Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has published a free, open-source primer on zero-knowledge cryptography designed to bring a broader crypto audience up to speed — and to serve as an on-ramp to Midnight, Cardano’s privacy-focused network.
Titled Proving Nothing: A Layered Guide to Zero-Knowledge Proof Systems, the work is available on GitHub under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Hoskinson revealed the project during a March 27 livestream, saying the book grew out of “a shockingly low level of understanding” around zero-knowledge proofs and ZK cryptography. “So I wrote a 337 page book over the last few months,” he said, while noting the book aims to be “a non-technical manual” that nevertheless contains substantial technical material.
What the book covers
- A seven-layer framework that Hoskinson uses to explain how ZK systems are designed — from setup and languages through proof systems, cryptography, and the verification environment. He says the structure is intended to help readers “understand all ZK systems from that lens.”
- Broader topics beyond the core model, including private smart contracts, the Aleo-linked ZEXE model, Midnight’s Kachina system, zkVMs, STARK-to-SNARK pipelines, and the market landscape for privacy and proof systems.
- A dedicated chapter on Midnight, which Hoskinson explicitly framed as a target audience for the book: “a good way of introducing Midnight to people.”
- Practical and regulatory context, with new-release notes indicating added sections on eIDAS 2.0, rollups, market structure and a more detailed Midnight case study.
Living document, multiple formats
Hoskinson has positioned the book as a living resource tied to Midnight’s rollout. During the livestream he said, “This is the first edition, version 1.01. I’ll keep adding and changing and work on it throughout the weekends as more things come up and as more stuff in Midnight gets launched, I’ll add to this.” The GitHub release notes for v1.10 (published March 30) show the title change from The Seven-Layer Magic Trick to Proving Nothing and list both EPUB and PDF formats, including a 357-page dark-mode PDF and edits across 14 chapters.
Why it matters
By packaging ZK concepts into a layered, readable guide and releasing it under a permissive license, Hoskinson aims to lower the barrier for developers, researchers and privacy-minded users who want to engage with zero-knowledge tech and Cardano’s Midnight ecosystem. The README on the repository frames the book as a guide to “the entire zero-knowledge stack from the ground up,” arguing ZK systems don’t eliminate trust so much as decompose it into smaller, testable pieces — a useful lens for builders and auditors alike.
Availability and market note
The book is freely available on GitHub; Hoskinson promoted the release on Twitter following the livestream. At press time, Cardano (ADA) was trading at $0.2468.
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