Zero Knowledge ZKPassport, Obsidion & the Emerging Noir Ecosystem
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Oct 8, 2025 In this discussion, Théo Madzou, a ZK engineer and ZK Hack organizer, teams up with Michael Elliot, a longtime blockchain contributor, to unveil their innovative projects, ZKPassport and Obsidion. They delve into their backgrounds, highlighting Théo's ZK Hack successes and Michael's path from Bitcoin to identity systems. The duo explains how ZKPassport serves as a neutral identity solution and how Obsidion aims to enhance privacy in fintech. They also touch on mobile proving, KYC features using machine learning, and the challenge of integrating global ID standards.
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From A Side-Event To ZK Career
- Théo discovered practical ZK while building his first Noir circuit at ZK Hack Lisbon and won Hacker's Choice.
- That one meeting at a side event and joining ZK Hack changed his career trajectory into ZK development.
CornHub Origin Story
- Théo and Michael teamed up at ZK Krakow after parallel workshops and built the playful "CornHub" age-verification demo.
- The project used AI-generated visuals and custom merch to win multiple hackathon prizes.
Public-Good Passport As Identity Layer
- ZKPassport is designed as a credibly neutral, permissionless public-good identity layer based on government-issued e-passports and IDs.
- The federated nature of national issuers aligns with how legal identity updates (marriage, name change) are handled in the real world.