Zero Knowledge

Latest Episodes:

Hardened JS and the Architecture of Agoric with Dean Tribble Feb 16, 2022

Show notes

This week, Anna chats with Dean Tribble, co-founder and CEO of Agoric. Dean walks us through the landscape of programming languages and Agoric’s philosophy behind building a blockchain that has Hardened JS as its smart contract language. We hear about the two big challenges in using JavaScript in blockchain development, malleability and non-deterministic, and how Agoric addresses these. Dean explains the security implications of many popular blockchain languages and how this led them to build Agoric’s smart contract infrastructure allowing JavaScript functions to run with specific access control – leaving the money management to the larger framework. We touch on what to expect from the upcoming development phases of Agoric, various bridging partnerships to come, and last but not least – if, when and how they envision ZK roll-ups getting implemented into the stack.

Here are some links for the episode:

If you’re looking to jump into ZK professionally – head over to the ZK Jobs Board to find openings from some of the top teams working in ZK: https://jobsboard.zeroknowledge.fm/

ZK Hack returns for a 2nd edition with ZK Hack Mini - kicking off on 1st March with a series of workshops and puzzle hacking competitions.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Polygon.

Polygon is one of the top Ethereum scaling platforms for developers with more than 130+ mn unique user wallets. They are committed to bringing web3 to the masses by improving scalability and fostering the network effects of Ethereum.

Polygon's projects now include a number of fully secured EVM-compatible Zero Knowledge rollup solutions like Polygon Hermez, Polygon Miden, and Polygon Nightfall and the most recently announced acquisition of Mir Protocol, now known as Polygon Zero. These solutions inherit the security of Ethereum and use the power of zero knowledge.

If you like what we do:

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Read up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit

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Support our Gitcoin Grant

Support us on the ZKPatreon

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Information Theory & Blockchain with Sreeram Kannan Feb 09, 2022

Show notes

This week, Anna and Tarun Chitra chat with Sreeram Kannan, Associate Professor at University of Washington where he runs the UW Blockchain Lab. In this episode, they look at how information theory and blockchain intersect and map the progression of Bitcoin security. They discuss Sreeram’s early work on P2P mobile networks and how this evolved to work on consensus and fair sequencing. Sreeram takes us through his philosophical reasoning of shifting from genomic research to blockchain research and the two major areas in P2P systems that he focuses on: maximum throughput and low latency.

Here are some links for the episode:

If you’re looking to jump into ZK Professionally I want to remind you to head over to the ZK Jobs board to find job posts from some of the top teams working in ZK: https://jobsboard.zeroknowledge.fm/

ZK Hack returns for a 2nd edition with ZK Hack Mini – a shorter form event spanning 2 weeks and kicks off on March 1st with a series of workshops and puzzle hacking competitions.

Join the newsletter for updates or sign up for the first event on March 1st.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Electric Coin Company.

Electric Coin Company, the inventors of Zcash and Halo cryptography, are building the next generation of zero-knowledge tech. With Network Upgrade 5 happening this April, Zcash moves to the Halo zero-knowledge proving system, removing trusted setup and becoming shielded by default.

With the help of Zcash and Halo cryptography, ECC aims to usher in an era of self-sovereignty and creative freedom. To learn more and explore the relationship between privacy, self-sovereignty and creative freedom, visit electriccoin.co

If you like what we do:

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Read up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit

Give us feedback! -https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A

Support our Gitcoin Grant

Support us on the ZKPatreon

Donate through coinbase.commerce

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A Dip into the Mempool & MEV with Project Blanc Feb 02, 2022

Show notes

This week, Anna chats with Dean Eigenmann and Edgar Aroutiounian from Project Blanc, a team building bots and developing MEV strategies. They revisit the topic of MEV, what it is and how teams like Project Blanc work to capture it. They also dive into the concept of re-orgs, accelerationism as a philosophy and get a look at what goes on in the Dark Forest.

Here are some links for the episode:

ZK Hack returns for a 2nd edition with ZK Hack Mini - a shorter form event spanning 2 weeks (instead of the previous 7) and kicking off on 1st March with a series of workshops and puzzle hacking competitions.

Join the newsletter for updates or sign up for the first event on March 1st.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Polygon.

Polygon's openings on the ZK Jobs Board.

