Polyhedra: The future of intelligence

Polyhedra Network is establishing cornerstone technology for trust and scalability in AI and blockchain systems with EXPchain Layer 1. We’ve purpose-built this platform to support zero-knowledge machine learning (zkML), addressing critical challenges in AI safety, data privacy, and verifiability. In the evolving AI ecosystem, this breakthrough infrastructure sets a new benchmark by enabling privacy-preserving, verifiable, and scalable AI applications.

EXPchain incorporates our pioneering research in zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technologies – the Expander proof system to ensure high-performance, zkPyTorch to streamline zero-knowledge proof capabilities into traditional AI workflows, and Proof of Intelligence (PoI) to establish an immutable chain of trust for AI models – to greatly reduce barriers for developers to build scalable trust into AI applications. 

Our product ecosystem, including zkBridge, zkLightClient, and Proof Cloud, extends trust and interoperability across networks with secure, efficient cross-chain communication. These solutions lay the groundwork for a unified ecosystem where developers, businesses, and communities can innovate confidently.

To mark the release of EXPchain on Testnet, our next contribution in building the future of intelligence, we’ve taken a moment to recap on the team and technology that got us to this point.

Funding and Leadership

Polyhedra is led by a world-class team of engineers, researchers, and business leaders from institutions such as UC Berkeley, Stanford, Princeton, and Tsinghua University. Our core leadership includes:

• Abner Jia (Co-founder / CEO)

• Tiancheng Xie (Co-founder / CTO) 

• Jiaheng Zhang (Co-founder / Chief Scientist) 

• Yuncong Hu (Co-founder)

• Zhenfei Zhang (Chief Cryptographer)

• Samuel Pearton (Chief Marketing Officer)

• Antonio Liu (Chief Operating Officer)

• Eric Vreeland (Chief Strategy Officer)

• Oliver Birch (Global Head of BD)

• Michael Anthony (Head of Growth)

• AVRA (Creative Director) 

To date we have raised $75M in private funding, achieving a $1B post-money valuation, with notable investors including Polychain Capital, Binance Labs, Animoca Brands, dao5, Hashkey Capital, and more.

Key product milestones

zkBridge

One of our flagship innovations, zkBridge has transformed blockchain connectivity as the first cross-chain bridge powered by advanced zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology. Facilitating seamless interoperability across L1’s and L2’s by utilizing zkSNARKs, zkBridge is able to securely verify that a state transition by a sender chain can be trusted and validated by another receiver chain, without relying on intermediaries or exposing sensitive details.

Since its inception, zkBridge has set new benchmarks for cross-chain communication and scalability:

• Facilitating over 21M cross-chain transactions, including 5M transactions within the LayerZero ecosystem where zkBridge has become the default DVN for 10 chains.

• Generating over 40M zk proofs, demonstrating capacity for high-throughput demands.

• Supporting cross-chain token and NFT transfers, and general message passing.

• Pioneering Bitcoin interoperability with fully trustless zkBridge Bitcoin messaging protocol.

• Introducing NFT activity during the mainnet alpha with Pandra King, driving diverse activity across 10+ chains and resulting in the minting of over 5 million NFTs.

• Partnering with Galxe, a leading SocialFi application, to launch the zkBridge Loyalty Program and showcase its integration with dApps.

zkBridge’s adoption and growth continue to expand its influence across the blockchain ecosystem:

• Supporting 10 new chains, including Solana, with plans for 20+ additional integrations.

• Trusted by industry leaders like BitGo (WBTC) and Ondo, highlighting its critical role in secure cross-chain infrastructure.

• Introduced governance mechanisms through Network Expansion Proposals (NEPs), empowering community-driven innovation and scalability.

Pioneering innovation in cross-chain finance, zkBridge has developed a Bitcoin token swap solution utilizing Eigenlayer dual-staking for economic security and verifying ZK proofs on Bitcoin, demonstrating a robust and efficient method for cross-chain asset transactions.

Expander

To date, Expander is the fastest ZKP system, setting a new standard for performance and efficiency in the field. Integrating the GKR protocol with innovative polynomial commitment schemes, Expander achieves linear prover time while avoiding the excessive computational overhead that limits other systems. Highlights of performance include:

• Recognized as the world’s fastest zk prover, outperforming competitors in both CPU and GPU benchmarks.

• Fully compatible with Consensys’s Gnark proving systems, ensuring seamless integration.

• Achieves a throughput of 2.16 million hashes per second with Poseidon hash functions on an AMD Ryzen 7950X3D.

• Scales to 16 million hashes per second using Poseidon functions on a 256-core server machine, pushing the boundaries of what is achievable in high-performance computing.

• Processes 14,000 Keccak-256 permutations per second on the same AMD Ryzen CPU, 110,000 permutations per second on NVIDIA RTX4090, and 150,000 permutations on NVIDIA H100, making it indispensable. 

• Can generate the proof of inclusion for 1MB of data in under one minute using a single machine, demonstrating unparalleled efficiency.

• Can be used to build zkLogin systems that are 30 times faster than existing keyless login solutions, while minimizing trust assumptions.

• Open-sourced to catalyze adoption across the blockchain ecosystem, Expander scales seamlessly to support a wide range of applications, including Layer 2 solutions, zkBridge, and zkML

Expander is open-sourced for adoption across ecosystems, unlocking potential for a wide range of applications:

• Layer 2 solutions, enhancing scalability for decentralized networks.

• zkBridge, powering seamless and secure cross-chain communication.

• zkML, advancing privacy-preserving machine learning applications.

• zkVM, enabling efficient and verifiable execution of smart contracts with enhanced privacy and scalability.

