zkMesh: August 2022 recap

Welcome to zkMesh, a monthly newsletter covering the latest in decentralized privacy-enhancing technologies, privacy protocol development, and zero knowledge systems research. 

zkMesh is produced by the Zero Knowledge Podcast & ZK Hack. 

It includes links to research, useful articles, videos, podcasts, tweets, tools, project updates, and events. Expect a new edition at the beginning of every month and be sure to share and subscribe!   

** Looking to dive and learn ZK? Check out the ZK Whiteboard Sessions! ** 

Research 

• A Mathematical Theory of Danksharding by Yuval Domb

• Improving Proof of Stake Economic Security via MEV Redistribution by Tarun Chitra, Kshitij Kulkarni

• Counting Vampires: From Univariate Sumcheck to Updatable ZK-SNARK by Helger Lipmaa, Janno Siim, Michal Zajac

• Orion: Zero Knowledge Proof with Linear Prover Time by Tiancheng Xie, Yupeng Zhang, Dawn Song

• Linear-Time Probabilistic Proofs Over Every Field by Jonathan Bootle, Alessandro Chiesa, Ziyi Guan, Siqi Liu

• MPC In The Head Special - by Lúcás Meier - CK's Cold Dive 

• MPC In The Head 2: Thoughts About Rem-Boo - by cronokirby 

• PipeMSM: Hardware Acceleration for Multi-Scalar Multiplication by Charles. F. Xavier

• Scalable and Transparent Proofs over All Large Fields, via Elliptic Curves by Eli Ben-Sasson, Dan Carmon, Swastik Kopparty, David Levit

• Paras - A Private NFT Protocol by Vanishree Rao

• Breaking SIDH in polynomial time by Damien Robert

• Lattice-Based Cryptography in Miden VM by Alan Szepieniec, Frederik Vercauteren

• RapidUp: Multi-Domain Permutation Protocol for Lookup Tables by Héctor Masip Ardevol, Jordi Baylina Melé, Daniel Lubarov, José L. Muñoz-Tapia

• Recursion over Public-Coin Interactive Proof Systems; Faster Hash Verification by Alexandre Belling,Azam Soleimanian, Olivier Bégassat

• The inspection model for zero-knowledge proofs and efficient Zerocash with secp256k1 keys by Huachuang Sun, Haifeng Sun, Kevin Singh,Akhil Sai Peddireddy,Harshad Patil, Jianwei Liu, Weikeng Chen

• PESCA: A Privacy-Enhancing Smart-Contract Architecture by Wei Dai

• Zswap: zk-SNARK Based Non-Interactive Multi-Asset Swaps by Felix Engelmann, Thomas Kerber,Markulf Kohlweiss, Mikhail Volkhov

• Orbis Specification Language: a type theory for zk-SNARK programming by Morgan Thomas

• Breaking Category Five SPHINCS+ with SHA-256 by Ray Perlner, John Kelsey, David Cooper

Articles

• Code, Speech, and the Tornado Cash Mixer | Electronic Frontier Foundation | eff.org

• Tornado Cash sanctions leave industry leaders wondering what's next | The Block

• Analysis: What is and what is not a sanctionable entity in the Tornado Cash case | Coincenter

• Someone Is Trolling Celebs by Sending ETH From Tornado Cash | Coindesk

• Tether, a top crypto company, defies U.S. sanctions on service that hid stolen assets | The Washington Post

• Zero Knowledge Proof — one possible malleability of Groth16  | Trapdoor-Tech

• Groth16 Malleability | Geometry Research | Andrija Novakovic, Kobi Gurkan

• FTX blocks Aztec Network privacy DApp, calling it a ‘high risk’ mixer | Cointelegraph

• Some ways to use ZK-SNARKs for privacy | vitalik.ca

• The different types of ZK-EVMs | vitalik.ca

• Lowering the Barrier of Entry to Zero Knowledge Proofs | HackerNoon 

• Measuring SNARK performance: Frontends, backends, and the future | a16z crypto | Justin Thaler 

Videos/Podcast

• An Evolution of Models for Zero-Knowledge Proofs with Sarah Meiklejohn | a16z crypto research talks

• Applications of ZKP - Delendum Ventures

• Zcon3: Code Alone Doesn't Cut It videos from event

• ZK Podcast: Episode 242: Halo 2 with Daira Hopwood and Str4d 

• ZK Podcast: Episode 240: Composable Privacy with Manta Network

• ZK Whiteboard Sessions: 4. SNARKs vs STARKs with Bobbin Threadbare

• ZK Whiteboard Sessions: 5. PLONK and Custom Gates with Adrian Hamelink 

• ZK Whiteboard Sessions: 6. Lookup Tables for Performance Optimisation

ZK in a TweetShell 

Zac Williamson @Zac_Aztec

In light of the TornadoCash ban, I have some thoughts on the future of privacy networks that I would like to share with you all. Despite the dark circumstances of the present, there are grounds to be optimistic about the future for web3. A short 🧵 on why...

Guides and Resources

• KANI FOR BEGINNERS | Steven D. Galbraith

• BrainSTARK, Part 0: Introduction 

Project Updates

• Bain Capital Leads $12M Round for Scalable Blockchain Developer RISC Zero 

• Ethos is the Product | Matter Labs | Steve Newcomb 

• We Are Not a Company. We Are a Mission | Matter Labs | Steve Newcomb 

• BLS Wallet: Bundling up data | Privacy & Scaling Explorations

• Announcing Aleo Testnet 3 | Howard Wu

• Data Availability is Not Data Storage | Polygon Team

• What Does Ethereum’s Transition to Proof of Stake Mean for Polygon? | Polygon Team

• What is NSO Pegasus Spyware? | didem63

• Penumbra Summer 2022 Update | Penumbra

• Beyond ZK: The Definitive Guide to Web3 Privacy (Part 1) | Secret Network Blog | Guy Zyskind            

Events/Hackathons

• Nearcon 2022 | Lisbon Sept 11 - 14

• Dappcon | Berlin. September 12 - 14

• zkSummit 8 | Berlin. September 15 

• CHES 2022 Registration | Leuven, Belgium, September 18 - 21

• Cosmoverse | Medellín, Columbia. September 26 - 28  

• Devcon | Bogotá, Columbia. October 11 - 14 

• ETHLisbon | Lisbon. October 28 - 30

• ETHSF '22 | San Francisco. November 3 - 5

• Theory of Cryptography Conference | Chicago. November 7 - 10

• International Conference on Smart Contracts and Blockchain | Dubai. November 10 - 11

• Istanbul Blockchain Week | Istanbul. November 15 - 16

• ZKProof Workshop | Tel-Aviv. November 15 - 17  

• ZK Hack | Virtual. Multi-week. Nov-Dec 2022

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There you have it! Hope you liked this edition of zkMesh. Be sure to subscribe to get the next edition in your inbox.

Lastly, if you have something you think should be included in the next edition or suggestions for the format - tweet at us @zeroknowledgefm!