Technology
**Zero Knowledge**

Zero Knowledge is a podcast which goes deep into the tech that will power the emerging decentralised web and the community building this. Covering the latest in zero knowledge research and applications, the open web as well as future technologies and paradigms that promise to change the way we interact — and transact — with one another online.
Zero Knowledge is hosted by Anna Rose
Follow the show at @ZeroKnowledgefm (https://twitter.com/zeroknowledgefm) or @AnnaRRose (https://twitter.com/AnnaRRose)
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Latest Episodes:

Catch up with Zac and Ariel Oct 02, 2024

Show notes

Summary

This week Anna catches up with Zac Williamson & Ariel Gabizon from Aztec. They cover what each has been working on over the last year, Zac shared updates about the development of Aztec and the finalization of their underlying ZK system: MegaPlonk. Ariel discussed his latest research on IVC with his publications of the ProtoGalaxy and Stackproofs works and how properties of this systems brought him and Zac to start working together again.

Here’s some additional links for this episode:

Check out the ZK Jobs Board for the latest jobs in ZK at jobsboard.zeroknowledge.fm

zkSummit12 is happening in Lisbon next week on Oct 8th! Buy your ticket at zksummit.com, spots are limited!

Episode Sponsors

Attention, all projects in need of server-side proving, kick start your rollup with Gevulot's ZkCloud, the first zk-optimized decentralized cloud!

Get started with a free trial plus extended grant opportunities for premier customers until Q1 2025. Register at Gevulot.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 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 | Linktree
Subscribe to our podcast newsletter
Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm
Join us on Telegram
Catch us on YouTube

Read transcript

coSNARKs with Ais and Lukas from TACEO Sep 25, 2024

Show notes

Summary

This week Anna and Nico chat with Lukas Helminger and Ais Connolly from TACEO.

They discuss Lukas & Ais’ early work in cryptography and privacy preserving technologies, the founding of TACEO and their recent work on coSNARKs - or Collaborative SNARKs - that combine MPC and ZK. They explore how these coSNARKs are created, their coCircom language, the characteristics of these systems as well as how they can be applied in the real world.

Here’s some additional links for this episode:

Check out the ZK Jobs Board for the latest jobs in ZK at jobsboard.zeroknowledge.fm

zkSummit12 is happening in Lisbon on Oct 8th! Applications to attend are now open at zksummit.com, apply today as spots are limited!

Episode Sponsors

Attention, all projects in need of server-side proving, kick start your rollup with Gevulot's ZkCloud, the first zk-optimized decentralized cloud!

Get started with a free trial plus extended grant opportunities for premier customers until Q1 2025. Register at Gevulot.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 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 | Linktree
Subscribe to our podcast newsletter
Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm
Join us on Telegram
Catch us on YouTube

Read transcript

Is Cosmos Dead? A critical look with Zaki Manian Sep 18, 2024

Show notes

Summary

This week Anna and Zaki Manian dive into the Cosmos ecosystem and ask the question: is Cosmos Dead? They explore key events, teams and players who worked on Cosmos during different eras before teasing out the strengths and structural flaws that made the project what it is today. The conversation wraps with a discussion around new initiatives aimed at reviving the ecosystem and aligning factions in Cosmos together towards a central goal.

Here’s some additional links for this episode:

Check out the ZK Jobs Board for the latest jobs in ZK at jobsboard.zeroknowledge.fm

zkSummit12 is happening in Lisbon on Oct 8th! Applications to attend are now open at zksummit.com, apply today as spots are limited!

Episode Sponsors

Get ready to build with intention. Anoma is the universal intent machine, introducing a new era of applications where you define the outcomes you want.

Follow Anoma on X to learn more at x.com/anoma

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 | Linktree
Subscribe to our podcast newsletter
Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm
Join us on Telegram
Catch us on YouTube

Read transcript

TEEs with Andrew Miller Sep 11, 2024

Show notes

Summary

In this week’s episode, Anna and Tarun catch up with Andrew Miller. They cover his early work on consensus, ZK and MPC before switching focus to the topic of his current work: TEEs. They map his evolving opinion on TEEs and explore why they could be seen as an optimal solution to many of the blockchain challenges.