Proof Cloud

Developed in collaboration with Google Cloud, Proof Cloud is evolving the way developers access ZKP technology. Offloading the computationally intensive process of proof generation, Proof Cloud provides developers across the globe with seamless access to advanced proving power, democratizing ZKP technology while enabling scalability and efficiency without requiring significant infrastructure investment.

Proof Cloud addresses key challenges in ZKP implementation by optimizing resource utilization and ensuring uninterrupted operations:

• Solving the problem of low CPU utilization by dynamically sharing and distributing computational resources with network members who need them most.

• Guaranteeing that user-inputted programs and data remain inaccessible to Polyhedra, ensuring complete privacy throughout the process.

• Increasing system uptime with redundancy and failover mechanisms that prevent downtime and ensure seamless operations.

• Cutting computational costs by over 90%, making advanced ZKP technology affordable and accessible to a wide audience.

As part of its mission to expand access to ZKP technology, Proof Cloud powers platforms and collaborations that push the boundaries of blockchain innovation:

• Launched Proof Arena, a benchmarking platform for ZKP performance, attracting major players like Nebra and Nexus to validate and optimize their solutions.

• Garnered interest from leading blockchain innovators such as Polygon, Linea, and Valida, showcasing its industry-wide impact.

• Built on cutting-edge tools, including Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Hyperdisk, Vertex AI, and Blockchain Node Engine (BNE), ensuring scalability and technological superiority.

Proof Cloud’s decentralized proving system is designed to make ZKP technology accessible to all through cost-effective distributed computing with privacy safeguards, empowering developers to build scalable and secure applications without the need for expensive hardware or specialized expertise.

Ecosystem Growth

ZKJ Token and Polyhedra’s expanding ecosystem are central to driving innovation and engagement across the blockchain space, with our token playing a crucial role in enabling the scalability and functionality of EXPchain. As a gas token for EXPchain, ZKJ enhances transaction efficiency while driving widespread adoption across Polyhedra’s ecosystem.

Our ecosystem is built around innovation, engagement, and community-driven growth. Recently we introduced Rex, an AI-powered Chief Meme Officer, trained by our co-founder and CTO Tiancheng Xie tasked with finding creative ways to connect with our community. Other activity within our ecosystem includes:

• Launching egg.party, an AI meme coin platform, with over 50 curated coins scheduled for release in January, pushing the boundaries of decentralized creativity.

• Initiating 10 Network Expansion Proposals (NEPs), empowering the community to shape the future of Polyhedra’s ecosystem.

EXPchain: The everything chain for AI

Now live on Testnet, EXPchain will see its full launch in 2025, making it easier for developers to bridge trust between AI and real world applications with scalable, secure infrastructure. Designed for practical verification for large language models (LLMs), EXPchain is redefining how AI systems interact within decentralized environments.

EXPchain is designed to be the foundational layer for AI-driven blockchain infrastructure:

• Testnet: December 2024.

• Mainnet: February 2025.

• Positioned as a leader in AI safety, data privacy, and verification.

Why EXPchain Matters

1. Verifiability: building trust by ensuring AI systems are responsible and transparent.
2. Privacy: protecting sensitive user data across AI applications.
3. Performance: offering unparalleled scalability and speed for mass adoption.

Our vision for 2025 and beyond 

We envision a future where decentralized systems and intelligent applications converge to create a more secure, scalable, and innovative ecosystem. This vision is driven by expanding partnerships, advancing technologies, and fostering collaboration across industries.

Key initiatives:

• Expanding the ecosystem with 87+ partnerships across blockchain and AI sectors.
• Introducing advanced features for transformative products like zkBridge, Expander, and Proof Cloud to meet evolving demands.
• Collaborating with web services, TradFi and enterprises to enhance the scalability and security of digital systems.
• Building EXPchain, the “Everything Chain for AI,” to enable verifiable and scalable AI-driven blockchain systems.

Our focus

Advancing ZK technology
Polyhedra is committed to pushing the boundaries of ZK technology, making it faster, more accessible, and efficient. From AI agents to gaming and DeFi, we’re focused on enabling new possibilities with cost-effective and scalable solutions.

Empowering responsible and verifiable AI

Polyhedra empowers responsible and verifiable AI by leveraging zero-knowledge proofs to ensure transparency, accountability, and privacy in AI-driven processes, fostering trust and ethical innovation.

Decentralization and collaboration

In building a decentralized ecosystem we’re fostering collaboration between developers, on-chain businesses, off-chain enterprises, and end-users. The focus remains on bridging gaps between web services and traditional finance, offering privacy-preserving features and enabling seamless value and message transfers.

Bridging all ecosystems

We’re enhancing cross-chain interoperability with solutions like zkBridge, allowing seamless integration of new ecosystems within weeks. This eliminates reliance on programming languages, virtual machines, or cryptographic protocols, outperforming other interoperability-focused teams in speed and efficiency.

On-chain economies of scale  

We envision an active on-chain community where stakeholders participate in governance and development, with on-chain incentives tied to the network’s core security and scalability to make our community a foundational part of the Polyhedra ecosystem.

Real-World Assets (RWAs)

Through on-chain incentive layers and scalability, we’re connecting cutting-edge technology with RWAs underwritten by our tech stack’s security, creating mutual alignment between users and stakeholders.

Building the future

Polyhedra Network is driving the evolution of decentralized systems and intelligent applications, shaping a future where trust, scalability, and innovation come together seamlessly. We welcome developers, businesses, and communities to join us in building the future of intelligence.

About Polyhedra Network

Polyhedra Network is building foundational infrastructure for trust and scalability in AI and blockchain systems to enable secure, verifiable, high-performance applications. Led by a world-class team of engineers, researchers and business leaders from institutions such as UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Tsinghua University, Polyhedra’s deep expertise in zero-knowledge proofs and distributed systems underpins the development of our technical solutions. 

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