Zero Knowledge

Latest Episodes:

TEEs with Yan Michalevsky from Anjuna Oct 30, 2019

Show notes

In this week’s episode, we chat with Yan Michalevsky, CTO & Co-founder, Anjuna Security about their work with TEEs, a continuation of topic we covered in episode 82 of this podcast. In this episode, we go deeper and cover Intel SGX vs AMD memory, the risk profiles, tooling for TEEs, how zk techniques can be used alongside TEEs, applications of enclaves and how these techniques are being optimized for.

Here are some of the ideas we covered:

A Comparison Study of Intel SGX and AMD Memory Encryption Technology".

CoSMIX: A Compiler-based System for Secure Memory Instrumentation and Execution in Enclaves

Talk on CoSMIX

Thank you to this week's sponsor O(1)Labs.

O(1)Labs is the company behind the Coda Protocol, the world’s first succinct blockchain, using recursive zero knowledge proofs to make cryptocurrency decentralized at scale.

If you aren’t yet clear on recursive zkps, have a listen to an episode we did on the topic of recursive snarks with the co-founders of o1labs last year - https://www.zeroknowledge.fm/54

The Coda Testnet is live in Beta and has been consistently one of the most active testnets in crypto today. You can join their community of engineers, cryptographers, researchers and builders by visiting codaprotocol.com. Sign up for their newsletter to receive updates on Testnet progress, Mainnet launch and their forthcoming developer sdk.

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Dan Boneh on the past, present & future of cryptography Oct 23, 2019

Show notes

In this, our special 100th episode of the Zero Knowledge Podcast, we caught up with Dan Boneh, professor and researcher in applied cryptography and computer security at Stanford. In this far-reaching conversation, we talk about Dan's background in the field of cryptography, how the field has evolved over the years, his work on cryptography & blockchain education, where zero knowledge research and SNARKs in particular fits into the field, some exciting new research coming out of the Applied Cryptography Group at Stanford, what cryptographic and engineering problems he thinks we should be focused on solving, and more.

This episode covered a lot of ground and even though we went overtime, there is still so much more to talk about. We hope to have Dan back on the show sometime soon!

In the meantime, here are some resources that might help you explore some of the topics covered:

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Read transcript

Post-Devcon5 catch-up with Tarun, James & Georgios Oct 16, 2019

Show notes

In this week's episode, Anna catches up with Tarun Chitra (Gauntlet Networks), James Prestwich (Summa) and Georgios Konstantopoulos on the last day of Devcon5 in Osaka. In this special 99th episode, we cover a broad range of topics from their Devcon take-aways, emerging ideas in the ecosystem, the latest in PoS systems, Roll-up and DeFi, to the explosion in zero knowledge research, and more.

We mention the following episodes, presentations and articles in our talk:

Thank you to this week's sponsor Trail of Bits

Trail of Bits shared their review of this year's IACR Crypto Conference on the Trail of Bits blog. They highlighted some of the major themes of the conference, including the importance of getting basic cryptographic primitives right and the ascendance of cryptographic tools for privacy-preserving computation such as Zero-knowledge proofs, secure multiparty computation, and secure messaging systems.

For more on their thoughts from the conference and what they see on the horizon in their industry, check out the blog post here: https://blog.trailofbits.com/2019/09/11/crypto-2019-takeaways/

Our very own Zero Knowledge Summit is happening on Oct 26th. Spend the day with some of the best researchers and thinkers working on Zero Knowledge topics. Get your application in to attend here: https://forms.gle/ZouC15vhTguZ5azq9

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MimbleWimble pt 2: Beam Protocol Oct 09, 2019

Show notes

In this week’s episode, Anna sits down with with Alexander Zaidelson and Alex Romanov from BEAM - a Mimblewimble based privacy coin. We discuss how this implementation of the MimbleWimble protocol differs from Grin, how the two groups work together, funding protocol development, how the Beam business model works, and the future of the protocol.

Here is our previous episode about Grin

Here are a few links of topics we discuss:

MimbleWimble Whitepaper

Beam Position Paper

Thank you to our sponsor this week Streamr.

Streamr has just launched their global pub/sub network for machine data. Unlike a cloud based data pipeline, the Streamr Network runs peer-to peer, in a system that offers a smart balance between high privacy and low latency as well as MQTT support.

If you want to start using it today, just visit streamr.network.

For more on the Streamr offering, have a listen to the episode we did last year with their co-founder Henri Pihkala

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MimbleWimble pt 1: Grin with Daniel Lehnberg Oct 02, 2019

Show notes

In this week’s episode, we chat with Daniel Lehnberg about Grin - an implementation of the MimbleWimble privacy protocol. We cover the story behind MimbleWimble, how Grin first came to be, and how this technology works. We also look back at how this protocol came to be as well as were Daniel sees it going.

Here are a few links of topics we discuss:

MimbleWimble Whitepaper

Grin Tech

Step by step walkthrough of Grin transactions

What’s inside a Grin transaction file

Grin’s monetary model

Slides and talks from grincon0 in Berlin, including Cuckoo Cycle Proof of Work

Thank you to our sponsor this week Aragon One.

