Zero Knowledge

In this week’s episode, Anna and Tarun speak with Succinct Labs. Guests Uma Roy and John Guibas discuss their interest in ZK, their work with 0xparc and the goals of Succinct Labs - that is to provide proof of consensus through SNARK-based light clients. Acting similar to IBC, but in the Ethereum context, we discuss the challenge of building ZK-based light clients on Ethereum, their first implementation linking Gnosis Chain to Ethereum, and how they imagine interacting with the larger blockchain space. Here are some additional links for this episode:0xPARC Learning Resources TrustBoost: Boosting Trust among Interoperable Blockchains by Wang, Sheng, Kannan, Nayak, Viswanath, 2022 Episode 136: Math competitions, crypto as alchemy & Gasper with Yan Zhang Past ZK HACK Events and Puzzles Join the ZK HACK III - Session #2 on 24 November Join the ZK HACK Discord Follow the ZK Hack Twitter Today's episode is sponsored by Aztec. Aztec Network is building the first privacy-enabled zkRollup on Ethereum. The team is proud to announce Noir, the world's first universal ZK language. Noir makes it safe and intuitive to write privacy-preserving ZK circuits. Aztec is now hiring engineers and cryptographers to build the execution layer supporting Noir's private smart contracts. Join the team making private Ethereum a reality. You can learn more by visiting aztec.network/careers. If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramCatch us on YoutubeHead to the ZK Community ForumSupport our Gitcoin Grant Read transcript

In this week’s episode, Anna and Josh Cincinnati chat with Matt Green, a cryptographer and professor at Johns Hopkins University. They explore Matt’s background in security, blockchain and privacy technologies. He shares his thoughts on early ZK blockchain research, the founding of Zcash, growth in the ZK space, how the industry is ready for tangible use-cases and navigating anonymity and regulatory bodies. This episode closes with a review of Matt’s perspective on the Tornado Cash sanctions and what this means for the space. Here are some additional links for this episode:Radiant Commons Website Sealance WebsiteZerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin by Ben-Sasson, Chiesa, Garman, Green, Miers, Tromer, and Virza, 2014An approximate introduction to how zk-SNARKs are possible by Vitalik Buterin Episode 245: Sanctions against Tornado Cash: a Legal PerspectiveJoin the ZK HACK III - kick off event here Join the ZK HACK Discord This week’s episode is sponsored by Aave.Aave Grants is a community-led grants program, focused on growing a thriving ecosystem of contributors within Aave by funding ideas, projects and events that benefit the protocol or surrounding ecosystem.Aave’s latest deployment, V3, was launched on 6 networks and introduces new features like Isolation Mode, Efficiency Mode and Portals. A decentralized, collateral-backed stablecoin native to Aave called GHO has also been announced. Look out for more details on the testnet and release coming soon. Explore the protocol at Aave.com and if you’re building in the ecosystem, apply for a grant through aavegrants.org.If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramCatch us on YoutubeHead to the ZK Community ForumSupport our Gitcoin Grant Read transcript

In this week's episode, Anna speaks with Awa Sun Yin, co-founder of Anoma & Namada. They discuss her background in crypto analytics, her shift to working on infrastructure and privacy tech, and how the Anoma project came to be. Awa introduces us to the soon to launch Namada network and then describes the various cryptographic pieces that the Anoma team has been developing. They discuss how these fit into Namada and into the future of the Anoma Protocol. Here are some additional links for this episode:Episode 115: Cosmos, IBC and ZKPs with Chris Goes Episode 184: Anoma’s Adrian Brink on Validity Predicates, Ferveo DKG & More Episode 32: Zero Knowledge at Zcon0!Sign up link for zkMesh newsletter ZK7: VampIR: universal representation for arithmetic circuits - Joshua Fitzgerald - Anoma ZK8: Namada: asset-agnostic interchain privacy - Chris Goes - AnomaFerveo: Threshold Decryption for Mempool Privacy in BFT networks by Bebel and Ojha, 2022 Metastate WebsiteCryptium Labs WebsiteHeliax WebsiteJuvix WebsiteFerveo Cryptography Overview Check out the sub0 Polkadot Developer Conference in Lisbon here Join the ZK HACK III - kick off event here Join the ZK HACK Discord Today’s episode is sponsored by Aleo Aleo is a new Layer-1 blockchain that achieves the programmability of Ethereum, the privacy of Zcash, and the scalability of a rollup.If you’re interested in building private applications then check out Aleo’s programming language called Leo. Visit leo-lang.org to start building.You can also join Aleo’s incentivized testnet3 by downloading and running a snarkOS node. No sign-up is necessary to participate. For questions, join their Discord at aleo.org/discord.If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramCatch us on YoutubeHead to the ZK Community ForumSupport our Gitcoin Grant Read transcript

