Zero Knowledge

SummaryThis week Anna catches up with Zac Williamson & Ariel Gabizon from Aztec. They cover what each has been working on over the last year, Zac shared updates about the development of Aztec and the finalization of their underlying ZK system: MegaPlonk. Ariel discussed his latest research on IVC with his publications of the ProtoGalaxy and Stackproofs works and how properties of this systems brought him and Zac to start working together again. Here’s some additional links for this episode:Episode 273: History of Plonk, Noir, and the building of Aztec 3 Episode 274: SNARKs: A Trilogy with Ariel Gabizon5:51 * zkSummit: plookup: Speeding up the PLONK prover - Zac Williamson & Ariel Gabizon 10:49 * ProtoGalaxy: Efficient ProtoStar-style folding of multiple instances by Liam Eagen and Ariel Gabizon13:01 * HyperNova: Recursive arguments for customizable constraint systems by Kothapalli and Setty13:01 * ProtoStar: Generic Efficient Accumulation/Folding for Special Sound Protocols by Bünz and Chen27:24 * cq: Cached quotients for fast lookups by Eagen, Fiore and Gabizon34:54 * Delegating Computation: Interactive Proofs for Muggles by Goldwasser, Kalai and Rothblum34:54 * Unlocking the lookup singularity with Lasso by Setty, Thaler and Wahby 36:36 * Stackproofs: Private proofs of stack and contract execution using Protogalaxy by Eagen, Gabizon, Sefranek, Towa and Williamson 54:32 * Accumulation without Homomorphism by Bünz, Mishra, Nguyen and Wang55:24 * Aztec.networkCheck out the ZK Jobs Board for the latest jobs in ZK at jobsboard.zeroknowledge.fm zkSummit12 is happening in Lisbon next week on Oct 8th! Buy your ticket at zksummit.com, spots are limited!Episode SponsorsAttention, all projects in need of server-side proving, kick start your rollup with Gevulot's ZkCloud, the first zk-optimized decentralized cloud! Get started with a free trial plus extended grant opportunities for premier...

SummaryThis week Anna and Nico chat with Lukas Helminger and Ais Connolly from TACEO. They discuss Lukas & Ais’ early work in cryptography and privacy preserving technologies, the founding of TACEO and their recent work on coSNARKs - or Collaborative SNARKs - that combine MPC and ZK. They explore how these coSNARKs are created, their coCircom language, the characteristics of these systems as well as how they can be applied in the real world.Here’s some additional links for this episode:TACEO TACEO Docs TACEO GitHub Hashing it out: coSNARKs at TACEO Experimenting with Collaborative zk-SNARKs: Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Distributed Secrets by Ozdemir and BonehPrivately Connecting Mobility to Infectious Diseases via Applied Cryptography Bampoulidis, Bruni, Helminger, Kales, Rechberger, and WalchLarge-Scale MPC: Scaling Private Iris Code Uniqueness Checks to Millions of Users by Bloemen, Kales, Sippl and WalchCollaborative SNARKs by Roman WalchNotes on Collaborative zkSNARKsMPC Primer - coCircomZK Podcast clip about Collaborative Zero-Knowledge Proofs from Episode 256: New ZK Use Cases with Dan BonehcoSNARKs - coCircomExploring Collaborative Zero-Knowledge ProofsZK11: MPC-Enabled Proof Markets - Daniel KalescoCircom RepocoSNARKs Demo: Max Pick Challengea...

