Zero Knowledge

Ian Miers, an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland and a pioneering figure in zero-knowledge technology, covers a wealth of intriguing topics. He discusses his groundbreaking work on Zerocoin and Zcash, addressing early challenges in privacy on public ledgers. Ian shares the evolution of trusted setups, including Powers of Tau, and introduces his innovations like zk-creds for flexible anonymous credentials and zk-promises for anonymous reputation systems. The conversation also explores critical issues such as post-quantum security and the ethics of programmable privacy.

Join David Z, a seasoned ZK engineer and former Polygon contributor, alongside Oleksandr (Sasha), an expert in identity engineering and blockchain, as they delve into the evolution of ZK identity systems. They discuss their journey from iden3 to the launch of Privado ID and the ambitious Billions Network. Key points include the transformative Circom DSL, innovations in privacy-first tools, and the integration of AI agents into identity solutions. Their vision for creating accountable interactions in a decentralized world is captivating and forward-thinking.

Bobbin Threadbare, formerly of Facebook's Winterfell, and Gaylord Warner, an integral figure at ZK Hack, dive into the world of Miden and their groundbreaking zkVM. They unveil the project's journey from its roots in Polygon to its emergence as a leader in edge blockchain technology. The duo discusses innovative privacy solutions, including a custom instruction set and decentralized architecture. They also reflect on their experiences at various hackathons, emphasizing the importance of collaboration in advancing zero-knowledge education and the future of blockchain.

In this episode, Anna Rose and Tarun Chitra chat with Huijia (Rachel) Lin from the University of Washington to explore indistinguishability obfuscation (iO), often described as the 'holy grail of cryptography'. iO is a powerful primitive that, if fully realised, could have profound implications for privacy tech as a whole. Rachel helps break down the concept for listeners who may already be familiar with ZK, FHE and TEEs, clarifying how iO differs but also some of the similarities in the assumptions upon which it is based. Rachel also explains how it differs from similar concepts: garbled circuits and functional encryption. The discussion covers the evolution of iO research in her work over the last decade, how the cryptographic assumptions have hardened since that time, and what iO can offer in terms of precise, controlled information revelation.   Related Links Indistinguishability obfuscation from well-founded assumptionsIndistinguishability Obfuscation from DDH-like Assumptions on Constant-Degree Graded EncodingsOn Lattices, Learning with Errors, Random Linear Codes, and CryptographyHow to Use Indistinguishability Obfuscation: Deniable Encryption, and MoreFunctional Encryption for Quadratic Functions, and Applications to Predicate EncryptionGarbled circuit     ZK Whiteboard Sessions is an educational video series produced by ZK Hack in collaboration with Bain Capital Crypto. It is focused on the building blocks of zero knowledge technology. Find season 3 of the Whiteboard Sessions as well as previous seasons here.      **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   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript

In this discussion, Tarun Chitra, an investor at Robot Ventures with a focus on blockchain and perpetual DEXs, joins the hosts to explore the cutting-edge Lighter project. They dive into the origins and evolution of perpetual trading, comparing privacy and transparency in market-making. Tarun emphasizes the benefits of custom ZK circuits over existing zkVMs for system efficiency. The conversation also covers the role of quants and engineers in building robust DEXs, and the innovative ways Lighter utilizes Ethereum and zero-knowledge rollups to enhance trading experience.

Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, dives into the fascinating world of Ethproofs and its role in enhancing zero-knowledge technology. He discusses its evolution from a meme to a pivotal benchmarking initiative. The conversation explores the shift from monolithic zkEVM designs to RISC-V-based systems and the implications for Ethereum's scalability. Additionally, the potential impact of AI on financial transactions and energy-efficient solutions in AI systems highlights the innovative spirit driving the blockchain forward.

In this episode, Anna Rose and Kobi Gurkan chat with Vikas Rushi from PSE, and Ying Tong to explore two topics at the intersection of ZK and the real-world data: zkPDF and zkID. First they dive into zkPDF, a set of tools for proving facts on digitally signed PDFs. Vikas talks about the challenges of parsing data inside zkVMs—working with decades-old specifications that use many different encodings, and tackling practical use-cases like bank statements and ID verification. They also explain how issuers, such as India’s DigiLocker, can generate proofs in a way that protects individual privacy. Next they cover zkID and the EF’s work on building a system that would meet the EU’s Digital Identity Framework requirements ahead of its 2026 rollout. Ying Tong explains how the EF’s work on zkID differs from existing zk-based identity projects, particularly through its device-binding requirements, the cryptographic community’s feedback to the EU Commission, the trade-offs between proof systems, PSE’s work on standards and more. They wrap up with a chat about the challenges of revocation in both systems, and what’s next for the projects.  Related Links Episode 367: Local-First with grjte and Goblin OatsEpisode 366: Bringing ID Onchain with SelfEpisode 363: Bringing ZK to Google Wallet with Abhi and MatteoEpisode 362: zkTLS with Maddy from ReclaimEpisode 358: Building ZK Registries Onchain with RarimoEpisode 353: Making ZK More Human with ZK EmailEpisode 330: Frameworks for Programmable Privacy with Ying Tong and Bryan GillespieCommunity Privacy ResidencyAnon AadhaarDigiLockerzkID Githubzk-promises: Anonymous Moderation, Reputation, and Blocking from Anonymous Credentials with Callbacks     Check out the latest jobs in ZK at the ZK Podcast Jobs Board     **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   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript

In this episode, Anna Rose and Tarun Chitra chat with Miranda Christ, a computer science PhD student at Columbia University, about the intersection of cryptography and AI through watermarking techniques. Miranda shares her research on developing imperceptible ways to prove that content was created by AI models, covering everything from simple red-green word lists to sophisticated pseudorandom error-correcting codes. The discussion explores the cryptographic properties of watermarks - including completeness, soundness, and undetectability - and how these parallel the properties we see in zero-knowledge proof systems. Miranda explains how watermarking differs from other cryptographic approaches like ZKML by only modifying the sampling process rather than the underlying model weights, making it computationally lightweight and practical for deployment.   Related Links Episode 206: Distilling DeFi Primitives with Guillermo, Alex and TarunMy AI Safety Lecture for UT Effective AltruismGoogle SynthIDAmazon Public Watermark DetectorHow ChatGPT could embed a ‘watermark’ in the text it generates - New York TimesWall Street Journal on OpenAI not Deploying WatermarksA Watermark for Large Language ModelsUndetectable Watermarks for Language ModelsWatermarks in the Sand: Impossibility of Strong Watermarking for Generative ModelsPseudorandom Error-Correcting CodesIdeal Pseudorandom Codes     Check out the latest jobs in ZK at the ZK Podcast Jobs Board      **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   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript

In this episode, Anna Rose welcomes back Daniel Kang professor at UIUC and founding technical advisor at VAIL, for an update on ZKML and how the space has evolved since early 2023. Daniel covers the 2023-2024 cohort of ZKML tools including zkCNN, zkLLM, EZKL, and his original ZKML project, while introducing his new project ZKTorch, which offers a flexible hybrid of specialized and general-purpose approaches. The discussion explores practical applications like verified FaceID, proof of prompt, and proof of training, along with the technical challenges of adding ZK proofs to machine learning models. Daniel shares insights on the performance trade-offs between specialized cryptographic systems and generic circuits, and how ZKTorch aims to offer both flexibility and speed for proving ML inference.   Related Links ZKTorch: Open-Sourcing the First Universal ZKML Compiler for Real-World AIZKTorch: Compiling ML Inference to Zero-Knowledge Proofs via Parallel Proof ZK Torch GitHubAccumulation byBing-Jyue Chen,Lilia Tang,Daniel KangEpisode 369: Ligero for Memory-Efficient ZK with MuthuEpisode 356: ZK Benchmarks with Conner SwannEpisode 364: AI and ZK Auditing with David WongEpisode 265: Where ZK and ML intersect with Yi Sun and Daniel KangBonus Episode: zkpod.ai & Attested Audio Experiment with Daniel KangZK13: ZKTorch: Efficiently Compiling ML Models to Zero-Knowledge Proof Protocols - Daniel KangAI Agent Benchmarks are BrokenVAILzkCNN: Zero Knowledge Proofs for Convolutional Neural Network Predictions and AccuracyzkLLM: Zero Knowledge Proofs for Large Language ModelsMLPerf Inference: Datacenter     Check out the latest jobs in ZK at the ZK Podcast Jobs Board      **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   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript

In this episode, Anna Rose and Guillermo Angeris catch up with Muthu Venkitasubramaniam, Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University and cofounder of Ligero. They discuss how Ligero’s small memory footprint makes it a good choice for client-side proving, as well as the importance of programmable compliance in blockchain. The conversation explores the differences between ‘MPC in the head’ and error-correcting code perspectives, and how well-established primitives influence the design of modern ZK systems. They also debate the challenge of adding ‘ZK’ privacy back into systems without it, why proving EVM traces may be absurd, and what kinds of guarantees might exist around the results of vibe coding.   Related Links Episode 363: Bringing ZK to Google Wallet with Abhi and MatteoEpisode 326: MPC & ZK in Ligero and LigetronZK13: Ligerito: A Small and Concretely Fast Polynomial Commitment Scheme - Kobi GurkanZK13: Vibe coding ZK Apps with Ligetron ZK Platform - Muthu Venkitasubramaniam ZK10: Analysis of zkVM Designs - Wei Dai & Terry Chung Ligerito: A Small and Concretely Fast Polynomial Commitment SchemeLigero++ - Reducing proof length of LigeroAdding Zero-Knowledge to STARKs - Talk by Ulrich HaböckAurora - comparing prover times of STARKs vs LigeroWYSTERIA: A Programming Language for Generic, Mixed-Mode Multiparty ComputationsSamaritan: Linear-time Prover SNARK from New Multilinear Polynomial CommitmentsBrakedown: Linear-time and field-agnostic SNARKs for R1CSIntro to MPC-in-the-Head     Check out the latest jobs in ZK at the ZK Podcast Jobs Board     **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   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript