Zero Knowledge

This week, Anna catches up with Illia Polosukhin, CTO and co-founder of NEAR, to talk about what's new in the network since last year. They go deeper on some of the topics they discussed last time - such as sharded vs non-sharded blockchains and data availability as well as discuss the long and rocky road to launching a new PoS network, building a validator community and where we might see privacy and zkp tech in Near. Some episodes we reference in our chat. Ep 91: Near Protocol's focus on UXEp 135: Look into SolanaEp 156: Stateless Validation with Alin TomescuThank you to this week’s sponsor Trail of Bits. Trail of Bits has published this guide for building secure contracts with their Crytic offering. Crytic is a SaaS-based GitHub application created by Trail of Bits that continuously assures your Ethereum smart contracts are safe and functional. It reports build status on every commit and runs a suite of security analyses so you get immediate security feedback. Check out this guide - which I have added to the show notes - for tips on how to build security into your dapps from the start and how to use the Trail of Bits suite of tools for automated vulnerability detection. Thank you once again Trail of BitsIf you like what we do: Follow us on Twitter - @zeroknowledgefm -https://twitter.com/zeroknowledgefmJoin us on Telegram -https://t.me/joinchat/B_81tQ57-ThZg8yOSx5gjACatch us on Youtube -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWsYz5cKw4wZ9Mpe4kuM_gRead up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit -https://www.reddit.com/r/zkpodcast Give us feedback! -https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A Support our Gitcoin Grant -https://gitcoin.co/grants/329/zero-knowledge-podcast-2Support us on the ZKPatreon -https://www.patreon.com/zeroknowledgeOr directly here: ETH: 0xC0FFEE1B5083230a5154F55f253B6b6ae8F29B1aBTC: 1cafekGa3podM4fBxPSQc6RCEXQNTK8ZzZEC: t1R2bujRF3Hzte9ALHpMJvY8t5kb9ut9SpQ Read transcript

In this week’s episode, Anna and Fredrik chat with Alin Tomescu, a post-doc researcher at VMWare Research Group, about the concept of stateless systems. Specifically, they explore his work on stateless validation, why this would be desirable and what is the state of the research around this topic. Have a look at Alin’s previous zkStudy Club episodes: zkStudyClub: Alin Tomescu on authenticated dictionaries and cross-incremental proof (dis)aggregation & zkStudyClub: Aggregatable Subvector Commitments with Alin Tomescu (VMWare Research)This episode is packed full of info and Alin shared an amazing list of resources to help navigate this : RMCI17e, Improving Authenticated Dynamic Dictionaries, with Applications to Cryptocurrencies, Leonid Reyzin and Dmitry Meshkov and Alexander Chepurnoy and Sasha IvanovCPZ18, Edrax: A Cryptocurrency with Stateless Transaction Validation, 2018, Alexander Chepurnoy and Charalampos Papamanthou and Yupeng ZhangBBF18, Batching Techniques for Accumulators with Applications to IOPs and Stateless Blockchains, 2018, Dan Boneh and Benedikt Bünz and Ben FischTome20, How to Keep a Secret and Share a Public Key (Using Polynomial Commitments), 2020, Tomescu, Alin, CFG+20, [Vector Commitment Techniques and Applications to Verifiable Decentralized Storage](https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/149], 2020, Matteo Campanelli and Dario Fiore and Nicola Greco and Dimitris Kolonelos and Luca NizzardoGRWZ20, Pointproofs: Aggregating Proofs for Multiple Vector Commitments, 2020, Sergey Gorbunov and Leonid Reyzin and Hoeteck Wee and Zhenfei ZhangTAB+20e, Aggregatable Subvector Commitments for Stateless Cryptocurrencies, 2020, Alin Tomescu and Ittai Abraham and Vitalik Buterin and Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist and Dmitry KhovratovichLGG+20, Aardvark: A Concurrent Authenticated Dictionary with Short Proofs, 2020, Derek Leung and Yossi Gilad and Sergey Gorbunov and Leonid Reyzin and Nickolai ZeldovichAR20, KVaC: Key-Value Commitments for Blockchains and Beyond, 2020, Shashank Agrawal and Srinivasan RaghuramanTXN20, Authenticated Dictionaries with Cross-Incremental Proof (Dis)aggregation, 2020, Alin Tomescu and Yu Xia and Zachary NewmanzkSummit6 is happening on Nov 23-24 2020 - grab your spot: https://www.zksummit.com/Thanks to this week's sponsor Parity Technologies. Check out Polkadot Decoded happening on December 3rd. This free online event is the Polkadot community conference and the first Polkadot gathering since the multi-chain network’s launch and decentralization.Featuring a full program of talks on all aspects of Polkadot by the teams building the network’s core technology, as well as those building ecosystem parachains, applications, and cross-network bridges Whether you’re new to Polkadot or an experienced Polkadot community member, be sure to learn the latest and future developments in the Polkadot ecosystem and connect with the Polkadot community.Check out the full program for Polkadot Decoded and register for free at decoded.polkadot.networkThanks again Parity Technologies! If you like what we do: Follow us on Twitter - @zeroknowledgefm -https://twitter.com/zeroknowledgefmJoin us on Telegram -https://t.me/joinchat/B_81tQ57-ThZg8yOSx5gjACatch us on Youtube -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWsYz5cKw4wZ9Mpe4kuM_gRead up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit -https://www.reddit.com/r/zkpodcast Give us feedback! -https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A Support our Gitcoin Grant -https://gitcoin.co/grants/329/zero-knowledge-podcast-2Support us on the ZKPatreon -https://www.patreon.com/zeroknowledgeOr directly here: ETH: 0xC0FFEE1B5083230a5154F55f253B6b6ae8F29B1aBTC: 1cafekGa3podM4fBxPSQc6RCEXQNTK8ZzZEC: t1R2bujRF3Hzte9ALHpMJvY8t5kb9ut9SpQ Read transcript