In this week’s episode, Anna and Tarun chat with Pramod Viswanath, Professor of Engineering at Princeton and co-founder of Witness Chain. They discuss Pramod’s early work on wireless networks and how this type of research was brought to market at the time. They also cover topics such as the introduction of adversarial thinking into his research, his move over to blockchain, how the incentives of blockchain could be used within the wireless industry, and Pramod’s new project Witness Chain, which aims to reshape the wireless industry. Here are some additional links for this episode:Episode 244: Journey to Blockchain with David TseEpisode 217: Information Theory & Blockchain with Sreeram Kannan Everything is a race and Nakamoto always wins Fundamentals of Wireless Communication by Tse and Viswanath, 2005 Dandelion: Redesigning the Bitcoin Network for Anonymity by Venkatakrishnan, Fanti and Viswanath, 2017 Blockchains at Princeton Class Join the ZK HACK III - kick off event here Join the ZK HACK Discord Check out the Aleo repo here Today’s episode is sponsored by Polygon Introducing Polygon zkEVM. Polygon’s vision for zkEVM is simple: developers can deploy any Ethereum smart contract to a Layer 2 and benefit from the scaling power of ZK proofs.Public testnet is now available, so you now have an opportunity to test their work and make improvements! If you’d like to learn more about Polygon zkEVM visit bit.ly/startonzkevm to check out the Getting Started guide.If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramCatch us on YoutubeHead to the ZK Community ForumSupport our Gitcoin Grant Read transcript

In this week’s episode, Anna and Guillermo chat with Brian Retford and Jeremy Bruestle from RISC Zero. They discuss their previous work in cloud infrastructure and how ZK offered unique solutions to long standing scaling problems. They cover topics like RISC-V, building VMs, and how RISC Zero aims to build a system which could support a decentralized public cloud.Here are some additional links for this episode:RISC Zero: General Purpose Zero-Knowledge Computation by Brian Retford and Jeremy Bruestle RISC-V Website Bitcoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System by Satoshi Nakamoto AirSnort Website Arduino Website Metal: Mac OS's acceleration framework Episode 131: Proof of Necessary Work with Akis Kattis (NYU) Check out the ZK Whiteboard Sessions here. Produced by ZK Hack and powered by Polygon. Join the ZK Hack DiscordZK Hack Twitter Today’s episode is sponsored by Mina Protocol. If you’re a developer looking to get hands-on experience building zero knowledge applications then you should apply for Mina’s zkApp Beta Testers Leaderboard. Participants will get access to test challenges where you can learn how to build zkApps on Mina for a chance to rank on the leaderboard against other participants. The top participants will have the opportunity to be considered for a grant! Learn more about the zkApp Beta Testers Leaderboard and how you can start building zkApps by heading to minaprotocol.com/zkpodcast.If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramCatch us on YoutubeHead to the ZK Community ForumSupport our Gitcoin Grant Read transcript