Here’s some additional links for this episode:

This week Anna and Zaki Manian dive into the Cosmos ecosystem and ask the question: is Cosmos Dead?

zkSummit12 is happening in Lisbon on Oct 8th! Applications to attend are now open at zksummit.com, apply today as tickets are limited!

Episode Sponsors

Attention, all projects in need of server-side proving, kick start your rollup with Gevulot's ZkCloud, the first zk-optimized decentralized cloud!

Get started with a free trial plus extended grant opportunities for premier customers until Q1 2025. Register at Gevulot.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 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 | Linktree
Subscribe to our podcast newsletter
Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm
Join us on Telegram
Catch us on YouTube

Read transcript

On Trust Infrastructure with Arnaud Schenk Sep 04, 2024

Show notes

Summary

This week Anna and Nico chat with Arnaud Schenk, one of the original co-founders of Aztec and creator of the Polaris Fellowship. They discuss Arnaud’s recent blog post ‘On Trust Infrastructure’, exploring the down sides of a trustless system, the need to make online community building more possible and how programmable cryptography may play a role in these solutions. They explore the history of computer culture, the rejection of institutions by mid-90s internet culture and how the seeds for this were set by the 60s counterculture.

Here’s some additional links for this episode:

05:09 * Episode 75: Exploring Aztec with Zac Williamson

05:09 * Episode 176: Zk-zk-rollup & zk.money with Zac and Joe from Aztec

05:09 * Episode 273: History of Plonk, Noir, and the building of Aztec 3

07:38 * Episode 237: Exploring ZK Research with Jens Groth

20:01 * Into the deep end: making sense of PLONK - Zac Williamson (CTO, Aztec Protocol)

23:55 * Collaborative Circles: Friendship Dynamics and Creative Work by Michael P. Farrell

27:05 * No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior by Joshua Meyrowitz

29:33 * On Trust Infrastructure by Arnaud Schenk

39:28 * Crypto's Three Body Problem by Lotti, Shorin, Hart

48:13 * Plurality philosophy in an incredibly oversized nutshell by Vitalik Buterin

52:21 * From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism by Fred Turner

52:21 * The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

Check out the ZK Jobs Board for the latest jobs in ZK at jobsboard.zeroknowledge.fm

zkSummit12 is happening in Lisbon on Oct 8th! Applications to attend are now open at zksummit.com, apply today as early bird tickets are limited!

Episode Sponsors

Attention, all projects in need of server-side proving, kick start your rollup with Gevulot's ZkCloud, the first zk-optimized decentralized cloud!

Get started with a free trial plus extended grant opportunities for premier customers until Q1 2025. Register at Gevulot.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 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 | Linktree
Subscribe to our podcast newsletter
Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm
Join us on Telegram
Catch us on YouTube

Read transcript

Restaking Research with Naveen & Tarun Aug 28, 2024

Show notes

Summary

In this week’s episode Anna and Tarun chat with Naveen Durvasula about his recent work ‘Robust Restaking Networks’. They discuss Naveen’s early work on matching markets and how this led him to work on mechanism design before exploring how the concepts of restaking were first presented, and how both Naveen and Tarun have been working to better model the mechanisms underpinning restaking, to understand how they work and how they can be optimized.

Episode Sponsors

Attention, all projects in need of server-side proving, kick start your rollup with Gevulot's ZkCloud, the first zk-optimized decentralized cloud!

Get started with a free trial plus extended grant opportunities for premier customers until Q1 2025. Register at Gevulot.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 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 | Linktree
Subscribe to our podcast newsletter
Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm
Join us on Telegram
Catch us on YouTube

Read transcript

ZK in Celestia with Connor O’Hara Aug 21, 2024

Show notes

Summary

In this week’s episode, Anna chats with Connor O’Hara from Celestia. After discussing the latest ZK Hack Montréal event where Connor was a judge, they dive into his professional background, the ecosystems he has been a part of and what led him to work on Celestia. They then discuss various ZK-focused initiatives within the Celestia ecosystem.