SummaryThis week Anna and Zaki Manian dive into the Cosmos ecosystem and ask the question: is Cosmos Dead? They explore key events, teams and players who worked on Cosmos during different eras before teasing out the strengths and structural flaws that made the project what it is today. The conversation wraps with a discussion around new initiatives aimed at reviving the ecosystem and aligning factions in Cosmos together towards a central goal. Here’s some additional links for this episode:03:50 * Episode 286: Paris 2023 Recap with Uma, Zaki and Tarun20:38 * Episode 263: Cosmos, Sommelier and Emerging Assets with Zaki Manian32:16 * Episode 337: Restaking Research with Naveen & Tarun 55:11 * Cosmos SDK GitHub Cosmos WebsiteCosmos SDK Documentation Privacy in Cosmos Live: Zaki Manian (Sommelier)- The Unbearable Weight of Sovereign Multichain UX Check out the ZK Jobs Board for the latest jobs in ZK at jobsboard.zeroknowledge.fm zkSummit12 is happening in Lisbon on Oct 8th! Applications to attend are now open at zksummit.com, apply today as spots are limited!Episode SponsorsGet ready to build with intention. Anoma is the universal intent machine, introducing a new era of applications where you define the outcomes you want. Follow Anoma on X to learn more at x.com/anomaAleo is a new Layer-1 blockchain that achieves the programmability of Ethereum, the privacy of Zcash, and the scalability of a rollup.As Aleo is gearing up for their mainnet launch in Q1, this is an invitation to be part of a transformational ZK journey. Dive deeper and discover more about Aleo at http://aleo.org/If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | LinktreeSubscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on a...

SummaryIn this week’s episode, Anna and Tarun catch up with Andrew Miller. They cover his early work on consensus, ZK and MPC before switching focus to the topic of his current work: TEEs. They map his evolving opinion on TEEs and explore why they could be seen as an optimal solution to many of the blockchain challenges. Here’s some additional links for this episode:3:59 * Andrew Miller works5:32 * SoK: Research Perspectives and Challenges for Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies by Bonneau, Miller, Clark, Narayanan, Kroll, Felten 11:45 * Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin by Ben-Sasson, Chiesa, Garman, Green, Miers, Tromer, and Virza 21:33 * The Honey Badger of BFT Protocols by Miller, Xia, Croman, Shi, and Song28:50 * DelegaTEE: Brokered Delegation Using Trusted Execution Environments byMatetic, Schneider, Miller, Juels and Capkun33:02 * Ratel: MPC-extensions for Smart Contracts by Li, Soska, Huang, Bellemare, Quintyne-Collins, Wang, Liu, Song and Miller33:02 * Ekiden: A Platform for Confidentiality-Preserving, Trustworthy, and Performant Smart Contracts by Cheng, Zhang, Kos, He, Hynes, Johnson, Juels, Miller and Song1:01:26 * Demo of IT from Xyn and Ryan1:01:26 * Complete Knowledge: Preventing Encumbrance of Cryptographic Secrets by Kelkar, Babel, Daian, Austgen, Buterin and Juels1:06:20 * Off-Chain Coordination via Liquefaction - James Austgen | MEV-SBC ’24zkSummit12 is happening in Lisbon on Oct 8th! Applications to attend are now open at zksummit.com, apply today as tickets are limited!Episode SponsorsAttention, all projects in need of server-side proving, kick start your rollup with Gevulot's ZkCloud, the first zk-optimized decentralized cloud! Get started with a free trial plus extended grant opportunities for premier customers until Q1 2025. Register at Gevulot.com.Aleo is a new Layer-1 blockchain that achieves the programmability of Ethereum, the privacy of Zcash, and the scalability of a rollup.As Aleo is gearing up for their mainnet launch in Q1, this is an invitation to be part of a transformational ZK journey. Dive deeper and discover more about Aleo at