In this week’s episode, we revisit the topic of consensus algorithms with Ren Zhang, a researchers at Nervos and previously at imec-COSIC (KU Leuven). We chat about an earlier work he did on evaluating PoW consensus protocols security and explore his more recent work on NC-Max - a consensus protocol that breaks the throughput limit and enables the full utilization of the nodes’ bandwidth in confirming transactionsHere are a few of the links we mention in the interview: Consensus Algorithms & HotStuff with Ittai AbrahamMajority is not Enough:Bitcoin Mining is VulnerableFruitChains: A Fair BlockchainRSK technologySubchains: A Technique to Scale Bitcoin and Improve the User ExperienceLay Down the Common Metrics: Evaluating Proof-of-Work Consensus Protocols' Security by Ren Zhang & Bart PreneelNC-Max: Breaking the Throughput Limit of Nakamoto Consensus by Ren Zhang, Dingwei Zhang, Quake Wang, Jan Xie and Bart PreneelSquirRL - A recent paper extending the "Lay Down the Common Metrics" paperMarkov decision process on Wikipedia- Monsters in the Mempool with Dan Robinson from ParadigmPrism: Deconstructing the Blockchain to Approach Physical LimitsAlan Szepieniec on Hash Functions & Supersonic SNARKsMore on Nervos:For the UTXO Programming Model of Nervos, the best starting point is Ren’s colleague Xuejie Xiao's blog.An explanation of Nervos DAOAn introduction of the Virtual Machine and smart contract support Thanks to our sponsor Least Authority. Least Authority is a security consulting company known for their dedication to pushing the limits on how to build privacy-respecting solutions. They are a team of security researchers, open source developers, privacy advocates, cryptographers who specialize in security audits, design specification reviews, and security-by-design. Given that privacy is at the core of their work and mission, least authority recognizes the importance of privacy in DeFi and other decentralizing technologies and the role it plays in preserving balance of power. Least Authority is supporting this through a growing list of security reviews, building distributed systems and regular contributions to open source software projects.To find out about their work, visit leastauthority.com to check out their security audit reports.And get in touch at contactus@leastauthority.com if you want to talk about the security of your DeFi project. If you like what we do: Follow us on Twitter - @zeroknowledgefm -https://twitter.com/zeroknowledgefmJoin us on Telegram -https://t.me/joinchat/B_81tQ57-ThZg8yOSx5gjACatch us on Youtube -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWsYz5cKw4wZ9Mpe4kuM_gRead up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit -https://www.reddit.com/r/zkpodcast Give us feedback! -https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A Support our Gitcoin Grant -https://gitcoin.co/grants/329/zero-knowledge-podcast-2Support us on the ZKPatreon -https://www.patreon.com/zeroknowledgeOr directly here: ETH: 0xC0FFEE1B5083230a5154F55f253B6b6ae8F29B1aBTC: 1cafekGa3podM4fBxPSQc6RCEXQNTK8ZzZEC: t1R2bujRF3Hzte9ALHpMJvY8t5kb9ut9SpQ Read transcript

In this week’s episode, Anna spoke with Nolan Smith and Locke Brown, co-founders at NuID - a zero knowledge authentication solution. They explore the use-case of zk-powered password management and how this relates to Identity. Here are a few of the articles mentioned in the episode: -Universally Composable Direct Anonymous Attestation by Jan Camenisch , Manu Drijvers , and Anja Lehmann-Practical UC-Secure Delegatable Credentials with Attributes and Their Application to Blockchain by Jan Camenisch , Manu Drijvers , and Anja Lehmann-Privacy-Preserving User-Auditable Pseudonym Systems by Jan Camenisch & Anja Lehmann IBM Research – ZurichFind out more at the NuID developer portal https://portal.nuid.ioThanks to this week’s sponsor AleoAleo is the first platform for fully private applications. It uses blockchain and zero-knowledge cryptography to deliver a web experience that is both personal and private. With Aleo, developers can write private applications, without a background in blockchains or expertise in cryptography.Aleo has released Developer Preview I, an early peek at what the future of the web will look like. The release introduces a new programming language called Leo, a new community-driven package manager for Leo, and a new development environment or IDE called Aleo Studio.We recently had Howard Wu, a co-founder of Aleo, on the show for an interview - you can find that episode here. Learn more about Aleo at https://aleo.org/ Thanks again Aleo! If you like what we do: Follow us on Twitter - @zeroknowledgefm -https://twitter.com/zeroknowledgefmJoin us on Telegram -https://t.me/joinchat/B_81tQ57-ThZg8yOSx5gjACatch us on Youtube -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWsYz5cKw4wZ9Mpe4kuM_gRead up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit -https://www.reddit.com/r/zkpodcast Give us feedback! -https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A Support our Gitcoin Grant -https://gitcoin.co/grants/329/zero-knowledge-podcast-2Support us on the ZKPatreon -https://www.patreon.com/zeroknowledgeOr directly here: ETH: 0xC0FFEE1B5083230a5154F55f253B6b6ae8F29B1aBTC: 1cafekGa3podM4fBxPSQc6RCEXQNTK8ZzZEC: t1R2bujRF3Hzte9ALHpMJvY8t5kb9ut9SpQ Read transcript

In this week’s episode, we chat with Dan Robinson, a Research Partner at Paradigm. We talk about the world of crypto VC and revisit of the topic of the Ethereum mempool. We then hear Dan's story about how he and some colleagues tried to save a transaction from the monsters that lurk in the mempool as told in his blog post entitled “Ethereum is a Dark Forest”. For some background, here are some links: Ep 44: Blockchain 101: Transaction lifecycle & the mempoolEthereum is a Dark Forest By Dan Robinson and Georgios KonstantopoulosEscaping the Dark Forest by SamCZSun Ep 141: ZK & Games: Dark Forest with Brian Gu Thanks to our sponsor Least Authority. Least Authority is a security consulting company known for their dedication to pushing the limits on how to build privacy-respecting solutions. They are a team of security researchers, open source developers, privacy advocates, cryptographers who specialize in security audits, design specification reviews, and security-by-design. Known for security audits like the Eth 2.0 Specification, Protocol Lab's Gossipsub Protocol, Atomex Library, Wallet and Smart Contracts for Tezos Foundation, Blockstack's Investor Wallet, Centrifuge Tinlake 3.0 and more, the Least Authority team is passionate about advancing the security of projects in the blockchain, cryptocurrency and DeFi space. If you are looking to further improve the security of your protocol and its use of cryptography, email Least Authority at contactus@leastauthority.com to book a no-obligations consultation appointment. Thanks again Least AuthorityIf you like what we do: Follow us on Twitter - @zeroknowledgefm -https://twitter.com/zeroknowledgefmJoin us on Telegram -https://t.me/joinchat/B_81tQ57-ThZg8yOSx5gjACatch us on Youtube -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWsYz5cKw4wZ9Mpe4kuM_gRead up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit -https://www.reddit.com/r/zkpodcast Give us feedback! -https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A Support our Gitcoin Grant -https://gitcoin.co/grants/329/zero-knowledge-podcast-2Support us on the ZKPatreon -https://www.patreon.com/zeroknowledgeOr directly here: ETH: 0xC0FFEE1B5083230a5154F55f253B6b6ae8F29B1aBTC: 1cafekGa3podM4fBxPSQc6RCEXQNTK8ZzZEC: t1R2bujRF3Hzte9ALHpMJvY8t5kb9ut9SpQ Read transcript

In this week’s episode, guest host Tarun Chitra and Anna chat with Alex Svanevik, CEO & cofounder of Nansen. They cover crypto analytics, DeFi analytics as well as discuss the push and pull between a need for privacy and the need for blockchain transparency and data. Topics include: can DeFi and Privacy co-exist, how being aware of blockchain analytics could help people improve their opsec, the role of reputation in these systems, and, finally, how analytics in public blockchains may used as a novel marketing tactic (eg. when someone purposefully makes a big buy, knowing sophisticated traders are following their every move using these analytics tools and will see this as a signal to buy as well).Thanks to this week’s sponsor AleoAleo is the first platform for fully private applications. It uses blockchain and zero-knowledge cryptography to deliver a web experience that is both personal and private. With Aleo, developers can write private applications, without a background in blockchains or expertise in cryptography.Aleo has released Developer Preview I, an early peek at what the future of the web will look like. The release introduces a new programming language called Leo, a new community-driven package manager for Leo, and a new development environment or IDE called Aleo Studio.We recently had Howard Wu, a co-founder of Aleo, on the show for an interview - you can find that episode here. Learn more about Aleo at https://aleo.org/ Thanks again Aleo! If you like what we do: Follow us on Twitter - @zeroknowledgefm -https://twitter.com/zeroknowledgefmJoin us on Telegram -https://t.me/joinchat/B_81tQ57-ThZg8yOSx5gjACatch us on Youtube -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWsYz5cKw4wZ9Mpe4kuM_gRead up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit -https://www.reddit.com/r/zkpodcast Give us feedback! -https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A Support our Gitcoin Grant -https://gitcoin.co/grants/329/zero-knowledge-podcast-2Support us on the ZKPatreon -https://www.patreon.com/zeroknowledgeOr directly here: ETH: 0xC0FFEE1B5083230a5154F55f253B6b6ae8F29B1aBTC: 1cafekGa3podM4fBxPSQc6RCEXQNTK8ZzZEC: t1R2bujRF3Hzte9ALHpMJvY8t5kb9ut9SpQ Read transcript

In this episode, we chat with John Adler - co-founder of Lazy Ledger (now Celestia) and Fuel Labs. We compare Optimistic Rollups and ZK Rollups as well as discuss how Ethereum, specifically Eth1, could look over the next few years. We also talk about the data availability challenge in blockchains and how Lazy Ledger aims to solve this. Relevant links can be found here: James Prestwich's thread on Scalability vs Throughput mythsThe LazyLedger academic paper Security analysis of ORU from Fuel What would a rollup-centric ethereum roadmap look like?Video: "Scaling Ethereum in 2020 and Beyond" - Vitalik ButerinSome additional thoughts from John on Eth1Thanks to our sponsor Least Authority. Least Authority is a security consulting company known for their dedication to pushing the limits on how to build privacy-respecting solutions. They are a team of security researchers, open source developers, privacy advocates, cryptographers who specialize in security audits, design specification reviews, and security-by-design. Known for their security reviews, including work with zero knowledge proofs as well as having implemented zero-knowledge access passes with the distributed storage system, Tahoe-LAFS. If you are skilled in the area of zero-knowledge protocols and other advanced cryptography for scalability and privacy enhancing tech, you should get in contact with them. They’re expanding their team, so email them at jobs@leastauthority.comThanks again Least AuthorityIf you like what we do: Follow us on Twitter - @zeroknowledgefm -https://twitter.com/zeroknowledgefmJoin us on Telegram -https://t.me/joinchat/B_81tQ57-ThZg8yOSx5gjACatch us on Youtube -https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWsYz5cKw4wZ9Mpe4kuM_gRead up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit -https://www.reddit.com/r/zkpodcast Give us feedback! -https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A Support our Gitcoin Grant -https://gitcoin.co/grants/329/zero-knowledge-podcast-2Support us on the ZKPatreon -https://www.patreon.com/zeroknowledgeOr directly here: ETH: 0xC0FFEE1B5083230a5154F55f253B6b6ae8F29B1aBTC: 1cafekGa3podM4fBxPSQc6RCEXQNTK8ZzZEC: t1R2bujRF3Hzte9ALHpMJvY8t5kb9ut9SpQ Read transcript