If you love working with talented designers building smart user interfaces, or if you are simply excited about working on making DAOs easy and accessible to create & manage, then you should check out Aragon One’s available jobs. For more about the Head of Support role, or available jobs in general, check out https://aragon.one/jobs

If you like what we do:

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Eli Ben-Sasson on the latest from StarkWare and the origin of mathematical ideas Sep 25, 2019

Show notes

In this week’s episode, Anna catches up with Eli Ben Sasson to talk about the latest from StarkWare, the explosion of new research within the zero knowledge space and the origin of new mathematical ideas.

Recorded right after the StarkWare Sessions in tel aviv, and during a period of incredible development in new cryptographic zk techniques and protocol proposals.

Here are some of the papers and ideas we cover:

STARK-friendly hash competition
Succinct Arguments in the Quantum Random Oracle Model
More resources about StarkWare and STARK technology
Henri Pointcaré - Science and Hypothesis
The chapter mentioned is "On the Nature of Mathematical Reasoning"

As mentioned in the intro, the Zero Knowledge Summit is happening on Oct 26th in San Francisco

If you are a dev, researcher or founder working on these topics and want to attend, please submit your application here: https://forms.gle/bZvaywbvCe2dnBkD7

Here are some impressions from the last one!

If you like what we do:

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Support our Gitcoin Grant - https://gitcoin.co/grants/38/zero-knowledge-podcast

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zkVM with Oleg Andreev Sep 18, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, we chat with the Oleg Andreev, a protocol architect from Stellar, about zkVM, the zero-knowledge virtual machine.

In this episode, we learn a little bit about the history of Stellar, Chain and the zkVM project. We touch on the general concepts of VMs as well as compare zkVM with some other zero knowledge protocols like ZCash and ZEXE.

Some other episodes you may want to check out before listening to this episode:

Thank you to this week's sponsor Apograf!

Apograf has built an extensive collection of open access research papers on cryptography, distributed computer systems and blockchain

If you are interested in finding out more, check out welcome.apograf.io or this link to a curated list of cryptocurrency course materials: https://apograf.io/c/cryptocurrency_class

If you like what we do:

Join us on Telegram - https://t.me/joinchat/B_81tQ57-ThZg8yOSx5gjA

Support our Gitcoin Grant - https://gitcoin.co/grants/38/zero-knowledge-podcast

Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/zeroknowledge

Or directly here:

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Gnosis & Full Node with Friederike Ernst Sep 11, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Anna chats with Friederike Ernst from Gnosis about their work on prediction markets, wallet security, exchanges, and the co-working space Full Node in Berlin - a hub for the blockchain community that Friederike spearheaded.

Some links that were mentioned:

sight.pm

Phil Daian's front-running article

slow.trade

Full Node Berlin

Thank you to this week's sponsor [Trail of Bits](trailofbits.com)

Trail of Bits recently releases their smart contract audit executive summary. They aggregated the work of 23 smart contract audits and found that 78% of high impact, easily exploitable findings are discoverable with automated analysis tools, 50% of all findings will never be found with automated tools, and Unit testing has no impact on security

For more on this audit, have a look at their latest blog post

https://blog.trailofbits.com/2019/08/08/246-findings-from-our-smart-contract-audits-an-executive-summary/

If you like what we do:

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Support our Gitcoin Grant

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Light clients & ZKPs with Celo Sep 04, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, we chat with the Marek Olszewski & Kobi Gurkan from Celo about their proof-of-stake protocol, their work on making a mobile-ready light client, how zero knowledge proofs can help to make a light client “lighter”, why this would be desirable and what potential such a construction could unlock.

Some ideas and episodes:

BLS signatures

Coda Episode

Zexe Episode

Bridges and xDai with Igor

Thank you to our sponsor this week Aragon One.

If you love working with talented designers building smart user interfaces, or if you are simply excited about working on making DAOs easy and accessible to create & manage, then you should check out Aragon One’s available jobs. For more about the Frontend Engineer role, or available jobs in general, check out https://aragon.one/jobs

If you like what we do:

Join us on Telegram - https://t.me/joinchat/B_81tQ57-ThZg8yOSx5gjA

Support our Gitcoin Grant - https://gitcoin.co/grants/38/zero-knowledge-podcast

Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/zeroknowledge

Or directly here:

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Jorge Izquierdo talks Aragon and DAOs Aug 28, 2019

Show notes

In this episode, Anna catches up with Jorge Izquierdo from Aragon One to talk about the beginning of the Aragon project, the history of DAOs, as well as the challenges and potential in these new organisational entities.

Here are some links we mentioned:

What is a DAO

The ZK ep with Griff Green on The DAO

Vermont Legal DAO Framework on Open Law

Thank you to this week's sponsor Apograf!

Apograf has built an extensive collection of open access research papers on cryptography, distributed computer systems and blockchain

If you are interested in finding out more, check out welcome.apograf.io or this link to a curated list of cryptocurrency course materials: https://apograf.io/c/cryptocurrency_class

If you like what we do:

Join us on Telegram - https://t.me/joinchat/B_81tQ57-ThZg8yOSx5gjA

Support our Gitcoin Grant - https://gitcoin.co/grants/38/zero-knowledge-podcast

Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/zeroknowledge

Or directly here:

ETH: 0xC0FFEE1B5083230a5154F55f253B6b6ae8F29B1a

BTC: 1cafekGa3podM4fBxPSQc6RCEXQNTK8Zz

ZEC: t1R2bujRF3Hzte9ALHpMJvY8t5kb9ut9SpQ