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Zokrates/ZoKrates
A toolbox for zkSNARKs on Ethereum
ZoKrates is a high-level language and toolchain for writing zkSNARK circuits that compile to Ethereum verifier contracts. You write circuits in a Python-ish language, run a trusted setup, generate proofs, and get a Solidity verifier. It targets developers who want to add zero-knowledge proofs to Ethereum contracts without hand-writing R1CS constraints.
The DSL is genuinely approachable — generics, structs, arrays, and a standard library covering SHA-256 and Pedersen hashing mean you can write real circuits without dropping into low-level constraint arithmetic. Multiple proving backends (Groth16, GM17, Marlin via arkworks, plus bellman) give you options depending on whether you need a trusted setup or not. The Circom interop layer (zokrates_circom) lets you export R1CS and witness format, so you're not locked into ZoKrates tooling forever. The book-style documentation with worked examples (SHA-256, RNG, magic square) is more complete than most ZK tooling.
The README still says 'proof-of-concept, not tested for production' — that disclaimer has been there for years and the last push was August 2024, which suggests the project is in maintenance mode rather than active development. The proving performance is not competitive with Circom + snarkjs or Halo2 for large circuits; ZoKrates compiles to R1CS and that ceiling is real. There's no native support for recursive proofs in the main path (Nova is experimental and buried in bellperson). The community support story is Gitter, which is effectively dead infrastructure at this point — questions likely go unanswered.