The Currency analytics
By Maheen Hernandez
Certora got funding. The Web3 security firm just scored a research grant from the Ethereum Foundation to verify autoprecompiles, which are pretty much the backbone of Ethereum's…
The zkEVM wants to make Ethereum way faster and cheaper by using zero-knowledge proofs for smart contracts. Gas fees should drop, transactions speed up, and security gets better.
Seth Hallem, Certora's CEO, knows what's at stake here. "Autoprecompiles are vital but demand rigorous verification," he said.
Certora won't keep its findings secret. The company plans to release all research openly - specifications, proofs, verification frameworks, the whole package.
Alexander Hicks from the Ethereum Foundation thinks autoprecompiles can seriously boost zkEVM performance.
The grant amount? Nobody's talking numbers.
Certora started in 2018 and has worked with major Web3 teams like Lido and Uniswap on security audits.
The collaboration between Certora and Powdr Labs could push zero-knowledge computation into new territory.
Certora's reputation in Web3 security made this grant pretty logical. Since 2018, the company secured protocols handling billions in assets.
Powdr Labs brings compiler technology expertise that's crucial for this project. The lab develops efficient zero-knowledge proofs and bridges high-level programs with ZK…
The financial details stay secret though. No funding amounts, no project timeline, no specific deliverables mentioned publicly.
Certora's decision to open-source verification frameworks is smart strategy. Making these tools public lets rollup builders and ZK researchers contribute to shared knowledge pools.
Powdr Labs specializes in bridging custom ZK circuits with zkVMs while keeping things usable. Performance improvements that break developer experience don't really help anyone.
The undisclosed grant terms highlight how strategic this collaboration is. Industry analysts can only guess at the project's scale and broader implications for Ethereum…
February 5, 2026 marked a pivotal moment in zero-knowledge computation when this partnership got announced.