Zero Knowledge

In this week’s episode, Anna and Nico interview Or Sattath, Assistant Professor at the Ben-Gurion University in the Computer Science department. This is the 2nd episode with Or on this show, continuing the conversation around Quantum Cryptography. This time, he describes how we can transition from a pre-quantum to a post-quantum environment, looking at existing systems like Bitcoin and Ethereum. He covers why the methods used in the transition will be important, techniques on how this could be executed and the challenges in designing these techniques and the complications that can arise. Finally, they go on to discuss Quantum Money and recent works in this area.Here’s some additional links for this episode:Part 1 - Episode 288: Quantum Cryptography with Or Sattath Polynomial-Time Algorithms for Prime Factorization and Discrete Logarithms on a Quantum Computer by Shor Shor’s Algorithm Grover’s Algorithm A fast quantum mechanical algorithm for database search by Grover Fawkescoin: A cryptocurrency without public-key cryptography by Bonneau and Miller Bitcoin is not quantum-safe, and how we can fix it when needed by ButerinCryptographic canaries and backups by Justin Drake Notes and recommended links by Or Sattath:NIST post-quantum standardization for post-quantum digital signatures and public-key encryption (or, more precisely, Key Encapsulation Mechanism, KEM). These are classical schemes that, unlike almost all the existing schemes that are used in practice, are secure against quantum adversaries.Signature Lifting (arXiv link) is discussed as a technique to migrate to post-quantum signatures, especially for those who didn't prepare in advance. Here's a recommended Twitter thread summarizing the results by Shai Wyborski, Or’s co-author.An approach to upgrade Bitcoin to quantum money is available here. This uses a cryptographic primitive which is called quantum lightning, which was introduced here.Some smart contacts capabilities can be supported as well. This construction is based on one-shot signatures, which isdiscussed in some detail during the interview. The bottom line of this work is that we can have the most important utility that Bitcoin provides, without the need for a blockchain, or any other consensus mechanism. Uncloneable cryptography was discussed during the interview. Quantum encryption with certified deletion was discussed as an interesting example of a property that can be achieved only in quantum cryptography.Applications are now open to attend zkHack Istanbul - Nov 10-12! Apply here: https://www.zkistanbul.com/ 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 Q4, this is an invitation to be part of a transformational ZK journey. Dive deeper and discover more about Aleo at aleo.org If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | LinktreeSubscribe to our podcast newsletter Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm Join us on Telegram Catch us on YouTube Read transcript

In this week’s episode, Anna and Nico catch up with Brian Retford and Jeremy Bruestle from RISC Zero. They delve into the current status of the project, breaking down the components of the stack, from the RISC Zero zkVM leveraging the RISC-V instruction set architecture to the Bonsai proving service and their new zkEVM, Zeth. They also touch on their design methodology, how the system components integrate and future developments for RISC Zero.Here’s some additional resources for this episode:RISC Zero Developer Guide: Rust Resources RISC Zero GitHub: Rust CratesUsing Continuations to Prove Any EVM TransactionRISC-V Website https://zkbench.devEpisode 251: Exploring RISC Zero with Brian Retford and Jeremy BruestleZK9: Future ZK Emerging Use Cases and Key Enablers – Brian Retford (RISC Zero) ZK Hack Lisbon: Creating Zero-Knowledge Proofs with RISC Zero Applications are now open to attend zkHack Istanbul - Nov 10-12! Apply here: https://www.zkistanbul.com/ Launching soon, Namada is a proof-of-stake L1 blockchain focused on multichain, asset-agnostic privacy, via a unified shielded set. Namada is natively interoperable with fast-finality chains via IBC, and with Ethereum using a trust-minimised bridge.Follow Namada on Twitter @namada for more information and join the community on Discord discord.gg/namada If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | LinktreeSubscribe to our podcast newsletter Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm Join us on Telegram Catch us on YouTube Read transcript

Nigel Smart, Professor at KU Leuven and Chief Academic Officer at Zama, discusses advancements in MPC, including garbled circuits, secret sharing, and FHE. They explore systems-level applications like DKGs and Threshold Signature Schemes and how MPC and ZK can enhance each other's capabilities. Topics include misconceptions about SNARKs, MPC systems, and the connection between DKG and MPC. They also cover threshold signatures for preventing MEV, garbled circuits in MPC, MPC, CK, and zero knowledge snarks, NIST's interest in ZK, small attacks, advancements in optical computing, and its impact on zero knowledge.

In this week’s episode, host Anna Rose and co-host Kobi Gurkan chat with Alex Evans and Guillermo Angeris about their new research paper on Succinct Proofs in Linear Algebra. The paper introduces a framework that simplifies the construction of succinct proofs and offers a toolkit of useful techniques. Their conversation also covers the use of randomized reductions in zero-knowledge proofs, the security of the FRI protocol, and the potential applications of the framework in other systems. Here’s some additional links for this episode:*PapersSuccinct Proofs in Linear Algebra by Evans and AngerisAlgebraic Reductions of Knowledge by Kothapalli and Parno Proximity Testing with Logarithmic Randomness by Diamond and PosenLigero: Lightweight Sublinear Arguments Without a Trusted Setup by Ames, Hazay, Ishai and VenkitasubramaniamSumcheck Arguments and their Applications by Bootle, Chiesa and Sotiraki Proofs, Arguments, and Zero-Knowledge by Thaler Stephen Boyd Papers *Other linksEpisode 140: Staking derivatives & DeFi with Alex Evans (and Tarun!)Episode 206: Distilling DeFi Primitives with Guillermo, Alex and Tarun Episode 271: Between Two ZK Events with Nico and Guillermo Episode 282: Error Correcting Codes & Information Theory with Ron Rothblum Episode 293: Exploring Security of ZK Systems with Nethermind’s Michał & Albert ZK Hack Discord ZK Whiteboard SessionsApplications are now open to attend zkHack Istanbul - Nov 10-12! Apply here: https://www.zkistanbul.com/ 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 Q4, this is an invitation to be part of a transformational ZK journey. Dive deeper and discover more about Aleo at aleo.org If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | LinktreeSubscribe to our podcast newsletter Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm Join us on Telegram Catch us on YouTube Read transcript

Michał Zając and Albert Garreta from the Nethermind team discuss the origin story of Nethermind, cryptography research on FRI-based protocols, identifying security issues with Fiat-Shamir, exploring ZK malleability and aggregation, and building SNARKs over rings.

In this special live episode, recorded at zkSummit10, host Anna Rose chats with regular co-hosts Tarun Chitra, Guillermo Angeris and Nico Mohnblatt about the state of ZK today.They cover how the term ‘ZK’ has evolved, market trends that are relevant to the ZK community today and ZK ‘crossovers’ like ZKML or ZKFHE and their current status in the industry. They also discuss how the ZK space could grow in the future and share their predictions. Much of the conversation is fuelled by some great questions and comments from the live zk10 audience.This is the first episode recorded live from a ZK Podcast event, so if you have any feedback, pls tweet us @zeroknowledgefm!Here’s some additional links for this episode:Episode 90: MPC systems with Nigel SmartEpisode 173: Building Private AMMs with Guillermo Angeris (Guillermo’s first episode!)Episode 269: Auctions with Kshitij Kulkarni, Matheus V. X. Ferreira and Tarun Episode 270: FHE and ZKPs with Sunscreen’s Ravital Solomon 17 misconceptions about SNARKs (and why they hold us back) by Justin Thaler Applications are now open to attend zkHack Istanbul - Nov 10-12! Apply here: https://www.zkistanbul.com/ 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 Q4, this is an invitation to be part of a transformational ZK journey. Dive deeper and discover more about Aleo at aleo.org If you like what we do:Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | LinktreeSubscribe to our podcast newsletter Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm Join us on Telegram Catch us on YouTube Read transcript

Associate Professor of Economics at Rice University, Mallesh M Pai, discusses mechanism design in an economic context, focusing on censorship in MEV systems. They explore the impact of proposer builder separation on efficiency and censorship resistance. The conversation also touches on the connection between censorship and MEV, MEV blocking techniques, the role of finance in cryptocurrency, and using mechanism design to address censorship in blockchain systems.

David Wong, author of Real-World Cryptography book and cofounder of zksecurity.xyz, discusses his interest in cryptography, auditing techniques, common bugs in ZK code, and his work on Facebook crypto project and Mina project.

This week, host Anna Rose chats with Finch, Erwan and Jen from the Penumbra team. They share an update about Penumbra and discuss how this zk-powered project works under the hood. Specifically, how Penumbra harnesses ZK to offer new paradigms for staking, voting and trading. Here’s some additional links for this episode: Episode 247: Exploring Penumbra with Henry de Valence Penumbra Storage Penumbra GitHub ZK8: How to build a private DEX - Henry de Valence - Penumbra ZK8: Tiered Merkle Topiary in Rust – finch – Penumbra Labs Plaidfinch (Penumbra) - Interchain Private Trading with Penumbra Privacy in Cosmos Live: Finch (Penumbra)- Full-Stack Private Protocol Design A pure-Rust implementation of group operations on Ristretto and Curve25519curve25519-dalek GithubReplicating Market Makers by Angeris, Evans, ChitraSecureDropFurther reading;Penumbra’s DEX Arrives From The Future How to See in the Dark: Navigating Penumbra Private Governance on Penumbra Bringing Zero-Knowledge Proofs to Penumbra Introducing Poseidon377, our instantiation of a SNARK-friendly hash Testnet #4: Shielded Staking Is Here zkSummit 10 is happening in London on September 20, 2023! Apply to attend now -> zkSummit 10 Application Form Check out the ZK Jobs BoardAnoma’s first fractal instance, Namada, is launching soon!The MASP circuit's latest update enables shielded set rewards directly in the shielded set, a novel feature that funds privacy as a public good.Follow Namada on twitter @namada for more information and join the community on Discord discord.gg/namada. 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 YouTube Read transcript

Or Sattath, Assistant Professor at Ben-Gurion University, talks about Quantum Cryptography and its implications for existing cryptography. They discuss Quantum Computing, Proof-of-work systems, game theory of mining, and the insecurity of quantum Bitcoin mining. They also explore Grover's Algorithm, block propagation, strategy and drawbacks in Quantum Cryptography, disruptive effects of Quantum Computing on cryptographic protocols, and the concept of a Quantum Canary.