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by 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.
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- 4 days ago1h 1m
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, RevisitedBlaze: 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 SystemsBolt: Faster SNARKs from Sketched CodeszkGolf WebsiteProving as Fast as Computing: Succinct Arguments with Constant Prover Overhead SNARK.fast WebsiteZK Podcast Episode: Error Correcting Codes & Information Theory with Ron RothblumFiat-Shamir via List-Recoverable Codes (or: Parallel Repetition of GMW is not Zero-Knowledge) Delegating Computation: Interactive Proofs for MugglesHow 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 @ze
- 1 weeks ago46 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 ProfilePeer WebsiteAnnouncement of ZKP2P becoming PeerPeer Docs RepoZK Podcast: ZKP2P with Brian and RichardZK Hack Lisbon 2023ZK EmailZK 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
- Aug 5, 20261h 12m
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 CommonwareMinimmit: Fast Finality with Even Faster BlocksCommonware blog post announcing MinimmitSimplex Consensus: A Simple and Fast Consensus Protocol Commonware docs - Simplex ConsensusPatrick O’Grady’s X Post on Multimmit (July 2026)Multimmit: Extending Blocks for Faster Finality (draft)Alpenglow GitHub Progress UpdatesGolden: 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
- Jul 29, 20261h 4m
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 RetrievalDon’t be Dense: Efficient Keyword PIR for Sparse DatabasesThe two papers that introduced client-side preprocessing:PPY18CK20 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 * <a href="https://etherscan.io/address/0xE2C
- Jul 15, 20261h 1m
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 Bennolean Ethereum Part 6: Formal Verification with Alex Hicks Groth16, IVC and Formal Verification with Nexuslean Ethereum ZK Podcast and Alex Ozdemir ZK languages with Alex OzdemirzkSessions: Alex Ozdemir - The Taxonomy of Circuit LanguageszkStudyClub: 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 -
- Jul 8, 20261h 7m
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 NetworkArc Privacy Sector: Keeping Blockchain State, Transactions, and Accounts Private and Quantum SafeCircle’s Post-Quantum Security RoadmapArc Documentation Arc: An open Layer-1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoin financeSergey’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
- Jul 1, 20266 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.
- Jun 24, 20261h 8m
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 MoreProtostar — Generic Efficient Accumulation/Folding for Special-Sound ProtocolsHyperPlonk — Plonk with Linear-Time Prover and High-Degree Custom GatesNova — Recursive Zero-Knowledge Arguments from Folding SchemesArc — Accumulation for Reed–Solomon CodesLinear-Time Accumulation SchemesGolden: Lightweight Non-Interactive Distributed Key GenerationFlock — High-Speed Batch Proofs for Standard Hash Functions (coming soon)TensorSwitch — Nearly Optimal Polynomial Commitments from Tensor CodesBolt: Faster SNARKs from Sketched CodesLigero — Lightweight Sublinear Arguments Without Trusted Setup Systems and Infrastructure Espresso Systems DocumentationCAPE (Configurable Asset Privacy for Ethereum)Monero Additional Reading Vitalik Buterin — The Splurge: Post-Quantum EthereumAccumulation without HomomorphismNeo and SuperNeo: Post-Quantum Folding with Pay-Per-Bit CommitmentsEspresso’s HotShot: A Consensus Protocol Designed for Rollups **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! <span style=
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About 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.
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