zkMesh: Jan 2022 recap
zkMesh: Jan 2022 recap
Welcome to zkMesh, a monthly newsletter covering the latest in decentralized privacy-enhancing technologies, zero knowledge systems research and zk ecosystem development.
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!
** Quick Note: ZK Hack Mini is happening March 1-15. Join us once again for puzzle hacking and workshops! **
Research
PlonKup: Reconciling PlonK with plookup by Luke Pearson, Joshua Fitzgerald, Héctor Masip, Marta Bellés-Muñoz, and Jose Luis Muñoz-Tapia
Introducing Plonky2 by Brendan Farmer
Publicly verifiable anonymous tokens with private metadata bit by Fabrice Benhamouda and Tancrède Lepoint and Michele Orrù and Mariana Raykova
Subgroup membership testing on elliptic curves via the Tate pairing 1 Introduction by Dmitrii Koshelev
Memory in Miden VM by Bobbin Threadbare
Babylon: Reusing Bitcoin Mining to Enhance Proof-of-Stake Security by Ertem Nusret Tas, Fisher Yu, David Tse and Sreeram Kannan
Speeding Dumbo: Pushing Asynchronous BFT Closer to Practice by Bingyong Guo and Yuan Lu and Zhenliang Lu and Qiang Tang and Jing Xu and Zhenfeng Zhang
CRYScanner: Finding cryptographic libraries misuse by Amit Choudhari and Sylvain Guilley and Khaled Karray
Non-Interactive Zero-Knowledge Proofs to Multiple Verifiers by Kang Yang and Xiao Wang
Feta: Efficient Threshold Designated-Verifier Zero-Knowledge Proofs by Carsten Baum and Robin Jadoul and Emmanuela Orsini and Peter Scholl and Nigel P. Smart
On How Zero-Knowledge Proof Blockchain Mixers Improve, and Worsen User Privacy by Zhipeng Wang and Stefanos Chaliasos and Kaihua Qin and Liyi Zhou and Lifeng Gao and Pascal Berrang and Ben Livshits and Arthur Gervais
Articles
Group Signatures with zkSNARKs | 0xPARC | Joel G, Matt Katz, Uma R, Kevin Z, Raymond Z, and gubsheep
ZK Identity: Why and How (Part 1) | 0xPARC
Recursive ZK-SNARKs: Improving Tornado Cash Security and Note Management | Killari
Zero Knowledge Lottery | Killari
A Technical Introduction to MACI 1.0 | Privacy & Scaling Explorations | Kyle Charbonnet
The Trojan Horse of Privacy | Coindesk | Dan Jeffries
4 Projects Championing Privacy in Blockchain | ZKV | Hector Perez
Etherescan adds new messaging feature for anons: 'Blockscan Chat' | Cointelegraph | Brian Quarmby
4 Reasons Privacy Coins Haven't Taken Off | Coindesk | Haseeb Qureshi
Videos/Podcast
Wired Magazine: Computer Scientist Explains One Concept in 5 Levels of Difficulty
Zero Knowledge Series: a list of zk-focused episodes from the ZK Podcast
Zero Knowledge Podcast EP 213: zk-SNARKs meets Optimistic Rollup with Zkopru
Videos from recent event at The BIU Research Center on Applied Cryptography and Cyber Security
The Riemann Hypothesis, Explained from Quanta Magazine
ZK in a TweetShell
Vulnerabilities/Audits
Critical privacy vulnerability — getting exposed by MetaMask | Alex Lupascu
Under-constrained computation, a new kind of bug | ConsenSys Diligence
Guides and Resources
Tools
Funding ZK
zkDAO Official Soft Proposal: BitDAO’s $200M zkDAO to advance Ethereum scaling via zkSync
The Polygon Thesis: Strategic Focus on ZK Technology as the Next Major Chapter for Polygon; $1B Treasury Allocation | Polygon Blog
(Coming soon) ZPrize: a bounty program for improving general prover performance
Project Updates
Anoma Blog: An Introduction to zk-SNARK: Plonkup | Alexander Miles
Releasing the Initial Polygon Hermez 2.0 zkEVM Documentation | Polygon Hermez
Announcing Dactylobiotus: The Developer Preview Release of Juvix | Metastate Team
A New Zero-Knowledge Smart Contract that Verifies Trade Profit Percentage, Proof of Alpha — Snapp in Development Now | Mina Protocol
Proposal: Creation of Polkadot Pioneers Prize, an Incentive Prize Program
Testnet #4: Shielded Staking Is Here | Penumbra
Projects Building on StarkNet | StarkWare
Tornado Cash Has Been Deployed on Optimism | Tornado Cash
Welcoming the new ZOMG Committee | The Zcash Foundation
On Managing Secure Upgradability | Matter Labs
How Profila Uses Cardano to Give You Control Over Your Personal Data | Michiel Van Roey
Events/Hackathons
Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2022 Virtual. February 14-18
ZK Hack Mini Virtual. March 1-16
Protocol Labs Research Seminar Series Virtual. Ongoing
Real World Crypto 2022 Amsterdam / Virtual. April 13–15
Paris Blockchain Week Paris. April 13-14
zkSummit returns for our 7th edition! Amsterdam. April 21. Apply to attend or speak here
ETHAmsterdam Amsterdam. April 22-24
Summer School on Real-World Crypto and Privacy Šibenik, Croatia. June 13-17
EthCC Paris. July 19-21
The Science of Blockchain Conference 2022 (SBC'22) Stanford. Aug 29-Sep 2
Jobs:
O(1) Labs is looking for a motivated Cryptography Engineer with a strong software background, capable of designing and implementing cryptographic protocols. Apply here
ZK Jobs Board - open jobs from ZK Teams
Note: If you have an open job position and would like to have us include it in our next edition, get in touch!
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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 @zeroknowledgefm!