Vega zero-knowledge proofs verify identity in under 100ms without exposing credentials

Vega is a zero-knowledge proof system designed to make private identity verification practical for the AI age. It lets users prove facts from government-issued credentials — such as age, personhood, or professional status — without ever revealing the credential itself. The credential never leaves the user's device. Proofs are generated in under 100 milliseconds on a commodity client device with no trusted setup, thanks to a novel composition of existing building blocks: Spartan for efficient R1CS proofs without setup, Nova and HyperNova for folding schemes that compress multiple instances, and NeutronNova for batch processing. A key innovation is fold-and-reuse proving: after the first proof, subsequent presentations to different services or AI agents skip the most expensive work, enabling efficiency at scale. Vega is built in Rust, will be open sourced soon, and is designed to work with real-world formats like mobile driver's licenses and the EU Digital Identity Wallet.

As AI agents and assistants increasingly act on behalf of users, the need for fast, privacy-preserving identity verification grows. Current methods often require users to upload and expose sensitive government IDs, leading to high-profile breaches. Vega solves this by allowing AI-mediated services to verify claims (e.g., "is over 21") without ever seeing the underlying credential. This aligns with emerging regulations: the EU Digital Identity framework, age-verification mandates, and the UK's Online Safety Act all call for government ID-based methods that preserve privacy. Vega provides a practical cryptographic foundation that lets application providers meet these requirements without compromising user data or relying on less accurate AI-based estimation. For professionals building identity-dependent AI services, Vega offers a path to trust that is both secure and scalable.