | Smart-account authenticators | Multi-credential auth (including passkeys and curve credentials) for gated DAO actions, Wallet-derived access (JWT + Zcash curves) extend JWT support so auth routing can derive from existing Zcash-aligned wallets | > | Benchmarking & e2e suite | Real Docker chain images; e2e tests mapped to public CI | > | Community-led audit + design-space hackathon | Open audit participation and builder event on the grant stack | > > > \### Dependencies > > > \- \[zk-cosmwasm\](https://github.com/permissionlessweb/cosmwasm) > \- \[zebra-crosslink\](https://github.com/ShieldedLabs/zebra-crosslink) > \- \[IBC/ICS specifications\](https://github.com/cosmos/ibc) > \- \[ZIP-221: FlyClient consensus-layer\](https://zips.z.cash/zip-0221) > \- \[ADR-064: ABCI 2.0 / Vote Extensions\](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/blob/main/docs/architecture/adr-064-abci-2.0.md) (consensus-state / header ingress via vote extensions — no extra trust assumptions beyond the validator set) > \- \[vote-sdk\](https://github.com/valargroup/vote-sdk/) > \- \[smart-account-auth\](https://github.com/permissionlessweb/terp-rs/tree/v0.0.2-dev/contracts/smart-accounts) > > > > \### Technical Approach > > > \- Document & formally verify proof-verify APIs and VK storage > \- E2e orchestration; map each grant e2e test claim to a named test target on real chain images, 100% local. > \- Live public testnet with full suite of applications > \- Consensus-state ingress: Zebra/header export + check-pointed chain updates via vote-extensions > \- custom vote-sdk + smart-account composition: eligibility, private ballot patterns, gated execute > \- IBC/TAO light clients (Crosslink + pure PoW) with reviewer-reproducible demos > \- Community-led audit and design-space hackathon with clear participation paths > \- Compute credit sponsorship campaign managed via self-hosted inference gateway router > - inference tracing captured > - auth & submissions accessed powered by light client & vm usage > > > \### Upstream Merge Opportunities > > > \- Crosslink light clients > \- Zechub bounties board & dao-dao-ui > \- Zcash eco cross-chain envrionment e2e testing libraries > \- ZIP extensions (ZSAs, privacy pools) can use the VM proof API as a reference for selective disclosure in contracts. > > \### Hardware/Software Costs (USD) > > \- > > \### Hardware/Software Justification > > \- > > \### Service Costs (USD) > > $30,000 > > \### Service Costs Justification > > Community-led audit and design-space hackathon (bounty, prizes, compute). > \- $20K Hackathon Rewards > \- $10K compute credit sponsorship > > \### Compensation Costs (USD) > > $200,000 > > \### Compensation Costs Justification > > Team delivery of the milestones in this proposal > > \- 170,000 1440 hours @ ~120 > \- 30,000 500 hours @ 60 > > > \### Total Budget (USD) > > 230,000 > > \### Previous Funding > > No > > \### Previous Funding Details > > \- > > \### Other Funding Sources > > Yes > > \### Other Funding Sources Details > > > 1. Compute Sponsorship > > We are in parallel proposing to existing communities for sponsorship grant and audit participation. These communities includebCosmos Hub (Gaia),Akash Network, Phala Network, Juno Network. > > 2. R&D Sponsorship > > We are also requesting from Cosmos Hub a grant that will support the curation of this stack in parallel. This grant will be including agreements between CosmosHub and our participats for non-related coordination, however will include request for sponsorship of the stack communicated in this grant as well. > > > \### Conflicts of Interest > > \- Concurrent funding requests above are for \*\*adjacent activation and compute\*\*, not undisclosed private retainers for the same ZCG milestones. Cosmos Hub, Akash, and Zcash-facing CosmWasm work share \*\*compatible tooling\*\* (CosmWasm / Wasmer proof paths, IBC-style clients, open testnets, event-driven public scrutiny). Multi-ecosystem support \*\*widens builders and compute\*\* for the same open stack. ZCG remains the \*\*primary engineering residual\*\* for Zcash-specific last-mile deliverables. We will update the forum and ZCG tracker if Hub or Akash are approved or material scope changes. > > \### Implementation Risks > > > | Risk | Mitigation | > |------|------------| > | Zcash consensus changes break light-client format | Versioned header formats; cherry-pickable Zebra-aligned commits; Zcash testnet demos | > | Pure PoW finality slow for some IBC uses | Parameterizable confirmation depth; Crosslink path for faster hybrid finality | > | Relayer / header-export tooling drifts | Isolate Zcash-specific modules; minimal forks | > | Proof verification cost high | Benchmark and cache paths already in place; publish gas targets with e2e tests | > | Community audit incomplete coverage | Design-space hackathon + public testnet review alongside bounty | > | Composition demos lag VM/LC freezes | Milestone order: freeze verify APIs and clients before vote-sdk/auth public demos | > > Trustless pledge: a pledge each team member makes to each other and the public community: > https://docs.fileverse.io/0x421f908d9f6bcac09ed3539fae6261f88dc87fe0/7#key=Lbuusw4wCGlqFoMkxrWExI1IxVqNFkfTvnmhesJgIAq49ahYXKT-zij044tIncFI > > \### Potential Side Effects > > > \- More trust-minimized places to check Zcash proofs and headers > \- Clearer paths for private voting and selective disclosure in contracts > \- Possible fragmentation of transport/packet conventions if not documented carefully > > \### Success Metrics > > > | Metric | Target | > |--------|--------| > | Real testnet blocks verified (Crosslink and/or PoW path) | Public demo with real chain data | > | Demo reproducibility | Named CI targets; outsider closed loop | > | Dual-path honesty | Both trust dials documented; maturity stated honestly if one path is thinner | > | Private voting / selective disclosure demo | Proof verify path on testnet (e.g. membership or commitment pattern) without roster dump | > | Community-led audit | Findings documented and addressed; no open severe issues on grant scope | > | Design-space hackathon | Qualifying submissions that exercise VM, LCs, and/or composition surfaces | > | External builders | At least 2 external demos or reports using the public stack | > > \### Startup Funding (USD) > > $130,000 > > \### Startup Funding Justification > > retroactive compensation for existing deliverables, team prioritization of internal review and curation of community-led audit and hackathon infra. > > \### Milestone Details > > \`\`\`milestones.yaml > \- Milestone: 1 > Title: Public Zcash LC ingress + composition + public testnet path > Amount (USD): $50,000 > Expected Completion Date: START\_DATE + 14 days > User Stories: > - As a developer, I can verify a proof in CosmWasm using public guides and the proof-verification API. > - As a developer, I can run named tests for the VM verify path. > - As a reviewer, I can follow a public demo of the Crosslink light client against real test data. > - As a reviewer, I can see the pure PoW light-client path documented with honest maturity and a runnable check. > - As a reviewer, I can run a public header/finality verify loop end to end (real Zcash headers into CosmWasm LCs). > - As a DAO or app builder, I can exercise vote-sdk commitment / eligibility examples against the VM. > - As a developer, I can gate an action with smart-account authenticators (and optional eligibility). > - As a community audit or hackaton participant, I can register for participation. > > Deliverables: > - VM verify API freeze + public e2e tests and docs > - Crosslink LC demo + e2e scenario list > - Pure PoW LC path (full or thin with explicit status) > - CONTRIBUTING.md aligned with high open-source standards > - Public Zcash header/finality verify path + outsider loop (checkpoint + headers; Crosslink finality where available; ZIP-221 cited) > - vote-sdk named examples (commitments / DAO surface as scoped) > - Smart-account auth demos for gated execute > - JWT + Zcash-curve wallet-derived auth for access and compute-credit routing (Headscale only as access fabric) > - Public testnet path for the above > Acceptance Criteria: Reviewer-reproducible tests and demos for VM verify and both client trust dials as claimed, Outsider can complete the public runtimes; composition demos linked from docs/hub > > \- Milestone: 2 > Title: Community-led audit + design-space hackathon > Amount (USD): $50,000 > Expected Completion Date: START\_DATE + 2 months > User Stories: > - As a community auditor, I can register, receive compute credits, and submit findings on the grant stack. > - As a hackathon participant, I can explore the stack and submit a demo project. > - As a reviewer, I can confirm severe findings are tracked and addressed on grant scope. > Deliverables: > - Community-led audit (bounty process + report archive) > - Design-space hackathon (prizes, compute credits, submissions) > - E2e test matrix mapped to public CI for claimed milestones > - Hub and docs aligned with delivered scope > Acceptance Criteria: Audit and hackathon completed per plan; CI map covers claimed deliverables; no open