Abstract

Zypher Network is building the next generation of autonomous world infrastructure, including a range of ZKP-driven game engines from sovereign Layer 3 Rollups to ZK-as-a-service SDKs. Our technology provides the necessary composability, programmability, scalability, and cryptographic primitives for decentralized gaming. It empowers game developers to create rich, interactive on-chain worlds, emphasizing scalability, fairness, and the complexity of game strategies.

1. Background

1.1 What is Fully On-Chain Gaming

The Turing completeness of Ethereum means that Ethereum Virtual Machine code can encode any conceivable executable computation, allowing for the development of a wide variety of applications on the blockchain [1]. Ethereum has also played a significant role in the development of fully on-chain gaming, primarily by introducing smart contracts [2] to implement complex game logic, supporting non-fungible tokens (NFTs) [3] to ensure the uniqueness and tradability of game assets, and establishing a strong developer community and ecosystem that fosters innovation and growth in fully on-chain gaming. Additionally, Ethereum has driven the integration of DeFi [4] with gaming, creating the "Play to Earn" model and continuously exploring technological innovations like Layer 2 [5] to improve performance and scalability, all of which have greatly propelled the development and prosperity of the fully on-chain gaming industry.

A fully on-chain game refers to a game where both the game logic and data are completely stored on the blockchain. The operation and interaction of such games are based on smart contracts, allowing them to fully leverage the advantages of blockchain technology, including decentralization, zero trust, verifiability, and transparency [6]. Depending on the content stored on-chain, it can be categorized into core logic on-chain, asset on-chain, and achievement on-chain.

Fully on-chain games are contrasted with partial on-chain games [7]. Partial on-chain games only store some game elements (such as game assets, transaction records, etc.) on the blockchain, while the game logic and data processing still rely on traditional centralized servers.

1.2 Why Fully On-Chain Games are Needed

The market demand for fully on-chain games can be understood from the following aspects:

Decentralized Game World: Fully on-chain games eliminate reliance on centralized servers, making game operations more decentralized. This can increase the security and censorship resistance of the system, reducing the risk of dependence on a single organization or individual. [8]

Game Fairness: Since game logic and data are stored on the blockchain, the game rules and state are transparent to everyone. This allows players to verify the fairness of the game and the correctness of the outcomes, increasing the credibility of the game.

Asset Ownership: Fully on-chain games can use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to represent in-game items and characters, allowing players to truly own and control these assets. This ownership can incentivize players to participate in the game while providing them with real-world value and rewards.

Permanent Operation: Since the game state and logic are stored on the blockchain, fully on-chain games have high sustainability. Even if the original developers no longer support the game, as long as the blockchain continues to produce blocks, the game can continue to operate and evolve.

Reliance on DAOs: Fully on-chain games achieve community-driven development and governance through smart contracts and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) [9]. This allows games to better adapt to player needs and market changes, increasing the game's lifecycle and appeal.

Open Collaboration: Open-source code and open systems promote open collaboration among individuals. With the assistance of AI large models, users' creative potential will be fully unleashed, and AIGC content will bring more diverse, richer, and more intricate gaming experiences.

2. Introduction to Zypher Engine

2.1 Challenges Faced by Fully On-Chain Games

Since the concept of fully on-chain games was proposed, it has not yet seen widespread adoption due to many practical issues:

Development Difficulty: The processing capacity of blockchain networks is relatively limited, especially in terms of transaction throughput and confirmation speed. Fully on-chain games may lead to network congestion and delays, affecting the gaming experience. To address this issue, developers need to explore scaling solutions such as sharding, state channels, and Layer 2 scaling.

Transaction Costs: In a more "fundamentalist" approach, every operation in a fully on-chain game needs to be submitted as a transaction to the blockchain, which incurs corresponding fees (such as Ethereum's Gas fees). If transaction costs are too high, it may limit player participation and the playability of the game. Reducing transaction costs requires considering optimizing transaction structures and using more energy-efficient consensus algorithms.

User Experience: Compared to traditional games, fully on-chain games inevitably face challenges in user experience. For example, users need to understand and use cryptocurrency wallets, handle private keys and transactions, which may present certain barriers and learning costs for ordinary users.

Privacy Issues: Due to the public and transparent nature of blockchain, player data and transaction information in fully on-chain games may face the risk of privacy leakage. Protecting player privacy requires the use of zero-knowledge proofs, privacy computing, and other technologies, but these may further increase the complexity and development costs of the system.

