Glossary
PLONK
A universal-setup SNARK proof system that combines a polynomial commitment scheme with arithmetic circuits — widely used in ZK rollups and applications.
PLONK — Permutations over Lagrange-bases for Oecumenical Non- interactive arguments of Knowledge — was introduced in 2019 by Ariel Gabizon, Zac Williamson, and Oana Ciobotaru. It improved on earlier SNARKs by needing only a one-time, application-independent trusted setup ("universal").
Variants — UltraPLONK, HyperPLONK, Plonky2, Halo2 — have become the backbone of most general-purpose ZK proving systems in production. Applications include Aztec, Mina, several ZK rollups, and many custom ZK apps.