If you like what we do:

Join us on Telegram

Catch us on Youtube

Read up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit

Give us feedback! -https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A

Support our Gitcoin Grant

Support us on the ZKPatreon

Donate through coinbase.commerce

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Charting Zodiac & DAOs with Nathan Ginnever and Auryn Macmillan Jan 26, 2022

Show notes

This week Anna chats with Nathan Ginnever, an applied cryptographer and contributor to Zodiac, and Auryn Macmillan, a product manager and Solidity dev at Gnosis Guild, about the modules and components that make up Zodiac’s suite of composable DAO tooling. In the conversation, they explore the DAO landscape and the lessons they’ve gathered from earlier tools like the Gnosis Safe and SafeSnap. As well as run-through the components that make up the Zodiac standard, new upcoming innovations, the emerging trends in DAO management and more.

Here are some links for the episode:

There are a lot of exciting events and initiatives for the ZK Podcast on the horizon!

If you do want to keep track of what’s going on be sure to check out our channels – especially:
The ZK community board: https://community.zeroknowledge.fm/
The ZK Jobs Board: https://jobsboard.zeroknowledge.fm/

Today’s episode is sponsored by Polygon.

Check out our recent episodes to learn more about the journey of these Polygon projects:
Episode 194: zkEVM with Jordi & David from Hermez
Episode 210: The Road to STARKs and Miden with Bobbin Threadbare

If you like what we do:
Follow us on Twitter - @zeroknowledgefm
Join us on Telegram
Catch us on Youtube
Read up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit
Give us feedback! -https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A
Support our Gitcoin Grant
Support us on the ZKPatreon
Donate through coinbase.commerce

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Emin Gün Sirer on Avalanche and its Formation Jan 19, 2022

Show notes

This week Anna chats with Emin Gün Sirer - CEO Ava Labs and Founder of Avalanche. They chat about the experiences that led him to become interested in distributed systems research and his work as a professor at Cornell that led to the development of Avalanche. They then dig into their novel consensus mechanism which uses the sub-sampling technique, the architecture of the network with the 3 distinct components: X-Chain, C-Chain and P-Chain, bridges and more.

Here are some links for the episode:
Episode 127: Consensus Algorithms & HotStuff with Ittai Abraham
Avalanche on Twitter
Emin’s blog
Paper: Avalanche Platform
Paper: Scalable and Probabilistic Leaderless BFT Consensus through Metastability
Paper: KARMA: A Secure Economic Framework for Peer-To-Peer Resource Sharing
Paper: Majority is not Enough: Bitcoin Mining is Vulnerable
Avalanche’s consensus protocol: Snowflake
AVAX Roadmap
Avalanche grant program

There are a lot of exciting events and initiatives for the ZK Podcast on the horizon!

Today’s episode is sponsored by Polygon.

They’re known for Polygon PoS chain and the team is actually working on a spectrum of solutions like - Polygon Edge, which offers developers the capability to build sovereign EVM-compatible chains. As well as a number of fully secured EVM-compatible Zero Knowledge rollup solutions like Polygon Hermez, Polygon Miden, and Polygon Nightfall and the most recently announced acquisition of Mir Protocol, now known as Polygon Zero. These solutions inherit the security of Ethereum and use the power of zero knowledge.

Read transcript

zk-SNARKs meets Optimistic Rollup with Zkopru Jan 12, 2022

Show notes

This week Anna chats with Wanseob Lim an Applied ZKP Developer in the Privacy & Scaling Exploration Team at the Ethereum Foundation and one of the authors of the Zkopru protocol. They explore how Zkopru uses optimistic rollups and zero knowledge proofs to create a privacy-focused Layer 2. Wanseob walks us through the transaction process and how the protocol is built to circumvent high gas fees. We also hear a little about what’s to come in the Zkopru ecosystem from merchandising to private exchange of NFTs.

Here are some links for the episode:

There are a lot of exciting events and initiatives for the ZK Podcast on the horizon!

If you do want to keep track of what's going on be sure to check out our channels - especially:
The ZK community board: https://community.zeroknowledge.fm/
The ZK Jobs Board: https://jobsboard.zeroknowledge.fm/

Today’s episode is sponsored by Aztec.

Aztec aims to be the privacy layer for Ethereum. They believe that unlocking programmable privacy is the next frontier for blockchains. Aztec is the first zero knowledge rollup built from the ground up for anonymous payments and DeFi transactions.

Try out Aztec to send funds privately on zk.money.

