Zaki Manian, a key player in the Cosmos ecosystem, delves into whether Cosmos is nearing its end. He discusses its turbulent history, including the aftermath of the Luna crash and the challenges facing leadership and community engagement. Zaki highlights the ongoing efforts to revive Cosmos through innovation, confronting issues like disillusionment among contributors. They explore the need for better collaboration and the potential of new initiatives to unify the fragmented ecosystem, prompting a critical look at its future.

Summary In 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 works 5:32 * 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 Song 28:50 * DelegaTEE: Brokered Delegation Using Trusted Execution Environments by Matetic, Schneider, Miller, Juels and Capkun 33:02 * Ratel: MPC-extensions for Smart Contracts by Li, Soska, Huang, Bellemare, Quintyne-Collins, Wang, Liu, Song and Miller 33:02 * Ekiden: A Platform for Confidentiality-Preserving, Trustworthy, and Performant Smart Contracts by Cheng, Zhang, Kos, He, Hynes, Johnson, Juels, Miller and Song 1:01:26 * Demo of IT from Xyn and Ryan 1:01:26 * Complete Knowledge: Preventing Encumbrance of Cryptographic Secrets by Kelkar, Babel, Daian, Austgen, Buterin and Juels 1:06:20 * Off-Chain Coordination via Liquefaction - James Austgen | MEV-SBC ’24 zkSummit12 is happening in Lisbon on Oct 8th! Applications to attend are now open at zksummit.com, apply today as tickets are limited! Episode Sponsors Attention, 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 | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletter Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm Join us on Telegram Catch us on [YouTube](www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWsYz5cKw4wZ9Mpe4kuM_g)

Summary This 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 Williamson 05:09 * Episode 176: Zk-zk-rollup & zk.money with Zac and Joe from Aztec 05:09 * Episode 273: History of Plonk, Noir, and the building of Aztec 3 07:38 * 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 Schenk 39:28 * Crypto's Three Body Problem by Lotti, Shorin, Hart 48:13 * Plurality philosophy in an incredibly oversized nutshell by Vitalik Buterin 52:21 * 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 Schenk Knot Group Wiki 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 Sponsors Attention, 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 | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletter Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm Join us on Telegram Catch us on [YouTube](www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWsYz5cKw4wZ9Mpe4kuM_g)

Naveen Durvasula, a matching markets and mechanism design expert, joins Tarun to dive deep into restaking in cryptocurrency. They explore the foundations of restaking mechanisms and how they can be optimized. The conversation also touches on the complexities of validator decision-making and the risks tied to Alternative Validator Services. Furthermore, they discuss the intersection of theoretical concepts and practical applications in blockchain, emphasizing the need for clarity in understanding operational dynamics.

Summary In 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 Devfolio 24:33 Episode 151: John Adler on Optimistic vs ZK Rollup and the data availability problem 30:24 Episode 208: Digging into Data Availability with Ismail Khoffi from Celestia 41:26 Episode 220: The Road to Plonky2 with Brendan and Daniel from Polygon Zero 46:49 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'Hara Check out the ZK Jobs Board for the latest jobs in ZK at jobsboard.zeroknowledge.fm Episode Sponsors Get 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/anoma 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 | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletter Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm Join us on Telegram Catch us on [YouTube](www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWsYz5cKw4wZ9Mpe4kuM_g)

Summary In 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 Tzialla Nexus zkVM Episode 284: Using Formal Verification on ZK Systems with Jon Stephens Jens Groth Publication List Nexus Docs Nexus 1.0 Machine Enabling General-Purpose Verifiable Computing | Daniel Marin (Oct 2023) on YouTube Nexus 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! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletter Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm Join us on Telegram Catch us on [YouTube](www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWsYz5cKw4wZ9Mpe4kuM_g)

An exciting update on zkSummit 12 in Lisbon reveals a gathering dedicated to zero-knowledge technology. Scheduled for October 8, the event promises insights into groundbreaking research and innovations. There's a call for speaker applications, highlighting the competitive selection process. Don't miss the chance to connect with experts and enthusiasts in the field!

Joe Bonneau, Assistant Professor at NYU and Research Partner at a16z crypto research, dives into cutting-edge zero-knowledge technologies. He discusses naysayer proofs, which simplify verification in cryptography. The conversation then shifts to the role of zero-knowledge middleboxes in enhancing online privacy and the DARPA SIEVE Project aimed at advancing ZK methods. Bonneau also explores decentralized sealed-bid auctions, showcasing how blockchain can ensure privacy while maintaining transparency in bidding processes. A wealth of knowledge and innovation unfolds!

Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh and Charalampos Papamanthou discuss zk-powered coprocessors, Verifiable SQL, Reckle Trees, prover marketplace, infrastructure, and bringing general computing concepts into decentralized blockchain systems. They explore the benefits for dApp developers, historical data access challenges, and the use of ZKPs for secure validation.

Hart Lambur from Across discusses cross-chain interoperability and Uma, sharing insights on bridges, messaging speed, intent structures, and interoperability challenges. The conversation covers financial optimizations, stake attacks, growth predictions, and the Ethereum vs Solana competition. The hosts also banter about Belgium, events in Brussels, and the rise of financial nihilism in the crypto space.