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Zero Knowledge

Zero Knowledge Podcast

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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Wednesday · 1 hr 6 min
Auto Research on Yukon with Soubhik Deb
This week, Anna is joined by Soubhik Deb, Head of Research at EigenLabs, to explore Yukon, a platform for collaborative AI-powered research. Soubhik traces the project’s origins to ECDSA.fail, a competition launched in response to Google’s work on more resource-efficient quantum circuits for breaking secp256k1. They discuss how researchers and their AI agents build on one another’s submissions, turning traditional research into a multiplayer process that can iterate at machine speed. The conversation then explores Yukon’s expansion into ZK proving, inference optimisation, coding theory and mathematics through challenges like SNARK.fast, better.codes, mlx.fast and lighter.fast. Soubhik explains the importance of well-defined problems and verifiers for AI-driven research, and shares Yukon’s vision for an “AI-native scientific institution” where humans and agents collaborate to accelerate discovery. Related Links Yukon.org ECDSA.fail Flock Challenge The Proximity Prize (better.codes) Mlx.fast Darkbloom Lighter Prover Challenge ECDSA.Fail: Open Autoresearch for Optimizing Elliptic-Curve Point Addition in Shor’s Algorithm Optimized Point Addition Circuits for Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithms Securing Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities: Resource Estimates and Mitigations ZK Podcast Episode: The Quantum Question Panel – Live from zkSummit14! ZK Podcast Episode: Quantum Advances, Hybrid Signatures and SNARKs to the Rescue with Dan Boneh Sovright builds the critical infrastructure that preserves your right to choose. Discover more at sovright.com. **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address Read transcript
September 16 · 1 hr 1 min
Ron Rothblum on Fiat-Shamir Attacks, Flock and SNARK.fast
This week, Anna and Kobi are joined by Ron Rothblum, Professor of Computer Science at Technion and researcher at Succinct. They catch up on Ron’s move from theory into practice, including his work on the SP1 zkVM, Jagged Polynomial Commitments, and a recent Fiat-Shamir attack that exposed vulnerabilities in practical uses of GKR. Ron explains what the attack revealed about Fiat-Shamir’s security assumptions and why it prompted changes to deployed systems. The conversation then explores Ron’s recent work on faster and more efficient proof systems, from Blaze, TensorSwitch, BOLT and Veil to Flock, a proof system for batch proving Boolean computations. They discuss how new approaches to polynomial commitments and error-correcting codes can improve prover performance, before turning to snark.fast and ZK-Golf, experiments using AI agents to optimise provers and circuits. Ron shares what these efforts reveal about AI-assisted research and engineering, and how pushing proving closer to the speed of ordinary computation could unlock entirely new applications for verifiable computation. Related Links Jagged Polynomial Commitments (or: How to Stack Multilinears) The Random Oracle Methodology, Revisited Blaze: Fast SNARKs from Interleaved RAA Codes TensorSwitch: Nearly Optimal Polynomial Commitments from Tensor Codes Flock: Fast Proving for Batch Boolean Computations VEIL: Lightweight Zero-Knowledge for Hash-Based Multilinear Proof Systems Bolt: Faster SNARKs from Sketched Codes zkGolf Website Proving as Fast as Computing: Succinct Arguments with Constant Prover Overhead SNARK.fast Website ZK Podcast Episode: Error Correcting Codes & Information Theory with Ron Rothblum Fiat-Shamir via List-Recoverable Codes (or: Parallel Repetition of GMW is not Zero-Knowledge) Delegating Computation: Interactive Proofs for Muggles How to Prove False Statements: Practical Attacks on Fiat-Shamir **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address Read transcript
September 9 · 46 min
The Evolution from ZKP2P to Peer with Richard Liang
