Zero Knowledge

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

In this episode, Anna explores the topic of the recent OFAC sanctions against Tornado Cash with 2 interviews: One is with TuongVy Le, Head of Regulatory and Policy at Bain Capital Crypto, who previously worked at the SEC and the other is with Michael Mosier, General Council at Espresso Systems, who used to work at the Treasury, within FinCen and at OFAC itself. For some context: On August 8th 2022, OFAC, a US government department issued sanctions against Tornado Cash, a privacy protocol that uses zero knowledge proofs to provide on-chain privacy. It was the first time that OFAC had sanctioned a set of smart contracts and a decentralized entity for which there's no clear ownership. This is an event which has had a ripple effect throughout the zk ecosystem and will be the topic explored in a series with different members of the community. In these two initial interviews, Anna explores what actually happened legally, what a sanction is, what kind of a tool is this, why it may have been issued and what problem arose from the way it was issued and how this might impact future understanding of zero knowledge tech through a legal lens._NOTE: Since our recording OFAC has released an FAQ to clarify some of the legal questions raised in our interviews: https://home.treasury.gov/taxonomy/term/1546 _Here are some additional links for this episode:Episode 111: Mixers with Tornado.cash Episode 166: Coin Center’s Peter Van Valkenburgh on regulation Episode 191: ZKPs & the Dichotomy of Privacy vs Transparency with Josh & Jill Chainanalysis: Crypto Mixer Usage Reaches All-time Highs in 2022, With Nation State Actors and Cybercriminals Contributing Significant VolumeCircle and Coinbase Restrict Movement of USDC Funds From Tornado Cash Addresses Following Sanctions Rep. Emmer demands an explanation of OFAC’s Tornado Cash sanction from Sec. Yellen What is OFAC? OFAC Press Release on Tornado CashOFAC Identifies Associated Digital Currency Addresses for the First Time Treasury Sanctions Russia-Based Hydra Blender.io Sanctions The Bank Secrecy Act 311 Patriot ActFinCEN: Financial Crimes Enforcement NetworkApplication of FinCEN’s Regulations to Certain Business Models Involving Convertible Virtual Currencies ZK 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 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 coming soon! If you’d like to learn more about Polygon zkEVM and stay updated on the latest - fill out the form here.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 episode, Anna and Guillermo chat with David Tse about his career and research spanning from early Networking, Mobile Networking, P2P, all the way up to his work on formalizing Blockchain systems. Along the way, they touch on topics like 'The Price of Anarchy', David’s Prism work, his work with the Ethereum Foundation and his new project Babylon. Here are some links for this episode:Episode 217: Information Theory & Blockchain with Sreeram Kannan The Price of AnarchyBabylonPrismBram Cohen’s Twitter Everything is a Race and Nakamoto Always WinsThree Attacks on Proof of Stake EthereumEbb-and-Flow Protocols: A Resolution of the Availability-Finality DilemmaMore of David Tse's PapersA Mathematical Theory of Communication - C. E. Shannon 1948Hidden Hamiltonian Cycle Recovery via Linear ProgrammingConcentration Inequalities and Model Selection - P. MassartJohn Tsitsiklis BioFundamentals of Wireless Communication - David Tse 2005Qualcomm WebsiteCosmoverse Event Link Devcon Event Link ZK 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 – if you are looking to find a new job, or if you are a team hiring, we have a fresh batch of open roles at ZK focused projects. This is a great place to learn about relevant projects and the types of roles they are looking for. 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. Leo enables non-cryptographers to harness the power of ZKPs. 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.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 revisit the topic of MEV with Chris Hager from Flashbots & Alex Stokes from the Ethereum Foundation. In this episode, they tease out more of the nuances around MEV and how the field around it has evolved in the last year or so. The team explores what the MEV space could look like after the Merge, the PBS (Proposer Builder Separation) concept, what each role in the MEV landscape will do and the MEV-Boost architecture. They also chat about using cryptographic solutions to prevent some kinds of MEV and some recent work that Tarun released on the topic of MEV, as well as future ideas around MEV aim to democratize or even share the searchers rewards.Here are some links for this episode:Episode 168: Flashbots with Phil Daian and Stephane GosselinEpisode 188: Analyzing Osmosis & Preventing MEV with Sunny and Dev Episode 216: A Dip into the Mempool & MEV with Project BlancAlex Stokes BlogFlashbots MEV ResearchFlashbots GithubFlashbots DiscordFlashbots Docs: New to MEV?Flashbots DocsTarun’s recent work on MEV: Improving Proof of Stake Economic Security via MEV RedistributionHere is more of Tarun's recent work: Towards a Theory of Maximal Extractable Value I: Constant Function Market Makers The Downside of Sanctioning Tornado CashZK 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 – if you are looking to find a new job, or if you are a team hiring, we have a fresh batch of open roles at ZK focused projects. This is a great place to learn about relevant projects and the types of roles they are looking for. 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 coming soon! If you’d like to learn more about Polygon zkEVM and stay updated on the latest - fill out the form here.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