This week, Anna continues to dig into the topic of NFTs - That is Non-Fungible-Tokens or unique digital items - with Alex Salnikov, co-founder & chief product officer at Rarible. They talk about the project, the link between NFTs and DeFi concepts, how the NFT space is developing, novel use cases and more. Here are some of the topics we mention: The path to an ERC standard CryptoKitties, Dapper Labs and Flow with Dieter Shirley Somnium Space VR 0x Cert Centrifuge Thank you to this week’s sponsor Trail of Bits. Trail of Bits has published a new guide for building secure contracts with their Crytic offering. Crytic is a SaaS-based GitHub application created by Trail of Bits that continuously assures your Ethereum smart contracts are safe and functional. It reports build status on every commit and runs a suite of security analyses so you get immediate security feedback. Check out this guide - which I have added to the show notes - for tips on how to build security into your dapps from the start and how to use the Trail of Bits suite of tools for automated vulnerability detection. Thank you once again Trail of BitsIf you like what we do: Follow us on Twitter - @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramCatch us on YoutubeRead up on the r/ZKPodcast subredditGive us feedback! https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A Support our Gitcoin GrantSupport us on the ZKPatreonOr directly here: ETH: 0xC0FFEE1B5083230a5154F55f253B6b6ae8F29B1aBTC: 1cafekGa3podM4fBxPSQc6RCEXQNTK8ZzZEC: t-add: t1R2bujRF3Hzte9ALHpMJvY8t5kb9ut9SpQz-add: zs1f8jjtkuqwvxy9h4q7grl6287hmpzyt4s55d392djx43wxxudwv20x7qgs74kp2h6e9k95lswst8 Read transcript

In this week's episode, we chat with Dieter Shirley, CTO Dapper Labs, Chief Architect of Flow Blockchain, and co-creator of CryptoKitties. We go back to look at the history of CryptoKitties, the NFT standard, what pushed Dapper Labs to build their own blockchain, how Flow works and what’s next. Here are a few useful links: The Path to an ERC standard where we look at the path to the ERC721 standard as an example. DapperLabs Coinlist sale Dieter's talk on Verifier’s Dilemma at Ready Layer One - subject we touched on briefly in our talkThanks to this week’s sponsor AleoAleo is the first platform for fully private applications. It uses blockchain and zero-knowledge cryptography to deliver a web experience that is both personal and private. With Aleo, developers can write private applications, without a background in blockchains or expertise in cryptography.Aleo has released Developer Preview I, an early peek at what the future of the web will look like. The release introduces a new programming language called Leo, a new community-driven package manager for Leo, and a new development environment or IDE called Aleo Studio.We recently had Howard Wu, a co-founder of Aleo, on the show for an interview - you can find that episode here. Learn more about Aleo at https://aleo.org/ Thanks again Aleo! If you like what we do: Follow us on Twitter - @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramCatch us on YoutubeRead up on the r/ZKPodcast subredditGive us feedback! https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A Support our Gitcoin GrantSupport us on the ZKPatreonOr directly here: ETH: 0xC0FFEE1B5083230a5154F55f253B6b6ae8F29B1aBTC: 1cafekGa3podM4fBxPSQc6RCEXQNTK8ZzZEC: t-add: t1R2bujRF3Hzte9ALHpMJvY8t5kb9ut9SpQz-add: zs1f8jjtkuqwvxy9h4q7grl6287hmpzyt4s55d392djx43wxxudwv20x7qgs74kp2h6e9k95lswst8 Read transcript

This is a short bonus chat to Episode 148 "Tale of the Sushi(swap)". Tarun, Hasu and Anna reconvene to wrap up the story of Governance Tokens, Sushiswap and the Uniswap token distribution. Be sure to first listen to "Tale of the Sushi(swap) - Part 1" "Tale of the Sushi(swap) - Part 2" on the uncommoncore podcast If you like what we do, be sure to check out the Zero Knowledge Podcast Gitcoin Grant - CLR matching is happening now! https://gitcoin.co/grants/329/zero-knowledge-podcast