This week, Anna catches up with Richard Liang from Peer, formerly ZKP2P. They trace the project’s evolution over the past two years, from their initial ZKP2P product that used ZK email proofs to connect Venmo payments with on-chain USDC, to their use of ZK TLS, and most recently, their move to using TEEs (trusted execution environments) and the rebrand to Peer. Richard breaks down what motivated each shift and how the team has navigated the trade-offs around privacy, speed, and UX. The conversation then explores Peer’s current approach to connecting traditional payment platforms and stablecoins, including why “ephemeral privacy” makes TEEs a compelling fit for their use case and what the move away from ZK has unlocked. Richard and Anna also reflect on the broader evolution of ZK from an experimental technology into infrastructure that increasingly underpins real world applications. Finally, they discuss Peer’s expansion into payments, its ambitions to support more currencies and fintech platforms around the world, and how AI is changing both the team’s development process and the possibilities for agentic payments. Related Links Peer X Profile Peer Pay X Profile Peer Website Announcement of ZKP2P becoming Peer Peer Docs Repo ZK Podcast: ZKP2P with Brian and Richard ZK Hack Lisbon 2023 ZK Email ZK Podcast: Is ZK dead? Or has it just begun? With the ZK Pod co-hosts **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address Read transcript
August 5 · 1 hr 12 min
Minimmit, Multimmit and the New Consensus Frontier with Patrick O'Grady
This week, Anna and Guillermo are joined by Patrick O'Grady, founder of Commonware. They discuss his journey from Coinbase and Avalanche to building Commonware, a Rust library of composable primitives for blockchain development. They explore Commonware's "anti-framework" philosophy, why it gives developers control over every layer of the stack, and how its modular approach differs from traditional blockchain SDKs. The conversation then turns to consensus research, examining how changing assumptions around Byzantine fault tolerance have unlocked faster consensus designs. Patrick explains the motivation behind Commonware's new protocols, Minimmit and Multimmit, discusses the influence of Simplex and Solana's Alpenglow, and shares how Commonware combines engineering, research, and cryptography to build the next generation of blockchain infrastructure. Related Links Commonware Minimmit: Fast Finality with Even Faster Blocks Commonware blog post announcing Minimmit Simplex Consensus: A Simple and Fast Consensus Protocol Commonware docs - Simplex Consensus Patrick O’Grady’s X Post on Multimmit (July 2026) Multimmit: Extending Blocks for Faster Finality (draft) Alpenglow GitHub Progress Updates Golden: Lightweight Non-Interactive Distributed Key Generation **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address Read transcript
July 29 · 1 hr 4 min
Private Information Retrieval (PIR) with Alex Hoover
In this episode, Anna and Kobi are joined by Alex Hoover, cryptographer and Assistant Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology. They explore Private Information Retrieval (PIR)—a cryptographic primitive that lets users query public databases without revealing what they're looking for. They trace PIR's evolution from its early theoretical foundations to modern, practical constructions, unpack key variants like batch and keyword PIR, and discuss emerging blockchain applications, from private state queries to Merkle proof generation. They also examine the latest research making PIR increasingly practical, and why it could become a core building block for privacy-preserving systems. A quick note: Alex mentioned during the interview that preprocessing in SimplePIR is independent of the database. But it is in fact independent of the queried index, and does depend on the database. He asked us to highlight this correction Related Links One Server for the Price of Two: Simple and Fast Single-Server Private Information Retrieval Don’t be Dense: Efficient Keyword PIR for Sparse Databases The two papers that introduced client-side preprocessing: PPY18 CK20 Piano: Extremely Simple, Single-Server PIR with Sublinear Server Computation Simple and Practical Amortized Sublinear Private Information Retrieval using Dummy Subsets Plinko: Single-Server PIR with Efficient Updates via Invertible PRFs (builds on Piano and RMS) Doubly Efficient Private Information Retrieval and Fully Homomorphic RAM Computation from Ring LWE (LMW23) Lower Bounds for PIR with Preprocessing from Blackbox Cryptography **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address Read transcript
July 15 · 1 hr 1 min
Alex Ozdemir on where Theorem Provers and ZK meet
This week, Anna and Nico are joined by Alex Ozdemir, Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech, to explore the intersection of formal verification and zero knowledge. They begin by revisiting the evolution of the ZK DSL landscape since Alex's last appearance, discussing the rise of ZKVMs, new language tooling, and how his compiler infrastructure project, CirC, has evolved. The conversation then dives into formal verification and theorem proving, covering SMT solvers, Lean, and zkPi, the first zkSNARK for proofs expressed in Lean. They also discuss compiler correctness, the challenges of verifying cryptographic systems, and why verifiable software will become increasingly important as the industry matures. Related Links zkPi: Proving Lean Theorems in Zero-Knowledge CirC: Compiler infrastructure for proof systems, software verification, and more Kevin Lacker on AI-Assisted Theorem Proving and Acorn Building ZK-Powered AI Guardrails with Wyatt Benno lean Ethereum Part 6: Formal Verification with Alex Hicks Groth16, IVC and Formal Verification with Nexus lean Ethereum ZK Podcast and Alex Ozdemir ZK languages with Alex Ozdemir zkSessions: Alex Ozdemir - The Taxonomy of Circuit Languages zkStudyClub: Collaborative zkSNARKs (Alex Ozdemir, Stanford University) zkStudyClub: Unifying Compiler Infrastructure for SNARKs, SMTs, & More w/ Alex Ozdemir (Stanford) ZK HACK - Introduction to Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) - Alex Ozdemir **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript
July 8 · 1 hr 7 min
Sergey Gorbunov on TEEs and the Arc Privacy Sector
This week, Anna speaks with Sergey Gorbunov, Engineer at Circle, about Arc, Circle’s new EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain, and its approach to a TEE based on-chain privacy. They begin by revisiting Sergey’s journey from Axelar to Circle, reflecting on the evolution of cross-chain infrastructure, the aftermath of the Terra collapse, and how Circle’s acquisition of Interop Labs led to the development of Arc. The conversation then turns to Arc’s architecture, including its privacy layer, known as the Privacy Sector, and the decision to build it around Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) rather than ZKPs or FHE. Sergey explains the design trade-offs, discussing privacy, composability, enterprise infrastructure, and why he believes TEEs are currently the most practical foundation for programmable private execution. Related Links Axelar Network Arc Privacy Sector: Keeping Blockchain State, Transactions, and Accounts Private and Quantum Safe Circle’s Post-Quantum Security Roadmap Arc Documentation Arc: An open Layer-1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoin finance Sergey’s X Post on the Arc Privacy Sector paper Ian Mier’s X Response to the Arc Privacy Sector works **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript
July 1 · 6 min
zkMesh+ Exclusive Clip – Benedikt Bünz on the threat of AI
Last week on the show, we interviewed Benedikt Bünz, Chief Scientist at Espresso Systems and Professor at NYU. The conversation ran long, so we're releasing some of the extra material as an exclusive clip for zkMesh+ subscribers. We've also included the first five minutes here. In this segment, Anna, Kobi, and Benedikt discuss whether AI poses a genuine threat to the foundations of cryptography. They explore the 'immune system' metaphor for AI's dual role in security: it can uncover bugs and vulnerabilities, while also strengthening defenses through tools like formal verification. The conversation closes with the question of whether AI could ever break fundamental cryptographic primitives—or even invent new physics to do it. To hear the full discussion, head to https://zkmesh.substack.com/subscribe and become a paid subscriber.
June 24 · 1 hr 8 min
Pushing the Limits of Proof Systems with Benedikt Bünz
In this episode, Anna and Kobi speak with Benedikt Bünz, Chief Scientist at Espresso Systems and Professor at NYU. They start with a quick update on Espresso's architecture, its role in delivering fast finality across chains, and the challenges of building high-throughput blockchain infrastructure. The conversation then turns to Benedikt’s recent research on folding schemes, hash-based proof systems such as Arc and Warp, and Golden, a non-interactive distributed key generation protocol for threshold signatures. The episode later explores Flock, a new proof system for standard hash functions such as Blake3 and SHA-256 that exceeds Ethereum's post-quantum proving targets without relying on specialized hash functions. They conclude by discussing proof system performance, post-quantum cryptography, and the use of AI-assisted development in cryptographic engineering. Related Links Bulletproofs — Short Proofs for Confidential Transactions and More Protostar — Generic Efficient Accumulation/Folding for Special-Sound Protocols HyperPlonk — Plonk with Linear-Time Prover and High-Degree Custom Gates Nova — Recursive Zero-Knowledge Arguments from Folding Schemes Arc — Accumulation for Reed–Solomon Codes Linear-Time Accumulation Schemes Golden: Lightweight Non-Interactive Distributed Key Generation Flock: Fast Proving for Batch Boolean Computations TensorSwitch — Nearly Optimal Polynomial Commitments from Tensor Codes Bolt: Faster SNARKs from Sketched Codes Ligero — Lightweight Sublinear Arguments Without Trusted Setup Systems and Infrastructure Espresso Systems Documentation CAPE (Configurable Asset Privacy for Ethereum) Monero Additional Reading Vitalik Buterin — The Splurge: Post-Quantum Ethereum Accumulation without Homomorphism Neo and SuperNeo: Post-Quantum Folding with Pay-Per-Bit Commitments Espresso’s HotShot: A Consensus Protocol Designed for Rollups **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript
June 18 · 1 min
Announcement: zkMesh+ Exclusive Clip – Vericoding and SMT
No main episode this week, but we’ve got an exclusive bonus clip for our zkMesh+ subscribers! Continuing our conversation from last week, Wyatt Benno (ICME) describes the world of 'vericoding' - the next stage after the era of 'vibecoding.' Vericoding uses formal mathematics to prove that AI code is actually correct and help prevent bugs in AI-written code. We go deep on SMT (Satisfiability Modulo Theories), a decades-old verification technique originally built for cloud infrastructure, and discuss how SMT can now take a plain-English description and mathematically verify that your AI-generated code does exactly what you want it to do. If you want to hear this bonus clip, please head over to zkMesh and become a paid subscriber! Link to subscribe: https://zkmesh.substack.com/subscribe
June 10 · 1 hr 7 min
Building ZK-Powered AI Guardrails with Wyatt Benno
In this episode, Anna and Nico chat with Wyatt Benno, technical founder of ICME Labs. They trace Wyatt’s start into ZK in the ZKHack Discord and Justin Thaler’s study group before diving into ICME’s early work on folding schemes, local proving, and NovaNet. The conversation then shifts to ICME’s work at the intersection of AI and ZK. Wyatt introduces ICMEPreflight, a ZK-based guardrail tool for AI. They then explore how succinct verification and privacy-preserving proofs can help secure agentic commerce and provide stronger guarantees than existing guardrail approaches. They also discuss Jolt Atlas, ICME’s zero-knowledge machine learning framework, the connections between ZK and AI and the challenges of scaling ZKML. Finally, Wyatt encourages future advances in ZKML that could unlock privacy and verifiability in AI systems. Related Links ICME Labs Nova: Recursive Zero-Knowledge Arguments from Folding Schemes (2022) Jolt Atlas: Verifiable Inference via Lookup Arguments in Zero Knowledge (2026) ZK Podcast:Is ZK dead? Or has it just begun? with the ZK Pod co-hosts ZK Podcast:Isogenies with Luca De Feo ZK Podcast:How ZK inspired AI Watermarking with Miranda Christ Neo: Lattice-based folding scheme for CCS over small fields and pay-per-bit commitments (2025) Awesome Folding Schemes Repo by Lurk Labs Proofs, Arguments, and Zero-Knowledge by Justin Thaler Smart contracts have lost users billions of dollars to bugs. Zero-knowledge protocols are next. zkSecurity audits the full stack and publishes open research on ZK vulnerabilities. Head to zksecurity.xyz to learn more. **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript
May 27 · 58 min
The Quantum Question Panel – Live from zkSummit14
This episode was recorded live at zkSummit14 in Rome. In it, Anna and Nico Mohnblatt hosted the live ‘Quantum Question’ panel which began as an interview, but became something harder to categorize: part seminar, part group therapy, part improv theater, and — depending on the timeline you expect for viable quantum computers — part emergency briefing. The logistics of the panel were really unusual. The guests were meant to be Justin Drake and Dan Boneh, but Dan’s flight was delayed. And so the panel began with just Justin Drake and the hosts — what someone in the room jokingly described as the highest moderator-to-panelist ratio in zkSummit history. To compensate, the format broke open: researchers from the audience, including Daira-Emma Hopwood from the Zcash team and Jens Groth (author of Groth16), joined the conversation. A park bench materialized in real time. The conversation veered into the history of quantum computing research, why Shor’s algorithm threatens today’s public-key cryptography and pairing-based SNARKs, fault-tolerant ‘logical qubits’, physical qubit fidelities, and why neutral-atom machines—despite slower cycle times—may be the most practical path to ‘Q-Day.’ The group also debates the rush-to-post-quantum pitfalls, the benefits of lattice-based post-quantum schemes versus hash-based ones, and how hybrid transitions are unfolding in practice. This was a truly chaotic, spontaneous, informative and fun session at zk14 with some great contributors from attendees and community members, we hope you enjoy it! Related Links ZK14 - The Quantum Question Panel Video Episode 391 -lean Ethereum Part 1: Introduction with Justin Drake Episode 400 - Quantum Advances, Hybrid Signatures and SNARKs to the Rescue with Dan Boneh Quantum Algorithm Zoo POSEIDON: A New Hash Function for Zero-Knowledge Proof Systems Poseidon2: A Faster Version of the Poseidon Hash Function Securing Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities: Resource Estimates and Mitigations Oratomic (Neutral Atoms Startup) Neo and SuperNeo: Post-quantum folding with pay-per-bit costs over small fields lean Ethereum Check out all the talks from zkSummit14 in Rome on our YouTube channel here. **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript
May 20 · 53 min
From Access Control to Encrypted Execution with Auryn Macmillan
In this episode, Anna chats with Auryn Macmillan, founder of Gnosis Guild. They check in on Zodiac, which started as a DAO toolset and has evolved into a modular access control suite for on-chain entities. They discuss the state of DAOs today—what's worked, what hasn't, and how tools like Zodiac might have mitigated large-scale multisig hacks like the recent Bybit exploit. The conversation then shifts to The Interfold (formerly Enclave), Gnosis Guild's new project combining FHE, ZK, and MPC to create encrypted execution environments. These enable multiple parties to collectively compute over private data and produce a verifiable output without any single trusted coordinator. They explore use cases like secret ballot voting and sealed bid auctions, the broader potential for collaborative analytics and private AI training, and how this fits into the larger privacy ecosystem. Related Links Charting Zodiac & DAOs with Nathan Ginnever and Auryn Macmillan theinterfold.com gnosisguild.org How Aztec Raised $59M With 17,000 Bidders Using Uniswap’s CCA Check out the talks from zkSummit14 in Rome on our YouTube channel here. **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript
May 6 · 1 hr 24 min
Quantum Advances, Hybrid Signatures and SNARKs to the Rescue with Dan Boneh
In this 400th episode, Anna Rose welcomes back Dan Boneh, professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford University, for a wide-ranging conversation on quantum computing, post-quantum cryptography, and the evolving role of ZK. They discuss Google's recent quantum algorithm announcement—what the paper actually showed, why it was proven in zero knowledge, and the cryptographic ideas embedded in the work. Dan shares his perspective on quantum timelines, the risks of rushing the post-quantum transition, and why algebraic signatures deserve more attention than hash-based ones in the blockchain world. The conversation covers hybrid signature schemes, the web's quiet transition to post-quantum cryptography, and the intersection of AI and ZK. Dan also highlights witness encryption, explains why encrypted mempools are generating new research questions, and closes with an update on the Ethereum Foundation's Proximity Prize. Related Links Episode 100 with Dan Boneh Episode 256 with Dan Boneh Episode 345 with Dan Boneh Episode 390 lean Ethereum Miniseries Kick-off with Anna & Nico Episode 359 Lattice-based ZK Systems with Vadim Lyubashevsky Episode 364 AI and ZK Auditing with David Wong Episode 382 Kevin Lacker on AI-Assisted Theorem Proving and Acorn Securing Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities: Resource Estimates and Mitigations Optimal Proximity Gaps for Subspace-Design Codes and (Random) Reed-Solomon Codes Oratomic (Neutral Atoms Startup) Proximity Prize The Trail of Bits Blog:We beat Google’s zero-knowledge proof of quantum cryptanalysis **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript
April 22 · 1 hr 2 min
Is ZK dead? Or has it just begun? with the ZK Pod co-hosts
In this episode, Anna is joined by co-hosts Guillermo Angeris, Nico Mohnblatt, and Tarun Chitra for a reunion on this 399th episode. They reflect on how they each joined the show and how both the podcast and the ZK space have evolved over time, before diving into discussion on whether ZK is ‘dead’ or simply maturing. They explore its shift from niche research to hype-driven narrative to becoming a widely used but increasingly invisible piece of infrastructure. They go on to discuss the changing landscape of ZK companies, the explosion of new applications, and the trend of teams using ZK as an implicit primitive rather than a headline feature. The episode closes with a broader reflection on decentralisation, usability, and what the next phase of ZK adoption might look like. Related Links Between Two ZK Events with Nico and Guillermo Building Private AMMs with Guillermo Angeris 2021 < 2022 with Co-hosts & Friends Statistical modeling with PoS systems with Tarun Chitra Indistinguishability Obfuscation (iO) with Huijia (Rachel) Lin Error Correcting Codes & Information Theory with Ron Rothblum How ZK inspired AI Watermarking with Miranda Christ Ethproofs, zkVM Benchmarks & the Unstoppable Rise of ZK with Justin Drake Decentralized Storage Part 1: Looking back Decentralized Storage Part 2: Solutions Verifiable Databases with Shyam & Emanuele from Provably zkMesh+ live! Subscribe for zkMesh+ and catch the latest State of ZK 2025 report. **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript
April 8 · 56 min
Verifiable Databases with Shyam & Emanuele from Provably
In this episode, Anna Rose and Nico Mohnblatt speak with Shyam Duraishwami and Emanuele Ragnoli, co-founders of Provably. They trace the origins of Provably, from early work on data ecosystems and blockchain infrastructure to the launch of their verifiable database approach, exploring how advances in cryptography and database theory enabled this shift. The conversation dives into what a verifiable database actually is and how this contrasts with Merkle-based systems and zkVMs, explaining how Provably’s use of polynomial and vector commitments enables performance that scales with query complexity rather than dataset size, opening the door to large-scale, real-world applications. They close with a discussion on emerging applications from proving insights over private blockchain data to enabling verifiable analytics in Web2 and multi-agent systems—and the broader implications for data integrity in an increasingly data-rich world. Related Links Tavloid: towards Simple Verifiable Spreadsheets and Databases by Campanelli Linear-map Vector Commitments and their Practical Applications by Campanelli, Nitulescu, Ràfols, Zacharakis and Zapico qedb: Expressive and Modular Verifiable Databases (without SNARKs) by Botta, Bottoni, Campanelli, Ragnoli and Trombetta Applications to attend zkSummit14 are open! This edition will be more intimate with limited spots — we recommend applying early. Apply at www.zksummit.com zkMesh+ live! Subscribe for zkMesh+ and catch the latest State of ZK 2025 report. **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript
April 1 · 1 hr 12 min
Dev Ojha on the Osmosis Story and his Return to Privacy
In this episode, Anna Rose and Guillermo Angeris catch up with Dev Ojha, co-founder of Osmosis and longtime ZK researcher. They revisit the story of Osmosis since its 2021 launch as a key Cosmos DEX, its role in early IBC adoption, the DeFi summer surge, the Terra collapse fallout, and the later pivot by the team toward privacy-focused cross-chain tools. The conversation then turns to Dev’s return to privacy tech, focusing on Zcash. They explore ongoing challenges like shielded sync, nullifier bloat, and scaling shielded transactions, along with proposed solutions involving private information retrieval (PIR), oblivious synchronization, evolving nullifiers, recursive SNARKs, faster block times with pre-confirmation ideas, and paths toward post-quantum recoverability. They wrap-up with a discussion about the need for further zkVM optimization and his vision for a more private future. Related Links Osmosis Zcash Namada Fractal: Post-Quantum and Transparent Recursive Proofs from Holography Tachyon: Scaling Zcash with Oblivious Synchronization IBC Protocol Private Information Retrieval (PIR) Arkworks Related Previous ZK Episodes Sean Bowe on Tachyon and the Evolution of Zcash Applications to attend the zkSummit14 on May 7 in Rome are open! This edition has limited spots — we recommend applying early at www.zksummit.com zkMesh+ live! Subscribe for zkMesh+ and catch the latest State of ZK 2025 report. **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript
March 25 · 57 min
lean Ethereum Part 6: Formal Verification with Alex Hicks
https://youtu.be/9u4fu7TiZCA In this episode, Nico Mohnblatt speaks with Alex Hicks from the Ethereum Foundation about formal verification and its role in the lean Ethereum vision. This is the 6th and final episode of the lean Ethereum mini-series. Nico and Alex explore what it means to produce machine-checked proofs across the ZK stack, from RISC-V and zkVMs to circuits, compilers, and cryptographic primitives, and how these pieces connect in practice. The conversation also covers Alex’s path from physics and math into the ZK space, how the EF effort took shape, and the community push to formally verify the entire stack using proof assistants like Lean. They discuss efforts to formalize zkVM components, the tradeoffs between proof assistants and automated solvers, and what real progress looks like after a year and a half of focused work. Related Links lean Ethereum Part 1: Introduction with Justin Drake lean Ethereum Part 2: PQ Signatures and Poseidon with Dmitry and Benedikt lean Ethereum Part 3: Security of PQ SNARKs and an update about the Proximity Prize lean Ethereum Part 4: leanVM, a Custom VM for Signature Aggregation lean Ethereum Part 5: Devnets & Upgrade Coordination with Will and Raúl lean Ethereum Lean Consensus R&D Progress Lean Proof Assistant Isabelle Proof Assistant Ethereum Foundation Applications to attend the zkSummit14 on May 7 in Rome, Italy are open! This edition will be more intimate with limited spots — we recommend applying early at www.zksummit.com zkMesh+ live! Subscribe for zkMesh+ and catch the latest State of ZK 2025 report. **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript
March 18 · 39 min
lean Ethereum Part 5: Devnets & Upgrade Coordination with Will and Raúl
https://youtu.be/Ul2bs8INF0k In this episode Nico Mohnblatt chats with Will Corcoran and Raúl Kripalani from the Ethereum Foundation. This is part 5 in the 6-part leanEthereum miniseries, shifting focus from the cryptographic primitives and LeanVM stack to the real-world integration happening through devnets, specs, and cross-team coordination. They dive into the human coordination layer, how independent teams align on post-quantum signatures, SNARK aggregation, and protocol changes, plus the networking upgrades needed for larger payloads. Raúl explains the shift from today's libp2p stack to a purpose-built Eth P2P next-gen version optimised for Ethereum's workloads, including better broadcast layers, erasure coding, and control planes to handle bandwidth competition between execution and consensus layers. Related Links lean Ethereum Part 1: Introduction with Justin Drake lean Ethereum Part 2: PQ Signatures and Poseidon with Dmitry and Benedikt lean Ethereum Part 3: Security of PQ SNARKs and an update about the Proximity Prize lean Ethereum Part 4: leanVM, a Custom VM for Signature Aggregation lean Ethereum Lean Consensus R&D Progress Ethereum Foundation Applications to attend the zkSummit14 on May 7 in Rome, Italy are open! This edition will be more intimate with limited spots — we recommend applying early at www.zksummit.com zkMesh+ live! Subscribe for zkMesh+ and catch the latest State of ZK 2025 report. **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript
March 11 · 32 min
lean Ethereum Part 4: leanVM, a Custom VM for Signature Aggregation
https://youtu.be/YWkyvTrwtQU In this episode of the lean Ethereum miniseries, Nico Mohnblatt speaks with Thomas Coratger and Emile from the Ethereum Foundation about the design and implementation of LeanVM, a minimal zkVM created to support post-quantum signature aggregation on Ethereum’s consensus layer. They explain why the team chose a VM architecture over fixed circuits and how LeanVM takes inspiration from Cairo with just 4 opcodes and 2 precompiles to keep the instruction set extremely small and make formal verification easier. The conversation also covers LeanVM implementation choices like using Plonky3 and WHIR for efficient proving on CPUs, benchmarks for aggregation speed, and the role of Python specs in testing client interop. They share ongoing efforts to optimize low-level primitives and invite community input on the project. Related Links lean Ethereum Part 1: Introduction with Justin Drake lean Ethereum Part 2: PQ Signatures and Poseidon with Dmitry and Benedikt lean Ethereum Part 3: Security of PQ SNARKs and an update about the Proximity Prize lean Ethereum Lean Consensus R&D Progress Cairo zkVM WHIR: Reed–Solomon Proximity Testing with Super-Fast Verification Minimal zkVM for Lean Ethereum by Emile Repos leanEthereum github organization leanSig repo (optimized Rust implementation of XMSS for Ethereum usage) leanSpec repo (the Python spec of the lean consensus) WHIR repo Plonky3 repo leanVM Applications to speak at zkSummit14 close this Sunday March 15! This edition will be more intimate with limited spots — we recommend applying early. Apply at www.zksummit.com zkMesh+ live! Subscribe for zkMesh+ and catch the latest State of ZK 2025 report. **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 **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript

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