SummaryThis week Anna and Nico chat with Arnaud Schenk, one of the original co-founders of Aztec and creator of the Polaris Fellowship. They discuss Arnaud’s recent blog post ‘On Trust Infrastructure’, exploring the down sides of a trustless system, the need to make online community building more possible and how programmable cryptography may play a role in these solutions. They explore the history of computer culture, the rejection of institutions by mid-90s internet culture and how the seeds for this were set by the 60s counterculture. Here’s some additional links for this episode:05:09 * Episode 75: Exploring Aztec with Zac Williamson05:09 * Episode 176: Zk-zk-rollup & zk.money with Zac and Joe from Aztec05:09 * Episode 273: History of Plonk, Noir, and the building of Aztec 307:38 * Episode 237: Exploring ZK Research with Jens Groth 20:01 * Into the deep end: making sense of PLONK - Zac Williamson (CTO, Aztec Protocol)23:55 * Collaborative Circles: Friendship Dynamics and Creative Work by Michael P. Farrell 27:05 * No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior by Joshua Meyrowitz 29:33 * On Trust Infrastructure by Arnaud Schenk39:28 * Crypto's Three Body Problem by Lotti, Shorin, Hart48:13 * Plurality philosophy in an incredibly oversized nutshell by Vitalik Buterin52:21 * From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism by Fred Turner 52:21 * The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe On Crypto Article by Arnaud SchenkKnot Group WikiCheck out the ZK Jobs Board for the latest...

SummaryIn this week’s episode Anna and Tarun chat with Naveen Durvasula about his recent work ‘Robust Restaking Networks’. They discuss Naveen’s early work on matching markets and how this led him to work on mechanism design before exploring how the concepts of restaking were first presented, and how both Naveen and Tarun have been working to better model the mechanisms underpinning restaking, to understand how they work and how they can be optimized. Further Reading:03:52 * Robust Restaking Networks by Naveen Durvasula and Tim Roughgarden06:00 * EigenLayer: The Restaking Collective EigenLayer TeamGeneral Bio + Previous Research of Naveen Durvasula Check out the ZK Jobs Board for the latest jobs in ZK at jobsboard.zeroknowledge.fm zkSummit12 is happening in Lisbon on Oct 8th! Applications to attend are now open at zksummit.com, apply today as early bird tickets are limited!Episode SponsorsAttention, all projects in need of server-side proving, kick start your rollup with Gevulot's ZkCloud, the first zk-optimized decentralized cloud! Get started with a free trial plus extended grant opportunities for premier customers until Q1 2025. Register at Gevulot.com.Aleo is a new Layer-1 blockchain that achieves the programmability of Ethereum, the privacy of Zcash, and the scalability of a rollup.As Aleo is gearing up for their mainnet launch in Q1, this is an invitation to be part of a transformational ZK journey. Dive deeper and discover more about Aleo at http://aleo.org/.If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | LinktreeSubscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramCatch us on [YouTube](www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWsYz5cKw4wZ9Mpe4kuM_g)

SummaryIn this week’s episode, Anna chats with Connor O’Hara from Celestia. After discussing the latest ZK Hack Montréal event where Connor was a judge, they dive into his professional background, the ecosystems he has been a part of and what led him to work on Celestia. They then discuss various ZK-focused initiatives within the Celestia ecosystem.Here’s some additional links for this episode:Episode 311: The Launch of Celestia and Beyond 03:22 ZK Hack Montréal 08:08 ZK Hack Devfolio24:33 Episode 151: John Adler on Optimistic vs ZK Rollup and the data availability problem30:24 Episode 208: Digging into Data Availability with Ismail Khoffi from Celestia41:26 Episode 220: The Road to Plonky2 with Brendan and Daniel from Polygon Zero46:49 Vitalik Buterin Endgame Blog Post 49:41 Light Nodes Everywhere: Why & How - Connor O'Hara at Modulard Summit 56:29 ZK11: 1 Circuit, 5 Rollups: Building a Re-Usable DA Integration for ZK Rollups - Connor O'HaraCheck out the ZK Jobs Board for the latest jobs in ZK at jobsboard.zeroknowledge.fm Episode SponsorsGet ready to build with intention. Anoma is the universal intent machine, introducing a new era of applications where you define the outcomes you want. Follow Anoma on X to learn more at x.com/anomaAleo is a new Layer-1 blockchain that achieves the programmability of Ethereum, the privacy of Zcash, and the scalability of a rollup.As Aleo is gearing up for their mainnet launch in Q1, this is an invitation to be part of a transformational ZK journey. Dive deeper and discover more about Aleo at http://aleo.org/.If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | LinktreeSubscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow...

