Nethermind has deployed a Groth16 zero-knowledge proof verifier on Stellar's Soroban smart contracts, enabled by Protocol 25 (X-Ray) which adds native BN254 and Poseidon cryptographic primitives. This infrastructure enables privacy-preserving applications on Stellar while maintaining compliance and transparency by default.
Zero-knowledge proof verification is now live on Stellar through a collaboration between Nethermind, RISC Zero, and the Stellar Development Foundation. Nethermind implemented the RISC Zero Groth16 verifier for Soroban, allowing smart contracts to verify SNARK proofs directly onchain. The X-Ray protocol upgrade (Protocol 25) adds native support for BN254 and Poseidon cryptographic primitives, reducing overhead and making ZK-heavy applications production-viable. This enables three key use cases: private payment flows without exposing amounts or counterparties, compliance-aware access controls that prove authorization without identity disclosure, and trust-minimized interoperability through cryptographic proof verification. The Boundless team is now focused on marketplace integrations and repeatable patterns to make configurable privacy accessible for institutional flows.