Sovereign-ZK

A mathematically rigorous, privacy-preserving framework for cross-border GPU compute using Zero-Knowledge Verifiable Computation (ZK-VC) and Confidential Computing (CC). Developed by Chidiebere V. Christopher.

Sovereign-ZK allows institutions (e.g., Nigerian banks or hospitals) to securely offload heavy deep learning workloads to remote Confidential GPUs (e.g., NVIDIA H100s in Kenya) without exposing plain-text data to the host.

v0.2.0+ Architecture Revamp: The framework has completely shifted from centralized HTTP servers to a trustless Decentralized Web3 Settlement Layer. Payments are escrowed in USDC (stablecoins) on-chain, and funds are only released when the remote node submits a mathematically valid EZKL Zero-Knowledge Proof.

Installation / Upgrade

To upgrade to the Web3/USDC enabled version:

pip install --upgrade sovereign-zk

Quick Start (Web3 Decentralized Architecture)

1. Setup the Smart Contract Escrow

Sovereign-ZK relies on the SovereignEscrow.sol smart contract to handle trustless USDC payouts. First, run a local blockchain node and deploy the contracts (using Hardhat):

npx hardhat node
npx hardhat run scripts/deploy.js --network localhost

2. Start the Remote GPU Node (Kenya)

The node no longer runs a web server. Instead, it continuously polls the blockchain for new AI compute jobs.

python -m sovereign_zk.node

(The node will listen for JobCreated events, verify the data commitment, generate a ZK proof, and submit it on-chain).

3. Submit Data from the Local Client (Nigeria)

On your local machine, use the client SDK to encrypt your data, generate a cryptographic commitment, and escrow exactly $0.25 USDC on the blockchain.

python -m sovereign_zk.client

Under the hood, the client script does this:

from web3 import Web3

# 1. Encrypt the data
encrypted_payload = encrypt_data(data, symmetric_key)

# 2. Generate a cryptographic commitment (so the node can't cheat)
input_commitment = w3.keccak(encrypted_payload)

# 3. Approve exactly 0.25 USDC (250,000 units) to the Escrow
usdc.functions.approve(escrow_address, 250000).transact({'from': client_account})

# 4. Create the Job On-Chain!
escrow.functions.createJob(input_commitment, 250000).transact({'from': client_account})

Economics

Sovereign-ZK uses USDC for corporate budgeting stability. It allows African researchers to access high-end compute for micro-transactions (~$0.25) while guaranteeing the GPU provider an automated, trustless payout via the Zero-Knowledge verifier smart contract.

Author

Chidiebere V. Christopher

• LinkedIn: Chidiebere Christopher
• GitHub: 93Chidiebere
• Email: vchidiebere.vc@gmail.com