Game Design Limitations: Due to performance limitations, fully on-chain games may not be able to implement complex game mechanics and real-time interactions. This means that fully on-chain games may be limited in terms of game types and gameplay, making it difficult to adapt to high-performance game types such as large-scale multiplayer online games and action games.

2.2 How Zypher Addresses These Issues

Zypher Games has launched a series of engines to help developers address the above issues:

Secret Engine: By using optimized WASM and precompiled contracts to meet the needs for incomplete information, it ensures the security and verifiable execution of cryptographic computations, thereby maintaining the privacy of on-chain strategic elements. For example, the shuffle SDK guarantees a high-performance, low-cost decentralized shuffling process.

AW Engine: By supporting various game circuit development tools, application-specific circuits, and on-chain validators, it simplifies the development process, allowing developers to easily implement plug-and-play ZK functionalities and circuit composability. Additionally, it integrates Risc Zero, providing flexible customization options that enable developers to build complex logic and enhance the performance and security of on-chain games.

Z4 Engine: Supporting the implementation of complex mechanisms and real-time interactions, developers can customize game circuits through plonk or use zkvm and DSL to create specific z4 nodes. By integrating Risc Zero's risc-vm sandbox, developers only need to define game logic and submit it to the on-chain z4-risc0 general node, which can run any risc-vm-based game and utilize the bonsai proof market for rapid proof generation. For larger-scale games, a proof scheme based on threshold signatures can improve proof efficiency, determining the legitimacy of game outcomes through player signatures and social consensus, addressing issues such as long proof generation times and verification problems, for example, in shooting games or specific scenarios in MMOs.

Zytron L3: Zytron is an open-source, highly modular Web3 game chain stack that provides customizable L3 sovereign rollup infrastructure and general zk protocol templates. It allows developers to build autonomous worlds, mini-strategy games, or migrate AAA games to the chain at minimal cost while maintaining a production-level user experience. Zytron includes four core components: sovereign Rollup, server sharding, data compatibility, and custom networks, aimed at enhancing the playability, performance, data management, and reducing transaction costs of blockchain games. It also provides a complete set of zero-knowledge support tools and optimizes network communication through the integration of P2P, RPC, and specific game transmission, offering a highly scalable and fully EVM-compatible development environment.

AI Creation Engine: By combining AI with ZKP technology, Zypher Network has achieved unprecedented breakthroughs in the efficiency of fully on-chain game development and player experience. AI significantly enhances the production efficiency of game elements such as non-player characters (NPCs), maps, items, and plots. However, ensuring content quality relies not only on algorithm models but also on the precise prompts and reference data provided by creators. This content is the creator's experience, an important digital asset, and key to ensuring that AI-generated content adheres to game design rules and styles. Utilizing ZKP technology, the AI creation engine can effectively verify the fundamental rules and design concepts of the game without revealing core design logic and sensitive design information, ensuring that the content generated by AI is both rich and aligned with the game's worldview. The integration of AI and ZKP not only drives technological innovation but also creates a new mode of game creation and participation: a world shaped and developed by the community, representing a profound transformation in game creation under the tone set by developers.

References

[1] computation and turing completeness

https://ethereum.org/zh/whitepaper/#computation-and-turing-completeness

[2] The Idea of Smart Contracts Copyright (c) 1997 by Nick Szabo https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/rob/Courses/InformationInSpeech/CDROM/Literature/LOTwinterschool2006/szabo.best.vwh.net/idea.html

[3] What are NFTs?

https://ethereum.org/en/nft/

[4] Decentralized finance (DeFi)

https://ethereum.org/en/defi/

[5] Ethereum Layer 2

https://ethereum.org/en/layer-2/

[6] A Comprehensive Introduction of Fully On-Chain Games. by Gate.io Oct 29, 2023

https://www.gate.io/learn/articles/a-comprehensive-introduction-of-fully-on-chain-games/786

[7] What Is On-Chain Gaming?

https://chain.link/education-hub/on-chain-gaming

[8] Games That Let Go: Thriving in a Decentralized Future. by E. DRAKE KAJIOKA, Google LLC

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3600235

[9] BOOTSTRAPPING A DECENTRALIZED AUTONOMOUS CORPORATION

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/bootstrapping-a-decentralized-autonomous-corporation-part-i-1379644274