Zero Knowledge

There is no episode this week, but wanted to highlight the upcoming ZK Hack Montreal event, happening Aug 9-11 2024. This is the 4th IRL zk-focused hackathon produced by ZK Hack. Apply now to attend ZK Hack Montreal as a hacker and jump into zk. https://www.zkmontreal.com/ Find out more about ZK Hack as well at https://zkhack.dev/

SummaryIn this week’s episode Anna and Kobi chat with Muthu Venkitasubramaniam and Carmit Hazay from Ligero. They discuss their work on MPC and ZK for the last 20 years and how the research has evolved. They then dive into a nuanced conversation on how MPC & ZK are interrelated. The discuss Ligero, what led to the project and the early phases, as well as the new Ligetron system and how they plan on getting this technology into the wild. Here’s some additional links for this episode:LigeroLigero: Lightweight Sublinear Arguments Without a Trusted Setup by Ames, Hazay, Ishai and VenkitasubramaniamLigetron by LigeroLigetron: Lightweight Scalable End-to-End Zero-Knowledge Proofs. Post-Quantum ZK-SNARKs on a Browser by Wang, Hazay and Venkitasubramaniamℓ-Diversity: Privacy Beyond k-Anonymity by Machanavajjhala, Gehrke, Kifer and VenkitasubramaniamEfficient RSA Key Generation and Threshold Paillier in the Two-Party Setting by Hazay, Mikkelsen, Rabin, Toft and NicolosiMeshCal.comZero-Knowledge from Secure Multiparty Computation by Ishai, Kushilevitz, Ostrovsky and SahaiIntroduction to MPC-in-the-Head by Carmit HazayZKBoo: Faster Zero-Knowledge for Boolean Circuits by Giacomelli, Madsen and OrlandiEpisode 322: Definitions, Security and Sumcheck in ZK Systems with Justin ThalerCommunication complexity of secure computation by Franklin and YungZK Hack Montreal has been announced for Aug 9 - 11! Apply to join the hackathon here. 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 | LinktreeSubscribe to our podcast newsletterFollow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefmJoin us on TelegramCatch us on YouTube Read transcript

Tracy Livengood, co-founder of Pluto, discusses web proofs, bringing private web data to on-chain apps with ZK. He shares insights on transitioning to the decentralized web, using TLSNotary stack, and developing future tool sets for the project.

Antonio Sanso and Youssef El Housni discuss new elliptic curves, Bandersnatch, Verkle Tries, and their work on Families of prime-order endomorphism-equipped embedded curves on pairing-friendly curves. They dissect cryptographic technicalities, explore applications of their work, and unravel the mysteries of Bandersnatch and twisted curves in systems like Ethereum.

Georgios Konstantopoulos, CTO of Paradigm, talks about Reth project's design and future goals, client node landscape diversity in Ethereum, and how different clients can protect a chain. They also cover Foundry updates, ETH 2.0 research, and Verkle Trees for Statelessness.

Anna and Guillermo chat with Justin Thaler, from Georgetown and a16z, about his SNARKs article misconceptions, zkVM Jolt, and community contributions. They cover the importance of precision in defining ZK systems, Fiat-Shamir transformations, and advancements in small characteristic fields for SNARK performance. The discussion also delves into the Jolt system and polynomial IOP innovations, emphasizing community involvement and future developments.

Ph.D students Gal Arnon & Giacomo Fenzi discuss their research on 'STIR', a system replacing FRI with optimizations. They explore the history of FRI, proximity testing, proof systems, polynomial folding, coding theory, and advancements in protocols and soundness analysis.

Ben Fisch, CEO of Espresso Systems, talks about the inner workings of L2 sequencing, MEV in the system, and shared sequencing marketplace models. They discuss separating sequencer roles, MEV impact, and how these elements collaborate. The conversation highlights surplus value, cross-chain interactions, and the importance of coordination in decentralized sequencing.

Jordi Baylina discusses the evolution of zkEVMs in the L2 landscape, Polygon's AggLayer proposal, and the inspiration behind his continued contributions. The episode delves into engineering decentralized systems, challenges in blockchain projects, and the transformative power of decentralization in blockchain technology.

Chelsea Komlo, Chief Scientist for Zcash Foundation, discusses her cryptography research journey from Tor to Zcash, focusing on Threshold Signature Schemes and FROST. They define signature scheme terms, optimizations, and upcoming work. Explore the development of FROST, Frostsnap project's applications in the Bitcoin ecosystem, and the expansion of zero-knowledge proofs beyond privacy.