Zero Knowledge

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

In this week’s episode, Anna explores Halo 2 with Daira Hopwood and Str4d, cryptographic engineers at Electric Coin Company. They explored what new ideas Halo introduced and how Halo 2 built on these ideas, adding optimisations such as adding Plonk-ish arithmetization to take what was a breakthrough to a production ready proving system. This episode was recorded at Zcon3 in Vegas. Here are some links for this episode:Episode on HaloEpisode recorded at Zcon0 ZK Whiteboard SessionsEpisode with Sean BoweHalo 2 explainedJustin Drake on Polynomial CommitmentsStr4d’s talk at ZCon3 Daira’s talk at ZCon3Ying Tong’s talk at ZCon3 Pratyush Mishra at Zcon3The halo2 Book: Proving System The halo2 Book: Protocol The halo2 Book: SinsemillaCheck out ZK Whiteboard Sessions, produced by ZK Hack & powered by Polygon, a weekly educational series of interviews with ZK experts on the most important concepts and building blocks in ZK. If you are looking to jump into ZK professionally, check out the ZK Jobs Board to find job posts from some of the top teams working in ZK – like Aleo, Anoma and Mina. If you’re looking to hire, be sure to add your jobs as well! More at ZK Jobs Board. Today’s episode is sponsored by Manta Network.Manta is the privacy hub for web3. By leveraging zero-knowledge proofs, Manta brings on-chain privacy to any crypto asset. Manta is looking for engineers passionate about cryptography and bringing convenient privacy protection to all of web3. Visit [https://careers.manta.network]([https://careers.manta.network) to apply.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 chats with Vaibhav Chellani, a bridge builder and the co-founder of Socket. They explore what makes up the components of a bridge, the types of bridges, and then look at their framework for analysing the security trade-offs of different bridge architectures. This is an important topic, since at present, there are more and more bridges coming online to connect all the different chains together. And with these come a number of new bugs, hacks and exploits. This episode gives us an overview on how to think about bridges. Here are some links for this episode:Episode 223: Connecting Cosmos and Ethereum with Gravity BridgeEpisode 226: Interoperability with Sergey Gorbunov from Axelar Episode 229: Going Cross-Chain with Polkadot’s XCM Episode 230: Designing Optimistic Interoperability with Nomad Socket bungee exchangeThe Bridge Risk Framework SeminarVitalik’s ‘Future Multi-chain, Not Cross-chain'Check out ZK Whiteboard Sessions, produced by ZK Hack & powered by Polygon, a weekly educational series of interviews with ZK experts on the most important concepts and building blocks in ZK. Also, zkSummit is happening in Berlin on September 15th! Apply to attend 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 week’s episode, Anna and Kobi chat with Shumo Chu, co-founder of Manta Network. They discuss the origin story of the project and how they aim to bring privacy to web3. They explore the unique accessibility that Polkadot parachains enable, the work they do on building ZK tooling and libraries for the general ZK community. They then take a look at their plans for a multi-asset shielded pool and the future they have planned for Manta projects and more. Here are some links for this episode:Episode 226: Interoperability with Sergey Gorbunov from AxelarEpisode 172: ZK languages with Alex OzdemirManta NetworkManta: a Plug and Play Private DeFi StackDolphin TestnetZK GarageBlog post: Enabling multi-asset privacy on Anoma plookup: A simplified polynomial protocol for lookup tablesCirC: Compiler infrastructure for proof systems, software verification, and moreCheck out ZK Whiteboard Sessions, produced by ZK Hack & powered by Polygon, a weekly educational series of interviews with ZK experts on the most important concepts and building blocks in ZK. Today’s episode is sponsored by Anoma.Anoma is a suite 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 to learn more!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 catches up with Zaki Manian from Sommelier and Dean Tribble from Agoric. They check-in with the latest project news, recap about the UST collapse, and look into IST - Inter Stable Token - a project by the Agoric team that aims to become the Cosmos native multi collateral stablecoin. Here are some links for this episode:Ep 218: Hardened JS and the Architecture of Agoric with Dean TribbleEp 201: DeFi’s Multichain Future with Zaki Manian from SommelierEp 174: Through the Cosmos Stargate UpgradeEp 108: Catch up with Zaki Manian from TendermintInter.TradeGaunletAgoricAgoric Signs on Gauntlet for Inter Protocol Stablecoin Risk Optimization on CosmosWe're excited to announce ZK Whiteboard Sessions – a weekly educational video series focused on the building blocks of ZK. Produced by ZK Hack and powered by Polygon.zkSummit 8 is happening in Berlin on Sept 15th during Berlin Blockchain Week!Apply to attend: https://www.zksummit.com/Today’s episode is sponsored by Aleo. Aleo is a new Layer-1 blockchain – if you’re building private applications then check out Aleo’s programming language called Leo which enables non-cryptographers to harness the power of ZKPs. Visit leo-lang.org to start building. You can also participate in Aleo’s incentivized testnet 3 by downloading and running a snarkOS node. No sign-up is necessary to participate. For questions, join their Discord at aleo.org/discordIf 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

No full episode this week. Just a quick message to let you know about the upcoming zkSummit 8 - happening in Berlin Sept 15 2022. Apply here: https://www.zksummit.com/ If you like what we do: Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletter Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm Head to the ZK Community Forum Support our Gitcoin Grant