SummaryIn this week’s episode, Anna chats with Jens Groth and Daniel Marin from Nexus. They catch up on all things Groth16 with the author himself before diving into a variety topics, such as formal verification in the context of ZKPs, the Nexus architecture, the benefits and challenges of building a system from the ground up, folding and IVC plus the properties these offer in a zkVM context and much more. Here’s some additional links for this episode:ZKProof Conference in Berlin Nova: Recursive Zero-Knowledge Arguments from Folding Schemes by Kothapalli, Setty, and TziallaNexus zkVMEpisode 284: Using Formal Verification on ZK Systems with Jon Stephens Jens Groth Publication ListNexus Docs Nexus 1.0 MachineEnabling General-Purpose Verifiable Computing | Daniel Marin (Oct 2023) on YouTubeNexus 2.0 SETI@home zkSummit12 is happening in Lisbon on Oct 8th! Applications to speak or attend are now open at zksummit.com, speaker applications close TODAY (Aug 14th) and early bird tickets for attendance are limited!Launching soon, Namada is a proof-of-stake L1 blockchain focused on multichain, asset-agnostic privacy, via a unified shielded set. Namada is natively interoperable with fast-finality chains via IBC, and with Ethereum using a trust-minimized bridge.Follow Namada on Twitter @namada for more information and join the community on Discord. Aleo is a new Layer-1 blockchain that achieves the programmability of Ethereum, the privacy of Zcash, and the scalability of a rollup.As Aleo is gearing up for their mainnet launch in Q1, this is an invitation to be part of a transformational ZK journey. Dive deeper and discover more about Aleo at http://aleo.org/.If you like what we do:Find all our links here! a...

SummaryIn this week’s episode, Anna and Guille catch up with Joe Bonneau, Assistant Professor at NYU and Research Partner at a16z crypto research. They discuss the research Joe has been working on since he was last on the show in 2019, including Naysayer proofs, Zero-Knowledge Middleboxes, Sealed-Bid Auctions, and other ZK-related research projects to date.Here’s some additional links for this episode:03:18 * Episode 103: Exploring VDFs with Joseph Bonneau05:05 * Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies by Narayanan, Bonneau, Felten, Miller and Goldfeder 11:00 * Verifiable Delay Functions Dan Boneh, Joseph Bonneau, Benedikt Bunz, and Ben Fisch16:18 * Naysayer proofs by Seres, Glaeser and Bonneau 16:18 * Sealed-Bid Auctions31:06 * DARPA SIEVE Project 37:59 * Zombie: Middleboxes that Don’t Snoop by Zhang, DeStefano, Arun, Bonneau, Grubbs and Walfish37:59 * Zero-Knowledge Middleboxes by Grubbs, Arun, Zhang, Bonneau and Walfish51:18 * jbonneau.com 58:04 * Riggs: Decentralized Sealed-Bid Auctions by Tyagi, Arun, Freitag, Wahby and Mazières58:04 * Cicada: A framework for private non-interactive on-chain auctions and voting by Glaeser, Seres, Zhu, and Bonneau 1:06:17 * Atomic and Fair Data Exchange via Blockchain by Tas, Seres, Zhang, Melczer, Kelkar, Bonneau and Nikolaenko Zero Knowledge Summit (zkSummit) 2024: Field notes ZK Hack Montreal is happening on Aug 9 - 11. Don’t miss your chance to join, apply now to participate in the hackathon here. zkSummit12 is happening in Lisbon on Oct 8th! Applications to speak or...

SummaryIn this week’s episode Anna chats with Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh, Founder and CEO at Lagrange Labs and Charalampos (Babis) Papamanthou, Head of Research at Lagrange and Co-Director of the Applied Cryptography Lab at Yale University.They revisit the concepts of zk-powered coprocessors and dive into the work that Charalampos did previous to joining Lagrange on Verifiable SQL. They then explore how this is incorporated into the Lagrange coprocessor system, the work they are doing on Reckle Trees, future work and what all this enables for dApp developers. They discuss their new prover marketplace, the general state of infrastructure and how they are keen to bring more concepts from general computing into decentralized blockchain systems. Here’s some additional links for this episode:13:07 * Protocols for Public Key Cryptosystems by Ralph C. Merkle13:23 * Certificate Revocation and Certificate Update by Naor and Nissim 14:08 * Episode 57: Merklize this! Merkle Trees & Patricia Tries 26:32 * Episode 327: Proof Aggregation with Shumo and Yi from NEBRA 36:57 * Reckle Trees: Updatable Merkle Batch Proofs with Applications by Papamanthou, Srinivasan, Gailly, Hishon-Rezaizadeh, Salumets and Golemac 36:57 * Lagrange Labs GitHub on Reckle Trees A Certified Digital Signature by Ralph C. MerkleThe Web3 Summit is back! The next edition will be happening in Berlin from Aug 19-21, you can head over to web3summit.com and use code ZKPOD50 to apply, learn more and grab your tickets today.Episode SponsorsLaunching soon, Namada is a proof-of-stake L1 blockchain focused on multichain, asset-agnostic privacy, via a unified shielded set. Namada is natively interoperable with fast-finality chains via IBC, and with Ethereum using a trust-minimized bridge.Follow Namada on Twitter @namada for more information and join the community on Discord. Aleo is a new Layer-1 blockchain that achieves the programmability of Ethereum, the privacy of Zcash, and the scalability of a rollup.As Aleo is gearing up for their mainnet launch in Q1, this is an invitation to be part of a transformational ZK journey. Dive deeper and discover more about Aleo at

SummaryIn this week’s episode, Anna and Tarun sit down with Hart Lambur irl at EthCC week in Brussels. They start by exploring Hart’s project Across - a cross-chain interoperability solution and sister project to Uma. They explore the Across construction, the tradeoff space and how this compares to other interop solutions. Then, in ZK Podcast tradition, the group shift gears with a few drinks and explore thoughtful observations on the week in Brussels.Here’s some additional links for this episode:Hart Lambur’s TwitterUma WebsiteUma Docs Across Protocol Website Across Protocol Medium9:08 * SchellingCoin: A Minimal-Trust Universal Data Feed 39:13 * ERC-7683 Cross Chain Intents Website 50:58 * Episode 286: Paris 2023 Recap with Uma, Zaki and Tarun50:58 * Episode 292: State of ZK – Live at zkSummit10! 59:17 * Bell Curve Podcast - Deep Dive: The CAKE Framework & Building a One Click Experience | Hart Lambur & Stephane Gosselin 1:23:39 * ZK Whiteboard SessionsZK Hack Montreal has been announced for Aug 9 - 11! Apply to join the hackathon here. Episode SponsorsLaunching soon, Namada is a proof-of-stake L1 blockchain focused on multichain, asset-agnostic privacy, via a unified shielded set. Namada is natively interoperable with fast-finality chains via IBC, and with Ethereum using a trust-minimized bridge.Follow Namada on Twitter @namada for more information and join the community on Discord. Aleo is a new Layer-1 blockchain that achieves the programmability of Ethereum, the privacy of Zcash, and the scalability of a rollup.As Aleo is gearing up for their mainnet launch in Q1, this is an invitation to be part of a transformational ZK journey. Dive deeper and discover more about Aleo at

This week's ZK Podcast episode will be delayed to Thursday this week due to Brussels mania. In the meantime, we wanted to highlight the upcoming ZK Hack Montreal event, happening Aug 9-11 2024. This is the 4th IRL zk-focused hackathon produced by ZK Hack. Apply now to attend ZK Hack Montreal as a hacker and jump into zk. https://www.zkmontreal.com/ Find out more about ZK Hack & join the discord as well at https://zkhack.dev/

SummaryIn this week’s episode, Anna and Tarun meet with Varun Srinivasan, co-founder of Farcaster. They explore the Farcaster project, discussing the ideas that prompted its inception and what separates it from existing social media networks. The conversation explores the design space that Farcaster opens up for devs and the kinds of applications that can be built on top of it. Here’s some additional links for this episode:Farcaster Mastodon DiasporaMastodon ActivityPub Secure ScuttlebuttSupercast Drakula What is Frames? Frames Spec Farcaster Frames: what you need to knowWarpcast ZORA Surveycaster BlowfishOpenRank OpenRank Docs - Farcaster Integration NeynarZK Hack Montreal is happening Aug 9 - 11! Apply to join the hackathon here. Episode SponsorsGevulot is the first decentralized proving layer. With Gevulot, users can generate and verify proofs using any proof system, for any use case. Gevulot is offering priority access to ZK Podcast listeners, register on gevulot.com and write “ZK Podcast” in the note field of the registration form!Aleo is a new Layer-1 blockchain that achieves the...

SummaryIn this week’s episode, Anna and Guille chat with Ying Tong Lai from Geometry Research and Bryan Gillespie from Inversed Tech about their latest research and works to date. They dive into the pair’s recent work ‘SoK: Programmable Privacy in Distributed Systems’, exploring the classifications and frameworks being introduced. Here’s some additional links for this episode:SoK: Programmable Privacy in Distributed Systems by Benarroch, Gillespie, Lai and Miller Private Programmability in Zcash - Research Results and Community Discussion Zcash Halo2 GitHub Zk0x02 - An intro to Zcash and zkSNARKs - Ariel Gabizon (Zcash) Moving SNARKs from the generic to algebraic group model by Ariel Gabizon Explaining SNARKs Part I: Homomorphic Hidings by Ariel Gabizon Differential Privacy in Constant Function Market Makers by Chitra, Angeris and EvansA Note on Privacy in Constant Function Market Makers by Angeris, Evans and ChitraOn Privacy Notions in Anonymous Communication by Kuhn, Beck, Schiffner, Jorswieck, and Strufe ZK Hack Montreal has been announced for Aug 9 - 11! Apply to join the hackathon here. Episode SponsorsAleo is a new Layer-1 blockchain that achieves the programmability of Ethereum, the privacy of Zcash, and the scalability of a rollup.As Aleo is gearing up for their mainnet launch in Q1, this is an invitation to be part of a transformational ZK journey. Dive deeper and discover more about Aleo at http://aleo.org/.If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | LinktreeSubscribe to our podcast

SummaryIn this week’s episode Anna and Nico chat with Alessandro Chiesa, Associate Professor at EPFL and Eylon Yogev, Professor at Bar-Ilan University. They discuss their recent publication; Building Cryptographic Proofs from Hash Functions, which provides a comprehensive and rigorous treatment of cryptographic proofs and goes on to analyze notable constructions of SNARGs based on ideal hash functions. Here’s some additional links for this episode:Building Cryptographic Proofs from Hash Functions by Chiesa and YogevEpisode 200: SNARK Research & Pedagogy with Alessandro ChiesaBarriers for Succinct Arguments in the Random Oracle Model by Chiesa and Eylon Yogev STIR: Reed–Solomon Proximity Testing with Fewer Queries by Arnon, Chiesa, Fenzi and Eylon Yogev ZK Podcast Episode 321: STIR with Gal Arnon & Giacomo Fenzi Computationally Sound Proofs by Micali Tight Security Bounds for Micali’s SNARGs by Chiesa and Yogev Interactive Oracle Proofs by Ben-Sasson, Chiesa, and Spooner Summer School on Probabilistic Proofs: Foundations and Frontiers of Probabilistic Proofs in Zürich, Switzerland Proofs, Arguments, and Zero-Knowledge by Thaler ZK HACK Discord and Justin Thaler Study ClubJustin Thaler Study Club by ZK HACK on YouTubeSubquadratic SNARGs in the Random Oracle Model by Chiesa and Yogev ZK Learning Course ZK Hack Montreal has been announced for Aug 9 - 11! Apply to join the hackathon here. Episode SponsorsLaunching...