zkMesh: Jan 2024 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 ZK Hack.

We bring you recent research, useful articles, videos, podcasts, tweets, tools, project updates, and events. Expect a new edition at the beginning of every month. Be sure to share and subscribe!   

Research

• Do You Need a Zero Knowledge Proof? by Jens Ernstberger, Stefanos Chaliasos, Liyi Zhou, Philipp Jovanovic and Arthur Gervais

• Application of Graph Methods for Efficient Quotient Polynomial Evaluation in Halo2 by Karthik Inbasekar, Roman Palkin and Guy Weissenberg

• Ratel: MPC-extensions for Smart Contracts by Yunqi Li, Kyle Soska, Zhen Huang, Sylvain Bellemare, Mikerah Quintyne-Collins, Lun Wang, Xiaoyuan Liu, Dawn Song and Andrew Miller

• Fully Dynamic Attribute-Based Signatures for Circuits from Codes by San Ling, Khoa Nguyen, Duong Hieu Phan, Khai Hanh Tang, Huaxiong Wang and Yanhong Xu

• Updatable, Aggregatable, Succinct Mercurial Vector Commitment from Lattice by Hongxiao Wang, Siu-Ming Yiu, Yanmin Zhao and Zoe L. Jiang

• Verifiable FHE via Lattice-based SNARKs by Shahla Atapoor, Karim Baghery, Hilder V. L. Pereira and Jannik Spiessens

• On Computing the Multidimensional Scalar Multiplication on Elliptic Curves by Walid Haddaji, Loubna Ghammam, Nadia El Mrabet and Leila Ben Abdelghani

• On Efficient and Secure Compression Modes for Arithmetization-Oriented Hashing by Elena Andreeva, Rishiraj Bhattacharyya, Arnab Roy and Stefano Trevisani

• Zero-Knowledge Proofs for SIDH variants with Masked Degree or Torsion by Youcef Mokrani and David Jao

• Elastic MSM: A Fast, Elastic and Modular Preprocessing Technique for Multi-Scalar Multiplication Algorithm on GPUs by Xudong Zhu, Haoqi He, Zhengbang Yang, Yi Deng, Lutan Zhao and Rui Hou

• Succinct Verification of Compressed Sigma Protocols in the Updatable SRS setting by Moumita Dutta, Chaya Ganesh and Neha Jawalkar

• Short Code-based One-out-of-Many Proofs and Applications by Xindong Liu and Li-Ping Wang

• Improved All-but-One Vector Commitment with Applications to Post-Quantum Signatures by Dung Bui, Kelong Cong and Cyprien Delpech de Saint Guilhem

• Snarktor: A Decentralized Protocol for Scaling SNARKs Verification in Blockchains by Alberto Garoffolo, Dmytro Kaidalov and Roman Oliynykov

• Some Improvements for the PIOP for ZeroCheck by Angus Gruen

Articles/Threads

• The State of Private Voting in Ethereum | MolochDAO

• SNARKs on Binary Fields: Binius - Part 2 | LambdaClass Blog

• Zero Knowledge Proofs for Gaming: How It Works & Why Do We Need Them | ZkNoid

• Memory Consistency Checks and ZKVM | ICME

• Developer Report: Analysis of Open-Source Crypto Developers | Electric Capital

• Comparing STARK Provers: Miden and Starknet | LambdaClass Blog

• Field Merkle Tree | @0xKanekiKen

• Nearly Optimal State Merklization | Sovereign

• What Comes After Ethereum's Cancun Hard Fork? | Paradigm

• Verifying Zero-knowledge Proofs on Bitcoin? | Cryptologie.net

• Benchmarking ZKML Frameworks | EZKL

• (A)symmetry: How Identity Will Be Improved by Decentralized Biometrics and Zero-knowledge Proofs | Holonym

• STARKPack: Aggregating STARKs for Shorter Proofs and Faster Verification | Nethermind

• UK's Digital Pound Approach Should Help Manage Privacy Concerns, Experts Say | CoinDesk 

Videos/Podcast

• Latest ZK Hack Workshop Videos | ZK Hack

• Recent Techniques Used in zk-SNARKs: Explaining the GKR Method (Ariel Gabizon) | zkWarsaw

