1.Project introduction

zkLink functions as a ZK-Rollup infrastructure tailored for DeFi and trading applications, offering a streamlined middleware that connects with both Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks. This connectivity between Layer 1s and Layer 2s makes it a Layer 3 infrastructure where App Rollups can be launched on zkLink that seamlessly integrates with all layers of the blockchain.

zkLink allows developers to easily deploy trading DApps using advanced SDK and APIs. Furthermore, zkLink enhances the trading landscape by aggregating and unifying liquidity from diverse ecosystems. This integration facilitates seamless trading of native DeFi assets across different chains, offering a user-friendly and coherent multi-chain trading experience. This makes zkLink a useful tool for traders and developers alike, fostering the creation of innovative decentralized financial applications.

2.Team introduction

Vincent Yang - Co-founder

Yang currently serves as co-founder and CEO of zkLink, playing a key role in developing the company's overall strategic direction and operations. Yang is an experienced engineer and crypto enthusiast whose entrepreneurial adventure began in 2019 with a Bitcoin mining business. Yang discovered the pain points of liquidity liquidity between networks and the industry's lack of reliable cross-chain interoperability bridging capabilities early on. As a result, Yang immediately formed a development and technical team dedicated to the research of zero-knowledge bridging technology and distributed computing systems. With his rich entrepreneurial and product development background, Yang brings a wealth of experience to zkLink.

zkLink's team consists of more than 30 people, consisting of engineers, researchers, and operations experts distributed around the world. The company is headquartered in Singapore. zkLink's team and employees graduated from prestigious institutions such as ENSPM Paris, Imperial College London, Harbin Institute of Technology, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, Peking University, and Tsinghua University. Their collective expertise spans academic and professional fields such as engineering, economics, finance, cybersecurity, cloud computing, cryptography, smart contracts, and zero-knowledge proofs, providing a solid foundation for zkLink's continued advancement in blockchain technology and DeFi.

3.Token application and distribution

Token application：

1）Prover Fee: ZKL acts as the primary payment token for the zero-knowledge proof generation service offered by provers. Within the zkLink App Rollup infrastructure solution, DApps pay prover fees using ZKL. Provers will need to stake ZKL to access the Proof Auction Market, and earn ZKL rewards upon successful completion of proof task. The Proof Auction Market is a smart contract that coordinates the zero-knowledge proving task price bidding process and manages the provers access, distribute the prover fees, and more. Provers play an essential role within the protocol, contributing the computational resource necessary to compute and generate the zero-knowledge proof for the off-chain transactions.

2）License Fee for Rollup Infrastructure: DApps utilizing the zkLink rollup solution (App Rollups) compensate the infrastructure license fee in ZKL to the zkLink DAO Vault. An alternative payment option includes future revenue sharing. The zkLink DAO maintains the flexibility to modify the pricing framework. App Rollups gather transaction fees or other fees from users to sustain ongoing business operations.

3）Governance: ZKL is the governance token for the zkLink protocol. ZKL holders possess the ability to participate in the governance of the protocol development by initiating and voting on the proposals.

4）Perks: ZKL enables access to advantages within ecosystem dApps, such as discounted trading fees and exclusive NFT minting opportunities. The specific perks are curated by zkLink DAO and supported by eco dApps through the DAO Vault to cover the initial license fees.

Token distribution：

1.Community Treasury (~29.88%): The community treasury managed by the future zkLink DAO will control the largest portion of the total token supply. Approximately 20.75% of this will be released on TGE as rewards for early adopters, as well as community development and bug bounty rewards for contributing developers. An additional approximately 9.37% of the bug bounty will be distributed monthly for one year. The remaining approximately 79.25% will be distributed in the future at the discretion of the DAO.

2.Ecosystem Development (22.5%): Dedicated to ecosystem development, it will be used to fund growth initiatives and development initiatives. 20% of this will be released on TGE, and the remaining 80% will be unlocked linearly on a monthly basis over the next two years.

3.Early private investors (20.55%): will be allocated to private investors. Approximately 38.93% of this allocation is reserved for pre-seed investors, with a 5-month lock-in period after TGE and a 27-month linear unlocking period thereafter. An additional approximately 37.98% of the allocation is reserved for seed investors, with a 4-month lock-in period after TGE and a 27-month linear unlock thereafter. The remaining approximately 22.87% is reserved for private placement round participants, with a 3-month lock-in period after TGE and a 27-month linear unlocking period thereafter.