Alice Liu: Welcome to House of ZK! Today, I'm thrilled to sit down with Sylve Chevet, Co-Founder and CEO of Hylé. Sylve, thanks so much for joining me.
Sylve Chevet: Thank you, Alice. It’s great to be here and chat with you.
Alice: Let’s start with your journey. Can you share how you first got involved in the Web3 space and the world of zero-knowledge technology?
Sylve: Absolutely. My journey began when I was a teenager - a raging libertarian at 14 - which naturally led me to crypto as I grew older. Contrary to the typical narrative, I came for the revolution but stayed for the money, rather than the other way around.
I started my professional path in the crypto space at Ledger, working on enterprise solutions. I was there for around four years, learning everything about wallets, custody, security, and even programmable cryptography thanks to the incredible internal security team at Ledger.
From there, I moved on to co-found my first project, Brick, with my co-founder Lot. Brick was one of the first live protocols on StarkNet mainnet. It was focused on NFT composability and was a sort of "Lego system" for NFTs fully running on-chain. That project introduced me to StarkNet and the fascinating community there. We later co-created Dojo, a game engine built entirely in Cairo for StarkNet, which deepened my interest in programmable cryptography.
Eventually, as we built these projects, I saw the limitations of trying to do everything on-chain and realized we could move computationally heavy processes off-chain while keeping the verifiable core on-chain. This insight led to the creation of Hylé - a network entirely focused on providing the best infrastructure for provable applications, leveraging the power of ZK technology to its fullest potential.
Alice: That’s an incredible progression, Sylve. Seeing how your vision has evolved from programmable cryptography to on-chain gaming and now to provable applications with Hylé is fascinating. Let’s dive into what you just mentioned - bringing only the critical part of computation on-chain. Can you share more about how Hylé addresses the limitations of traditional proof verification methods?
Sylve: Certainly. To understand Hylé’s approach, we need to start with the core problem: blockchain consensus requires thousands of nodes to redo the same computation. This redundancy ensures trustlessness but is incredibly inefficient.
ZK technology allows us to solve this by separating computation from verification. With traditional blockchains, you deploy verifier contracts - like those in Solidity on Ethereum - that validate proofs of computation. While this approach works, it’s constrained by the execution environment and the need for all nodes to validate the same proof.
Hylé takes a more specialized approach. Our network doesn’t ship a virtual machine or an execution environment. Instead, it’s purpose-built for proof verification. Nodes in the Hylé network verify proofs natively, using robust and efficient proof systems. This design simplifies the process and makes it possible to verify large proofs on lightweight devices, enhancing decentralization while reducing computational overhead. It’s a tailor-made solution for provable applications.
Alice: That’s a unique focus, and I can see how it unlocks scalability and cost-efficiency. With ZK becoming more versatile, what do you think is holding it back from mainstream adoption?
Sylve: I like to compare ZK’s current state to the early steam engines of the 19th century. Initially, steam engines were crude and inefficient, but they were revolutionary in coal mines—where inefficiencies didn’t matter. Over time, as the technology improved, steam engines powered industries and eventually transformed transportation.
Similarly, ZK started as a niche tool, primarily applied in blockchain scalability. Its early inefficiencies didn’t matter because the value it provided—scaling Ethereum, for example—was unparalleled. Now, we’re at a point where the technology and tooling are improving rapidly. Proving systems like PlonK, Groth16, and Halo 2, as well as programming languages like Cairo and zkEVM, are maturing.
The real challenge now is usability. For ZK to go mainstream, we need tools and abstractions that make it accessible to developers and end-users. Proving costs and times have decreased, but there’s still work to do in creating intuitive applications and educating developers about the possibilities of programmable cryptography.
Alice: I completely agree. Usability is key, and as we’ve seen with Hylé, there’s immense potential for ZK technology to extend beyond blockchain. Speaking of use cases, what excites you most about provable applications?
Sylve: I’m particularly excited about ZK passports and open identity systems. Imagine being able to prove that you’re a citizen of a specific country or meet certain criteria without revealing sensitive details. This can revolutionize areas like online access control, age verification, and even decentralized governance.
Another area I’m passionate about is gaming. With projects like Brick and Dojo, I’ve seen firsthand how programmable cryptography can transform on-chain gaming. We’re moving towards a world where only the critical aspects of gameplay - like leaderboards or asset ownership - are on-chain, while the rest remains off-chain for efficiency. This hybrid approach balances trust, scalability, and user experience.
Alice: That’s an exciting vision. With Hylé, how do you simplify the process for developers and applications to use your network for proof verification?
Sylve: Hylé abstracts much of the complexity involved in working with proofs. Developers don’t need to think about proof generation; they only need to send provable payloads to Hylé. Our network sequences transactions, verifies proofs, and updates the state. This approach eliminates bottlenecks like proving times and concurrency issues.
For example, let’s say a stablecoin application wants to use Hylé. Users craft transactions and send them to our network as blobs. Hylé sequences these blobs and assigns them to provers, who generate and submit proofs. Once verified, Hylé updates the state and finalizes the transaction. Developers can also choose to aggregate proofs if they want to optimize further, but we leave that flexibility to them.
Alice: That’s an elegant solution. I also appreciate how Hylé lets developers decide their execution environments and decentralization levels while handling the complexities of sequencing and verification. Before we wrap up, any advice or parting thoughts for the audience?
Sylve: My advice is to think expansively about programmable cryptography. Blockchain is just the beginning; ZK has the potential to reshape industries far beyond Web3. At Hylé, we aim to make provability a universal tool that developers can use effortlessly, whether for gaming, finance, or something entirely new. Now is the perfect time to explore these possibilities.
Alice: Thank you, Sylve. This has been a truly insightful conversation, and I’m excited to see how Hylé and provable applications evolve. Thanks again for joining us today.
Sylve: Thank you, Alice. It’s been a pleasure. Let’s keep building the future together.