Here’s some additional links for this episode:

Episode 311: The Launch of Celestia and Beyond

03:22 ZK Hack Montréal

08:08 ZK Hack Devfolio

24:33 Episode 151: John Adler on Optimistic vs ZK Rollup and the data availability problem

30:24 Episode 208: Digging into Data Availability with Ismail Khoffi from Celestia

41:26 Episode 220: The Road to Plonky2 with Brendan and Daniel from Polygon Zero

46:49 Vitalik Buterin Endgame Blog Post

49:41 Light Nodes Everywhere: Why & How - Connor O'Hara at Modulard Summit

56:29 ZK11: 1 Circuit, 5 Rollups: Building a Re-Usable DA Integration for ZK Rollups - Connor O'Hara

Check out the ZK Jobs Board for the latest jobs in ZK at jobsboard.zeroknowledge.fm

Episode Sponsors

Get ready to build with intention. Anoma is the universal intent machine, introducing a new era of applications where you define the outcomes you want.

Follow Anoma on X to learn more at x.com/anoma

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 | Linktree
Subscribe to our podcast newsletter
Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm
Join us on Telegram
Catch us on YouTube

Read transcript

Groth16, IVC and Formal Verification with Nexus Aug 14, 2024

Show notes

Summary

In this week’s episode, Anna chats with Jens Groth and Daniel Marin from Nexus. They catch up on all things Groth16 with the author himself before diving into a variety topics, such as formal verification in the context of ZKPs, the Nexus architecture, the benefits and challenges of building a system from the ground up, folding and IVC plus the properties these offer in a zkVM context and much more.

Here’s some additional links for this episode:

zkSummit12 is happening in Lisbon on Oct 8th! Applications to speak or attend are now open at zksummit.com, speaker applications close TODAY (Aug 14th) and early bird tickets for attendance are limited!

Follow Namada on Twitter @namada for more information and join the community on Discord.

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 | Linktree
Subscribe to our podcast newsletter
Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm
Join us on Telegram
Catch us on YouTube

Read transcript

ZK Research Update with Joe Bonneau Jul 31, 2024

Show notes

Summary

In this week’s episode, Anna and Guille catch up with Joe Bonneau, Assistant Professor at NYU and Research Partner at a16z crypto research. They discuss the research Joe has been working on since he was last on the show in 2019, including Naysayer proofs, Zero-Knowledge Middleboxes, Sealed-Bid Auctions, and other ZK-related research projects to date. Here’s some additional links for this episode:

ZK Hack Montreal is happening on Aug 9 - 11. Don’t miss your chance to join, apply now to participate in the hackathon here. zkSummit12 is happening in Lisbon on Oct 8th! Applications to speak or attend are now open at zksummit.com, speaker applications close Aug 15th and early bird tickets for attendance are limited!

Episode Sponsors

Attention, all projects in need of server-side proving, kick start your rollup with Gevulot's ZkCloud, the first zk-optimized decentralized cloud! Get started with a free trial plus extended grant opportunities for premier customers until Q1 2025. Register at Gevulot.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 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 | Linktree
Subscribe to our podcast newsletter
Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm
Join us on Telegram
Catch us on YouTube

Read transcript

Verifiable SQL, Reckle Trees and ZK Coprocessing with Lagrange Labs Jul 24, 2024

Show notes

Summary

In this week’s episode Anna chats with Ismael Hishon-Rezaizadeh, Founder and CEO at Lagrange Labs and Charalampos (Babis) Papamanthou, Head of Research at Lagrange and Co-Director of the Applied Cryptography Lab at Yale University. They revisit the concepts of zk-powered coprocessors and dive into the work that Charalampos did previous to joining Lagrange on Verifiable SQL. They then explore how this is incorporated into the Lagrange coprocessor system, the work they are doing on Reckle Trees, future work and what all this enables for dApp developers. They discuss their new prover marketplace, the general state of infrastructure and how they are keen to bring more concepts from general computing into decentralized blockchain systems. Here’s some additional links for this episode:

The Web3 Summit is back! The next edition will be happening in Berlin from Aug 19-21, you can head over to web3summit.com and use code ZKPOD50 to apply, learn more and grab your tickets today.

Episode Sponsors

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-minimized bridge. Follow Namada on Twitter @namada for more information and join the community on Discord. 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: