Back to all glossary terms

Halo2

Halo2 is a PLONKish proof framework whose Zcash implementation avoids a trusted setup using inner-product commitments.

FBFenwei BianAuthorSeptember 19, 2026
  • glossary

Halo2 is a circuit and proof framework related to PLONK. Zcash's implementation uses inner-product commitments that avoid a trusted setup, with logarithmic-size commitment openings. Other Halo2-derived systems can use different commitments, so the setup and verification costs depend on the implementation. Halo2 is used for zero-knowledge proofs in Zcash's Orchard protocol.

Related keywords

  • Halo2
  • PLONKish
  • inner-product commitment
  • what is Halo2
  • Halo2 meaning
  • Halo2 definition

About the author(s)

Fenwei Bian

Software Developer & Writer • Namefi
Author

Fenwei Bian is a software developer in her thirties who spends her working hours in pull requests and her weekends with her hands in soil or sawdust. Years of open source on GitHub taught her that names are interfaces: a good one is clear, honest about what it does, and kind to whoever has to use it next.

She gardens because it rewards patience and punishes wishful thinking, and she does woodwork because a joint either fits or it doesn't. Both habits show up in how she writes about naming — measure twice, check the source, and don't sand over a rough spot and hope no one notices.

For Namefi she writes about how domain markets actually move, the practical trade-offs of tokenizing and flipping names, and picking a domain you'll still be glad you own in twenty years.

GitHub

Related guides