Zero Knowledge

Episode Archive

Episode Archive

140 episodes of Zero Knowledge since the first episode, which aired on October 4th, 2017.

  • Episode 125: Mixnets and privacy technology with Claudia Diaz from Nym

    April 15th, 2020  |  1 hr 4 mins
    cryptography, european privacy, mixnets, nym, privacy technology, privacy-preserving, zero knowledge

    In this episode, Anna catches up with Claudia Diaz, professor at KU Leuven and the Chief Science Officer at Nym Technology to learn about mixnets, the history of privacy technology and how there may be some opportunities for new privacy tech to emerge in this post-pandemic world.

  • Episode 124: Exploring FHE with Flavio Bergamaschi from IBM Research

    April 8th, 2020  |  1 hr 4 mins
    cryptography, fhe, homomorphic encryption, ibm research, mpc, technology, zero knowledge

    In this episode, we chat with Flavio Bergamaschi from IBM research about his work on Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE). FHE allows for computation on encrypted data. First developed in 2009 at IBM, this tech has long been the considered only theoretically possible. However, as we learn in the interview, there have been strides made in the last few years and we are starting to see FHE technology being used in some real world applications.

  • Episode 123: Halo with Sean Bowe and Daira Hopwood from ECC

    April 1st, 2020  |  1 hr 8 mins
    ecc, electric coin company, halo, recursive snarks, trusted setup, zcash, zero knowledge

    In this episode, we catch up with Sean Bowe and Daira Hopwood from the Electric Coin Company (ECC) to chat about Halo, a recursive proof composition that doesn't require a trusted setup. We cover the efficiency techniques used in Halo such as "nested amortization", how the protocol was developed, what some of the key findings are, and how it fits in with the other recent SNARK-based protocols.

  • Episode 122: ZKPs, Audits & Security with Benjamin Perez from Trail of Bits

    March 25th, 2020  |  54 mins 2 secs
    blockchain, cryptographic vulnerability, cryptography, security, technical audit, whitepaper, zero knowledge

    In this week's episode, we chat with Benjamin Perez from Trail of Bits about the evolution of the crypto tech auditing business, the new challenges that emerge in zero knowledge proof systems regarding security, some of the recent bugs and vulnerabilities found in zkp systems and more!

  • Episode 121: Urbit with Galen Wolf-Pauly from Tlon

    March 18th, 2020  |  1 hr 17 mins
    decentralisation, distributed systems, operating system, peer-to-peer, tech, urbit

    In this episode, we meet with Galen Wolf-Pauly from the Tlon Corporation to discuss the project Urbit. Urbit is an encrypted peer-to-peer network comprised of a deterministic operating system (Urbit OS / Arvo) and a secure, global identity layer (Urbit ID / Azimuth). The Urbit contributors have created new stack, built from the ground up as an integrated system with a focus on user experience.

  • Episode 120: ZKPs in Ethereum with Vitalik Buterin & Justin Drake

    March 11th, 2020  |  1 hr 12 mins
    blockchain, eth2.0, ethereum, privacy, research, scaling, tech, zero knowledge proofs

    In this episode, we catch up with Justin Drake and Vitalik Buterin from the Ethereum Foundation to chat about how zero knowledge proof systems are being used throughout the Eth1x and Eth2.0 stacks. We look at their applications for privacy and scalability throughout layers 1, 1.5 and 2, as well as explore some other emerging applications.

  • Episode 119: Alistair and Jeff from Web3 on ZKPs & more

    March 4th, 2020  |  1 hr 1 min
    cryptography, isogenies, multi-party computation, polkadot, web3 foundation, zero knowledge, zero knowledge proofs

    In this week's episode, we sit down with Alistair Stewart and Jeff Burges, researchers at the Web3 Foundation, to dig into what they are working on, what they are thinking about at the moment, and how zero knowledge proofs can be used throughout the Polkadot ecosystem.

  • Episode 118: Tarun and James talk Flashloans & more

    February 26th, 2020  |  1 hr 10 mins
    blockchain, decentralised finance, defi, ethereum, evm, flashloan, flashloans, near protocol, proof-of-stake

    In this week's episode, we catch up with our friends Tarun Chitra and James Prestwich at the Stanford Blockchain Conference. We chat about the Flashloan phenomenon & the recent arbitrage 'exploit'. We also catch up about the known challenges facing PoS systems, what EVM support means on other chains & more!

  • Episode 117: Isogenies with Luca De Feo

    February 19th, 2020  |  1 hr 23 secs
    blockchain, cryptography, isogenies, math, morphisms, tech education, vdfs, verifiable delay functions

    In this week’s episode, we dive into Isogenies - a topic at the cutting edge of cryptography. We look at how they are related to VDFs and randomness generation. Our guest, Luca de Feo, one of the co-inventor of SIDH, helps us get an understanding for what Isogenies - or morphisms of algebraic groups - really are.

  • Episode 116: zkSync and Redshift: Matter Labs update

    February 12th, 2020  |  56 mins 26 secs
    blockchain, ethereum, matter labs, redshift, sidechain, zero knowledge proofs, zkrollup, zksnarks, zksync

    In this week's episode of the podcast, we catch up with Alex Glukowski of Matter Labs to hear about zkSync, the latest iteration of their zkRollup implementation built to be a scaling and privacy engine for Ethereum. We also touch on the Redshift protocol, a new transparent zkSNARK system that emerged as a result of their work on this system.

  • Episode 115: Cosmos, IBC and ZKPs with Chris Goes

    February 5th, 2020  |  1 hr 2 mins
    cosmos network, cryptography, ibc, interoperability, zero knowledge proofs, zkproofs

    In this week’s episode, we catch up with Christopher Goes, IBC Lead at Tendermint. We learn a bit more about the Cosmos Network ecosystem and his work on IBC. We then focus in on how he is thinking about zero knowledge in the context of IBC like-interoperability constructions. We explore some of the ways in which zkps could be incorporated into different schemes for interoperability - including bridging, lightclient constructions, validity proofs and more.

  • Episode 114: Exploring the Fractal transparent SNARK construction

    January 29th, 2020  |  50 mins 51 secs
    cryptography, fractal protocol, math, recursive snarks, uc berkeley, zero knowledge, zksnarks

    This week, we explore the Fractal transparent SNARK construction with its authors Dev Ojha and Nick Spooner - both students of Alessandro Chiesa at UC Berkeley. In this episode, We explore how Fractal works, how it improves on some of the earlier work on Sonic and Marlin, how it borrows from but differentiates itself from STARKs, as well as what they discovered while working on this paper about recursive SNARKs and what makes that property possible.

  • Episode 113: Latest recursive SNARKitecture with Izaak Meckler from O(1)Labs

    January 22nd, 2020  |  51 mins 49 secs
    blockchain, coda protocol, cryptography, privacy, recursive snarks, snark, zero knowledge proof, zksnarks

    In this week’s episode, we catch up with Izaak Meckler from 0(1) Labs to talk about launching a recursive snark based incentivised test net, updates on the working SNARKitecture, a recap of recursive SNARKs and a look at what's next for the project.

  • Episode 112: Dive into Plonk!

    January 15th, 2020  |  55 mins 29 secs
    aztec protocol, cryptography, lagrange-bases, plonk, polynomial commitments, zero knowledge

    In this week’s episode, we learn more about Plonk with Ariel Gabizon and Zac Williamson from Aztec. PLONK is an efficient, universal SNARK construction. We explore what distinguishes Plonk from some other other new constructions including their focus on Lagrange-bases to deconstruct complex problem statements into simple polynomial identities.

  • Episode 111: Mixers with Tornado.cash

    January 8th, 2020  |  1 hr 1 min
    blockchain, cryptocurrency, ethereum, mixer, privacy, technology

    In this week’s episode, we chat with Roman Storm and Roman Semanov from Tornado.cash all about mixers. We explore what they are used for and how they work, how Zero Knowledge can be incorporated to provide more privacy, what the challenges are and what the future holds for the Tornado.Cash project.

  • Episode 110: So long 2019! What's next?

    January 1st, 2020  |  48 mins 30 secs
    2020, blockchain, cryptography, privacy technology, year in review, zero knowledge proofs

    In this end of year episode, we chat about what we've learned in 2019, some of our favourite episodes, this year's explosion in ZK research and what we are looking forward to in 2020!