In this week’s episode, Anna and Kobi Gurkan speak with Dmitry Khovratovich, researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, Dusk Network, and ABDK Consulting and JP Aumasson CSO at Taurus. This episode compares symmetric and asymmetric cryptography as well as a deep dive into hash functions. They explore what hash functions are used for, the process of developing and improving hash functions, and what it means for a hash function to be zk friendly.Here are some additional links for this episode:Dmitry Khovratovich TwitterEthereum FoundationDusk NetworkABDK ConsultingJP Aumasson TwitterJP Aumasson Website Taurus Twitter Taurus Website ZK8: New Directions in ZK hashing - Dmitry Khovratovich - Ethereum FoundationZK8: On ZK hashes - JP Aumasson - TaurusZK7: Security of ZKP projects: same but different - JP Aumasson - Taurus Serious Cryptography - JP Aumasson, 2017Too Much Crypto - JP Aumasson, 2019Crypto Dictionary - JP AumassonScalable, transparent, and post-quantum secure computational integrity - Ben-Sasson, Bentov, Horesh, Riabzev, 2018, page 71 NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology BLAKE2Poseidon Network SHA-3 Reinforced Concrete - Maharramov, 2021 Nova - Recursive Zero-Knowledge Arguments from Folding Schemes - Kothapalli, Setty, Tzialla, 2021 ZK8: Fantastic Beasts: unfolding ZK hardware - Omer Shlomovits - IngonyamaFind the Aleo repo here github.com/aleohq. Today's episode is sponsored by Anoma. Anoma is a set of protocols that enable self sovereign coordination.Anoma's first fractal instance Namada is planned for later in 2022, and it focuses on enabling shielded transfers for any assets, with a few second transaction latency and near zero fees.Visit anoma.net for more information.If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramCatch us on YoutubeHead to the ZK Community ForumSupport our Gitcoin Grant Read transcript

In this week’s episode, Anna and Martin Köppelmann, Co-Founder of Gnosis discuss the OFAC sanctions against Tornado Cash and the impact this has had on builders in the community. They specifically focus on how the Tornado action helped reveal centralizing forces in Ethereum as well as the need for decentralization.Here are some additional links for this episode:Gnosis LinktreeGnosis DiscordEpisode 183: CowSwap & DAO Tech with Gnosis’s Martin KöppelmannEpisode 65: Bridges, xDai and Burner Wallets with Igor & AustinEpisode 243: Dive Back into MEV with Alex Stokes and Chris HagerLidoRocketpoolAll That NodeFind the Anoma Whitepaper hereZK Jobs Board – has a fresh batch of open roles from ZK-focused projects. Find your next opportunity working in ZK!Today’s episode is sponsored by Aleo. Aleo is a new Layer-1 blockchain that achieves the programmability of Ethereum, the privacy of Zcash, and the scalability of a rollup. If you’re interested in building private applications then check out Aleo’s programming language called Leo. Visit leo-lang.org to start building. You can also join Aleo’s incentivized testnet3 by downloading and running a snarkOS node. No sign-up is necessary to participate. For questions, join their Discord at aleo.org/discord.If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramCatch us on YoutubeHead to the ZK Community ForumSupport our Gitcoin Grant Read transcript

In this week’s episode, Anna revisits the topic of FHE with Rand Hindi, CEO at Zama. FHE stands for Fully Homomorphic Encryption, a cryptosystem that allows for computation to occur on encrypted inputs. They discuss the FHE landscape, what specific use cases it is ideal for, where the technology is at and how FHE differs from MPC and ZK. They also explore some of the nuances of the different types of approaches to FHE to achieve this cryptographic environment where one can do computation in a truly private manner. Here are some additional links for this episode:Episode 124: Exploring FHE with Flavio Bergamaschi from IBM ResearchDefinition of FHEA public key cryptosystem and a signature scheme based on discrete logarithms: Elgamal SchemePascal PaillierFHE.orgFHE.org DiscordTFHE GitHubZK Jobs Board – has a fresh batch of open roles from ZK-focused projects. Find your next opportunity working in ZK!Check out the Sub0 Event from the Web3 Foundation to explore the latest in Polkadot Network and the Substrate blockchain framework. Today's episode is sponsored by Anoma. Anoma is a set of protocols that enable self sovereign coordination.Anoma's first fractal instance Namada is planned for later in 2022, and it focuses on enabling shielded transfers for any assets, with a few second transaction latency and near zero fees.Visit anoma.net for more information.If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramCatch us on YoutubeHead to the ZK Community ForumSupport our Gitcoin Grant Read transcript

In this week’s episode, Anna and Guillermo catch up with Henry de Valence from Penumbra. They discuss his thoughts on requirements for adoption of privacy systems and how these led to him to develop Penumbra. They explore how Penumbra aims to use privacy features not as ‘nice to haves' within the system, but rather as essential components that offer a new paradigm for how to think about DeFi in a Multichain Ecosystem. Here are some additional links for this episode:Episode 126: Crypto libraries, Zcash’s Zebra and contact tracing with Henry de Valence Henry de Valence GitHubPenumbra TwitterInformal SystemsUniswap V3 IBCTendermintRustGithubGitFind the Anoma Whitepaper here. ZK Jobs Board – has a fresh batch of open roles from ZK-focused projects. Find your next opportunity working in ZK!Today’s episode is sponsored by Aleo. Aleo is a new Layer-1 blockchain that achieves the programmability of Ethereum, the privacy of Zcash, and the scalability of a rollup. If you’re interested in building private applications then check out Aleo’s programming language called Leo. Visit leo-lang.org to start building. You can also join Aleo’s incentivized testnet3 by downloading and running a snarkOS node. No sign-up is necessary to participate. For questions, join their Discord at aleo.org/discord.If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramCatch us on YoutubeHead to the ZK Community ForumSupport our Gitcoin Grant Read transcript

This week, Anna and Tarun chat with Florian Tramèr, Assistant Professor at ETH Zurich. They discuss his earlier work on side channel attacks on privacy blockchains, as well as his academic focus on Machine Learning (ML) and adversarial research. They define some key ML terms, tease out some of the nuances of ML training and models, chat zkML and other privacy environments where ML can be trained, and look at why the security around ML will be important as these models become increasingly used in production. Here are some additional links for this episode:Episode 228: Catch-up at DevConnect AMS with Tarun, Guillermo and BrendanFlorian Tramèr’s GithubFlorian Tramèr’s Publications & PapersETH Zurich Single Secret Leader Election by Dan Boneh, Saba Eskandarian, Lucjan Hanzlik, and Nicola GrecoGasToken: A Journey Through Blockchain Resource Arbitrage by Tramèr, Daian, Breidenbach and JuelsEnter the Hydra: Towards Principled Bug Bounties and Exploit-Resistant Smart Contracts by Tramèr, Daian, Breidenbach and JuelsRonin Bridge Hack – Community Alert: Ronin Validators Compromised InstaHide: Instance-hiding Schemes for Private Distributed Learning, Huang et al. 2020.Is Private Learning Possible with Instance Encoding? OpenAI's GPT-3 modelOpenAI's GPT-2 modelOpenAI's GPT-2 modelThe Part-Time Parliament, Lamport, 1998.You Autocomplete Me: Poisoning Vulnerabilities in Neural Code CompletionZK Whiteboard Sessions – as part of ZK Hack and powered by Polygon – a new series of educational videos that will help you get onboarded into the concepts and terms that we talk about on the ZK front. ZK Jobs Board – has a fresh batch of open roles from ZK-focused projects. Find your next opportunity working in ZK!Today’s episode is sponsored by Mina Protocol.With Mina’s zero knowledge smart contracts – or zkApps – developers can create apps that offer privacy, security, and verifiability for your users. Head to minaprotocol.com/zkpodcast to learn about their developer bootcamps and open grants.If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramCatch us on YoutubeHead to the ZK Community ForumSupport our Gitcoin Grant Read transcript