severe issues on grant scope > \`\`\` > > \### Supporting Documents > > \`\`\`files.yaml > \- Public grant desk: https://permissionless.money/zk > \- Original proposal: https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/grant-application-zk-cosmwasm-a-programmable-selective-disclosure-webassembly-smart-contract-virtual-machine/54211 > \- Original issue: https://github.com/ZcashCommunityGrants/zcashcommunitygrants/issues/182 > \- ZK circuit quick reference: https://github.com/permissionlessweb/cosmwasm/blob/feat/zk-v2/ZK\_CIRCUIT\_QUICK\_REFERENCE.md > \- Product mind map: https://gist.github.com/hard-nett/81cfe5e6b05684e42bb587cb03147cd1 > \- Budget & project spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nFMheKkv0ZQ1y052hWHjMqwAz0TpNtt5DCiR23D5ml0/edit?usp=sharing > \- Trustless pledge: https://docs.fileverse.io/0x421f908d9f6bcac09ed3539fae6261f88dc87fe0/7#key=Lbuusw4wCGlqFoMkxrWExI1IxVqNFkfTvnmhesJgIAq49ahYXKT-zij044tIncFI > \`\`\` > We have a landing page that will be able to be shared here in a moment that will showcase the grant a bit more along with demonstrations of elegant demos of the stack, just first wanted to get the grant out there and share some more details and just like my thoughts on this since last posting the grant since soooo much has progressed in the Zcash ecosystem since January: ## Reflection Back in January, this r&d proposal of mine was unanimously rejected. I extended CosmWasm, a rust based smart contracting language and virtaul machine, that is optimized to unlock fun proof verification designs within the smart contracts.. _(a’la extending the wasmer module api functions with `proof_instance_verify()` method, along with dedicating circuit verifying keys in the RAM caching layer of the VM)_. Looking back the proposal communicates a broad, speculative and expensive vision that was not clear about the actual status of development, direct value add to Zcash, and even had elements of still organizing the team while creating the proposal. Now, 7 months since that proposal, and only possible due to my support system that gives me permission to have a stubbornness of finishing what I start, **we now a more stable iteration of what already existed and described in the first proposal** , along with new additions that make this a much more enterprise ready stack. ### Progression We have optimized the way the circuits are stored such that we actually reuse the reusable parts of verifying keys parameters, instead of bloating up app state with storage of reusable params each time. These are sorted within the vm’s caching tiers, allowing us for RAMs warm with circuit verification keys to strip down latency between the circuit key load operations and the actual proving operations. We’ve made libraries for helping curate circuits to be ready to upload for this vm, and demonstrate via transpiling the existing vote-sdk circuits and orchard to upload and use them in demos exercising these features. We’ve curated and 08-wasm ibc light client for crosslink consensus, and also a route for consensus level vote extensions to ingest and provide zcash native block headers and pool anchors, with no additional trust assumptions from chain consensus. We also are demonstrating that ibc clients are not just for financial packets, but can be used for gated authentication, via integrating our stack with a fork of the dao-dao-ui and the zechub bounties dashboard, so that bounty and hackathons can be deployed for any zecHub subDAO, and supports selective disclosure bounty creations and submissions. ### Community Led Audit & Design Space Hackathon We are also committing to and requesting sponsorship for a design space hackathon with this stack, along with a community led audit, where we coordinate compute resources to participants who open into capturing reasoning traces of their sessions of auditing the stack. All inference gateway routing authenticated is powered by light clients of this stack, and will contribute to an open diverse data set on reasoning traces of auditing this space. ### Feedback Encouraged > _Extremely eager to hear if others agree of the usefulness of this approach, or where clarity is needed in terms of the reviewing the stack or any part of the grant!_ Very excited to catch up on the conversation on light client research and identifying synergy with this stack as well. --- _[View the full topic](https://forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/grant-application-zk-cosmwasm-a-programmable-selective-disclosure-webassembly-smart-contract-virtual-machine/54211)._