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2021 to 2022 with Co-hosts and Friends Jan 05, 2022

Show notes

This week, Anna checks in with co-hosts & friends, Tarun Chitra, James Prestwich, Josh Cincinnati and Guillermo Angeris, for a retrospective look at 2021 and a look forward to 2022! Enjoy this conversation full of blasphemous hot takes, bad 2022 predictions and dad jokes.

Listen to last year's recap: Episode 163: Kicking off 2021 with Anna, Tarun, James & Josh

If you like what we do: Follow us on Twitter - @zeroknowledgefm Join us on Telegram Catch us on Youtube Read up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit Give us feedback! -https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A Support our Gitcoin Grant Support us on the ZKPatreon Donate through coinbase.commerce

Bonus ZK Hack Wrap with Kobi! Dec 31, 2021

Show notes

While we decided not to release a full episode this week, Anna did get a chance to catch up with Kobi Gurkan, one of the co-organizers of ZK Hack and someone who was very missed in the last episode about the event!

Enjoy this special bonus New Years eve ep, one last look back at ZK Hack 2021 and a look forward as well for the project!

We also mention a few links for ZK related channels to check out:

It’s a wrap! ZK Hack Takeaways & What’s Next! Dec 22, 2021

Show notes

This week, Anna hosts a special 5-part interview with a roundup of perspectives from ZK Hack. First, she chats with puzzle hackers who share what it was like to solve these real-world cryptography bugs and learn complex concepts in real time. They discuss how they got started learning in this space and the resources and tools that helped them. Next, Anna speaks with the puzzle builders on the challenges of designing and building these novel zk puzzles. They discuss the state of the community and how the community could work together to create learning resources to enable its growth. Last but not least, there is a chat with part of the ZK Hack organizing team on what they thought of the event and what’s to come next!

Thanks to our guests this week:

Puzzle hackers - grjte, William Borgeaud and Innokentii Sennovskii
Joe Bebel and Joshua Fitzgerald from Anoma who built 3 puzzles.
Alex Pruden and Errol Drummond from Aleo who built 3 puzzles.
Some of the ZK Hack organizing team – Susannah Evans and Tanya Karsou

Here are some links for the episode:

Join the ZK Hack Discord to check out all of the resources the community has been sharing: https://discord.com/invite/tHXyEbEqVN

And join the mailing list to get notified about the next ZK Hack coming in March! https://www.zkhack.dev/

Today’s episode is sponsored by PrivateStorage.

PrivateStorage, a private, secure and end-to-end encrypted storage solution is preparing to launch version one of the service.

Created by Least Authority, a leader in the security of distributed systems, PrivateStorage uses privacy and security by design principles to ensure users have greater anonymity and assurance that their data is protected.

Features include end-to-end encryption, a zero-knowledge access pass payment system and accountless authorization. No one, including PrivateStorage, can see user data when it is stored on their grid.

Visit www.private.storage and register to be notified once the service is launched.

If you like what we do:

Join us on Telegram

Catch us on Youtube

Read up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit

Give us feedback! -https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A

Support our Gitcoin Grant

Support us on the ZKPatreon

Donate through coinbase.commerce

Read transcript

The Road to STARKs and Miden with Bobbin Threadbare Dec 15, 2021

Show notes

This week, Anna chats with Bobbin Threadbare about his project Miden, a STARK-based roll-up which was recently purchased by Polygon. We recap the differences between STARKs and SNARKs and the increasingly blurred line between these two proving systems. We then map Bobbin’s journey to Miden VM (now Polygon Miden), how it originated from his earlier project Distaff VM and now incorporates the Winterfell prover from his days at Facebook.

Here are some links for the episode:

Support ZK Podcast on Gitcoin - last couple days to get donations matched!

https://gitcoin.co/grants/329/zero-knowledge-podcast-2

ZK Tech Matching Round with Gitcoin

If you’re interested in supporting ZK-focused tech or tools, including learning material or documentation then check out this Gitcoin matching round running until December 16th. This ZK tech side round is funded by the ZK Validator and some great teams in the ZK ecosystem. Join the push towards more ZK!

Today’s episode is sponsored by Aztec.

Try out Aztec to send funds privately on zk.money.

If you like what we do:

Join us on Telegram

Catch us on Youtube

Read up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit

Give us feedback! -https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A

Support our Gitcoin Grant

Support us on the ZKPatreon

Donate through coinbase.commerce

Read transcript