• Episode 306: Predictions: ZK in 2024 | Zero Knowledge Podcast 

• Episode 307: The Evolution of Aleo with Howard Wu & Alex Pruden | Zero Knowledge Podcast

• Exploring Ethereum History On-chain with ZK | Axiom

• Succinct Arguments over Towers of Binary Fields (Ben Diamond & Jim Posen, Ulvetanna) | zkStudyClub

• ZPrize ZK Debate | Episode 1: Would Satoshi & ZK | ZPrize

Guides and Resources

• Some Resources for ZK Protocols Auditing | @ShieldifyAnon

• What Is a ZK Audit? | Zellic

Vulnerabilities/Disclosures

• ZK-SNARKS & The Last Challenge Attack: Mind Your Fiat-Shamir! | Open Zeppelin

• zkSync Era Audit Contest on Code4rena | zkSync Era

Tools / implementations

• Lambdaworks Design and Usage: Part 1 - Finite Fields | LambdaClass Blog

• Plonky2-gpu: A GPU-accelerated Version of the Plonky2 Project | Side Protocol

• Poseidon{2} for Noir | TACEO

• Deep Dive into Cairo's AIR and The Changes We Had To Do in Lambdaworks To Be Compatible with Starknet Stone Prover | LambaClass Blog

• Concrete ML: A Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning (PPML) Open-source Set of Tools | Zama

• Spectre: A ZK Coprocessor | ChainSafe

• Basefold Implementation | @idocryptography

Project Updates

• Geometry Research’s First Tweet About Its Genesis and Some Past Projects | Geometry Research

• Interview with Kev Wedderburn, Father of Noir | Aztec

• Ola Year-end Review for 2023 | Ola

• New Release 5.8.0 | Electric Coin Company

• zkLocus Whitepaper - Authenticated Private Geolocation Off & On-chain | zkLocus

• Request for Comments: Aztec Sequencer Selection and Prover Coordination Protocols | Aztec

• ZK Indexer for Inscriptions, and Other Ecosystem zkGraphs | Hyper Oracle

• Building a Light Client for Mantle With Lagrange State Committees | Lagrange

• Introducing Brevis coChain: The Fusion of Crypto-Economics and ZK Proof in a ZK Coprocessor | Brevis

• Mystiko Private Transaction Available on Avalanche Mainnet | Mystiko Network

• Aggregated Blockchains: A New Thesis | Polygon Labs

• Announcing Cohort 2 of the Axiom ZK Intensive | Axiom

• ZK Grants: Fund Your ZK Project | Aztec

• Anoma Research Topics (ART) | Anoma

• Turning Pages: A New Chapter in o1Labs’ Journey | o1Labs

• New Year, New MACI | MACI

• Spectre: A ZK Coprocessor to Extend Sygma's Security | Sygma

• Wrapping up the KZG Ceremony | Ethereum Foundation

• Taiko’s Approach to Multi-Proofs | Taiko

• Using Penumbra to Summon Itself | Penumbra

• Scaling Security: Multi-Prover Implementation on Scroll | Scroll

• Elliptic Curve ZK-Proof Acceleration on AMD Versal | Ulvetanna

• OpenID Blockchain (OIDB) Accounts | Aptos

• Aligned Layer | Yet Another Company

• Announcing Axiom V2 on Mainnet | Axiom

• Gevulot Raises $6M Seed Round for Decentralized Prover Network | Gevulot

• Happy Birthday, Lambdaworks! | LambdaClass

• Announcing Axiom's $20 Million Series A Round | Axiom

• The Etrog Upgrade Is on Testnet, Making Polygon zkEVM Type 2 | Polygon zkEVM

• Starknet Collaborates With Celestia on Data Availability | The Block 

• Aleo Mainnet Set to Come Within Weeks with Lofty Goal of Bringing Privacy to Crypto | The Block 

Events/Hackathons

• ZK HACK IV | Online. Jan 16 - Feb 6 - Happening now!

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

• d/Infra Summit | Denver, US. Feb 27

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

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

• zkSummit11 | Athens, Greece. Apr 10

• ZK Accelerate | Athens, Greece. Apr 11

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

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

• ZK HACK IRL Hackathon | tbd. May 17 - 19

• 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

• EthCC | Brussels, Belgium. July 8 - 11

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

• DevCon | Bangkok, Thailand. November 12 - 15

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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 @__zkhack__!