In this week’s episode, Anna talks with Illia from Near and Alex from Aurora about the work they did that lead them to the Near ecosystem and what the connection is between the Aurora project and Near. They also cover what’s new at Near since the last time Illia and Anna spoke, Aurora+, the Rainbow Bridge, and future plans with Near’s sharding system. Here are some links for this episode:Ep 91: Near Protocol's focus on UXEp 157: Illia Polosukhin on the development and launch of NEAR protocolCross Chain Series - Interview with Anna and AuroraSputnikVMNear BridgeNear Joins Multichain to Bring More Cross Chain Electron LabsCheck out the Zero Knowledge Podcast Linktree to stay up-to-date on all the ZK-focused channels and events in our ecosystem.Today’s episode is sponsored by AnomaAnoma is a suite of protocols that enable self-sovereign coordination. Their unique architecture facilitates the simplest forms of economic coordination such as two parties transferring an asset to each other. As well as more sophisticated ones like an asset agnostic bartering system involving multiple parties without direct “coincidence of wants."Anoma 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 to learn more! If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree Subscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramHead to the ZK Community ForumSupport our Gitcoin Grant Read transcript

In this week’s episode, Anna and Kobi chat with guest Jens Groth, Director of Research at DFINITY and previously a professor in the Department of Computer Science at UCL. Jens Groth is a leading ZK researcher and is behind a number of advances in the field of ZK in the last few years such as the popular proving system Groth16. The conversation covers his earlier career, the cryptographic problems he tackled in his research, how he solved these, the results of this work as well as his move from research into industry and what he works on today. Here are some links for this episode:Episode 232: Cutting Edge ZK Research with Mary MallerJens Groth's researchEfficient Zero-Knowledge Argument for Correctness of a ShuffleSubversion-zero-knowledge SNARKs GGPRDFINITYInternet Computer ProtocolCheck out the Zero Knowledge Podcast linktree to stay up-to-date on all the ZK-focused channels and events in our ecosystemToday’s episode is sponsored by AnomaAnoma is a suite of protocols that enable self-sovereign coordination. Their unique architecture facilitates efficiently the simplest forms of economic coordination such as two parties transferring an asset to each other. As well as more sophisticated ones like an asset agnostic bartering system involving multiple parties without direct “coincidence of wants”; or even more complex ones such as “N-party” collective commitments to solve multipolar traps – where any interaction can be performed with adjustable zero-knowledge privacy.Visit Anoma to learn more! 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 Head to the ZK Community Forum Support our Gitcoin Grant Read transcript

In this week’s episode, Anna checks in with Aztec, a ZK-based privacy L2 project. She speaks with Joe Andrews and Lead Engineer, Charles Julian. They discuss some of the team’s most important ZK research and implementations such as Plonk and how bringing privacy to Ethereum could truly change the way we do DeFi. They also discuss Aztec Connect and how it relates to zk.money, the Aztec roadmap with future projects like DSL Noir and Aztec 3, as well as a quick postmortem on the halted Aztec Connect launch. Here are some links for this episode:Ep 176: Zk-zk-rollup & zk.money with Zac and Joe from AztecEp 75: Exploring Aztec with Zac WilliamsonEp 232: Cutting Edge ZK Research with Mary MallerAZTEC Trusted SetupPLONK: Permutations over Lagrange-bases for Oecumenical Noninteractive arguments of Knowledge AztecProtocol/barretenberg: C++ elliptic curve library | GitHubAztecProtocol/aztec-connect-bridges | GitHubIf you are looking to jump into ZK professionally, check out the ZK Jobs board to find job posts from some of the top teams working in ZK – like Aleo, Anoma and Mina. If you’re looking to hire, be sure to add your jobs as well! More at ZK Jobs Board.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 building private applications - then check out Aleo’s programming language called Leo which enables non-cryptographers to harness the power of ZKPs. Visit leo-lang.org to start building. You can also participate in 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](aleo.org/discord)If you like what we do:Find all our links here!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, we throwback to a sake-fueled conversation between Anna and returning guest Guillermo Angeris, recorded in April during DevConnect in Amsterdam. They cover Guillermo’s personal journey into math, math history in general, how to bring more people into the space and the potential opportunities and downsides of bringing some kinds of math mainstream. It is a bit of different one, but hope you enjoy!Here are some links for this episode: Ep 173: Building Private AMMs with Guillermo Angeris Ep 206: Distilling DeFi Primitives with Guillermo, Alex and Tarun Ep 212: 2021 < 2022 with Co-hosts & Friends Ep 228: Catch-up at DevConnect with Friends Grigori Perelman - Wikipedia Banach–Tarski Paradox - Wikipedia Understanding ZKPs Through Simple Examples Convex Analysis - Wikipedia Stephen P. Boyd - Wikipedia Four Color Theorem - Wikipedia A History of Mathematics/Middle Ages/Europe During the Middle AgesThe ZK Podcast team is growing! We're looking to hire an additional content producer to join us. There's a job posting for this content producer over on the ZK jobs board.Learn more and apply here.Today’s episode is sponsored by AnomaAnoma is a suite of protocols that enable self-sovereign coordination. Their unique architecture facilitates efficiently the simplest forms of economic coordination such as two parties transferring an asset to each other. As well as more sophisticated ones like an asset agnostic bartering system involving multiple parties without direct “coincidence of wants”; or even more complex ones such as “N-party” collective commitments to solve multipolar traps – where any interaction can be performed with adjustable zero-knowledge privacy.Visit Anoma to learn more! 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