zkMesh: Dec 2023 recap

As we reach the end of 2023, we want to thank you for your readership this past year. Here's to a great start to 2024 and the year ahead in decentralized privacy-enhancing technologies and zero-knowledge systems research. Cheers!

zkMesh is produced by ZK Hack.

Each month, we bring you recent research, useful articles, videos, podcasts, tweets, tools, project updates, and events. Be sure to share and subscribe!   

** ZK Hack Online returns Jan 16 - Feb 6 2024. Signup here!** 

Research

• Proof of Compliance for Anonymous, Unlinkable Messages by Mingxun Zhou, Elaine Shi & Giulia Fanti

• Reverie: an end-to-end accumulation scheme from Cyclefold by Lev Soukhanov

• Reef: Fast Succinct Non-Interactive Zero-Knowledge Regex Proofs by Sebastian Angel, Eleftherios Ioannids, Elizabeth Margolin, Srinath Setty & Jess Woods

• COMMON: Order Book with Privacy by Albert Garreta, Adam Gągol, Aikaterini-Panagiota Stouka, Damian Straszak & Michal Zajac

• A Novel Power-Sum PRG with Applications to Lattice-Based zkSNARKs by Charanjit S. Jutla, Eamonn W. Postlethwaite & Arnab Roy

• A Simple and Efficient Framework of Proof Systems for NP by Yuyu Wang, Chuanjie Su, Jiaxin Pan & Yu Chen

• ID-CAKE: Identity-based Cluster Authentication and Key Exchange Scheme for Message Broadcasting and Batch Verification in VANETs by Apurva K. Vangujar, Alia Umrani & Paolo Palmieri 

• Fast and Designated-verifier Friendly zkSNARKs in the BPK Model by Xudong Zhu, Xuyang Song & Yi Deng

• Your Reputation's Safe with Me: Framing-Free Distributed Zero-Knowledge Proofs by Carmit Hazay, Muthuramakrishnan Venkitasubramaniam & Mor Weiss

• STARK Round By Round Soundness and Security in Random Oracle Model by Eli Ben Sasson

Articles/Threads

• Introduction to ZK Jargon: What Does it Mean to Prove? | Nico Mohnblatt | Geometry

• SNARKs on Binary Fields: Binius - Part 1 | LambdaClass Blog

• This Clever New Idea Could Fix AirTag Stalking While Maximizing Privacy | Lily Hay Newman | WIRED 

• Apk Proofs | Seun Lanlege | Polytope Research

• How Binius is Helping Move the ZK Industry Forward | LambdaClass Blog

• Don’t risk identity fraud just to play that video game — do this instead | John Reynolds | Aleo Blog 

• What Might an “Enshrined ZK-EVM” Look Like? | Vitalik Buterin

• Make Ethereum Cypherpunk Again | Vitalik Buterin

• Building Verifiable Computations: PCD x EZKL | EZKL

• Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox steps down from Electric Coin CEO role | MK Manoylov | The Block

Videos/Podcast

• The Cost of Verifiability: Exploring the Limits of ZK Compute | Wei Dai @ ProofSingularity.xyz

• ZK for web2 interop with zkLogin & ZK Email | ZK Podcast

• A Dive into Binius with Ulvetanna  | ZK Podcast

• Exploring FRI, LogUp and using M31 for STARKs with Ulrich Haböck | ZK Podcast

• ZK Rewind: A Look Back at 2023 | ZK Podcast

Guides and Resources

• ZK HACK Mini Course: Succinct Proofs and Linear Algebra | Guillermo Angeris

• Zero to Start: Applied Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) Part 1 | Privacy and Scaling Explorations 

• Zero to Start: Applied Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) Part 2 | Privacy and Scaling Explorations 

Vulnerabilities/Disclosures

• Ledger Vulnerability thread 

Tools / implementations

• ZK Proving the Correct Execution of Encryption Operation Under BFV Fully Homomorphic Encryption Scheme | @backaes & @yurikonishijima

• Announcing the First Arecibo Release | Lurk 

• Zebra 1.5.0 Release | Zcash foundation 

• zkP2M: Trustless and instant INR to USD on-ramp powered by ZK | ETHIndia

Project Updates

• Introducing ZK Email V1 SDK | ZK Email

• ICICLE for Researchers: Grants & Challenges | Ingonyama

• Aleo completes security audits of snarkOS & snarkVM | Aleo 

• Making a more secure, accessible medical system with zero-knowledge | Aleo  

• Announcing the Aleo Foundation | Aleo 

• Announcing Noir Beta: Stabler, Faster ZK Applications In The Browser | Aztec

• Aztec’s Core Cryptography, Now In Noir | Aztec

• Stewarding a new season at ECC | Electric Coin Company 

• ECC Transparency Report for Q2 2023 | Electric Coin Company 

• Introducing ZKFair, the First Community-owned ZK L2 | Lumoz (previously Opside)

• Lambdaworks as a drop-in replacement for Winterfell to prove the Miden-VM | Lambda Class

• Introducing zkEVM1, a Secure and Audit-friendly Type-1 zkEVM Compiled with zkLLVM | ;nil= Foundation

• From Milestones to Masterstrokes: StarkWare’s Year in Review | StarkWare

• Starknet Launches the ‘Devonomics’ Pilot Program | StarkWare 

• First Cohort of RaaS Providers Live on ZK Stack | zkSync

• Announcing Taiko Grants Cycle 2 | Taiko

• Based Contestable Rollup (BCR): A Configurable, Multi-proof Rollup Design | Taiko

• zkLocus: Authenticated Private Geolocation Off & On-Chain | zkLocus

• A Look Back: NU5 and Network Sandblasting | Zcash

• Sui devs dream of sending money like email | Sui

• Polygon Stops Work on 'Edge,' Used to Build Dogechain, as Focus Turns to ZK | Coindesk

• Cosmos Layer 1 Namada allocates 3% of token supply to incentivized testnet users | The Block

Events/Hackathons

• ZK HACK IV | Online. Jan 16 - Feb 6 2024

• ETHDenver | Denver, US. Feb 23 - Mar 3

• ETHGlobal London |  London, UK. Mar 15 - 17

• RWC 2024  | Toronto, Canada. March 25 - 27

• zkSummit11 | Athens, Greece. Apr 10 - Application opens in Jan 2023

• EuroSys 2024 | Athens, Greece. Apr 22 - 25

• ETHGlobal Sydney | Sydney, Australia. May 3 - 5

• DappCon 2024 | Berlin, Germany. May 21 - 23

• ETHBerlin | Berlin, Germany. May 24 - 26

• Eurocrypt 2024 | Zurich, Switzerland. May 26 - 30

• ETH Prague | Prague, Czech Republic. May 31 - June 2

• ETHGlobal Brussels | Brussels, Belgium. July 12 - 14

• DevCon | Southeast Asia. Fall 2024

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