zkMesh: January 2023 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. 

It includes links to new 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!   

** Join us at zkSummit9 on April 4th in Lisbon ** 

Research 

• Hardware-optimizations for SumCheck by Binyi Chen

• Batching, Aggregation, and Zero-Knowledge Proofs in Bilinear Accumulators by Shravan Srinivasan, Ioanna Karantaidou, Foteini Baldimtsi, Charalampos Papamanthou

• Ethical identity, ring VRFs, and zero-knowledge continuations by Jeffrey Burdges, Handan Kılınç Alper, Alistair Stewart, Sergey Vasilyev

• Fast amortized KZG proofs by Dankrad Feist, Dmitry Khovratovich

• Complete Knowledge: Preventing Encumbrance of Cryptographic Secrets by Mahimna Kelkar, Kushal Babel, Philip Daian, James Austgen, Vitalik Buterin, Ari Juels

• A PCP Theorem for Interactive Proofs and Applications by Gal Arnon, Alessandro Chiesa, Eylon Yogev

• Plonkup scheme with multiple queries by Alexandr Bulkin, Tim Dokchitser

• Privacy-Preserving Decision Tree Classification Using VBB-Secure Cryptographic Obfuscation by Shalini Banerjee, Steven D. Galbraith, Giovanni Russello

• A security analysis comparison between Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram by Corina-Elena Bogos, Răzvan Mocanu, Emil Simion

• Satisfiability Modulo Finite Fields by Alex Ozdemir, Gereon Kremer, Cesare Tinelli, Clark Barrett

• Streaming Zero-Knowledge Proofs by Graham Cormode, Marcel Dall'Agnol, Tom Gur, Chris Hickey 

• The Tip5 Hash Function for Recursive STARKs by Alan Szepieniec, Alexander Lemmens, Jan Ferdinand Sauer, Bobbin Threadbare

• BeeGees: stayin’ alive in chained BFT by Ittai Abraham, Natacha Crooks, Neil Giridharan, Heidi Howard, Florian Suri-Payer

Articles

• Zero Knowledge Proofs for Games | Phil Kelly | O(1) Labs 

• Functional Commitments: ZK under a different lens | Geometry Research 

• ZK System Benchmarking | Delendum Research

• Circom-Pairing: A Million-Dollar ZK Bug Caught Early | Veridise

• The State of Zero Knowledge 2022 Report | Mina Protocol 

• Year In Review: Trending Posts of 2022 | NVIDIA Developer

• The Signal App and the Danger of Privacy at All Costs | Reid Blackman

• Zero-Knowledge Cryptography in 2023: The Year Privacy Becomes Practical | Coindesk

• Fully-homomorphic encryption, zero-knowledge proofs, and multiparty computation | Not a Monad Tutorial

• Verifiable AES: encryption using zero-knowledge proofs | Not a Monad Tutorial

• The State of Zero-Knowledge Applications in Ethereum Part 1: Int | andyguzman.eth

• An incomplete guide to stealth addresses | Vitalik

• Breaking the Tree: Violating Invariants in Semaphore | Veridise

Videos/Podcast

• Epicenter Podcast: Anna Rose & Kobi Gurkan: Zero Knowledge Proofs – State of the ZK Ecosystem - Part 1 #476

• Epicenter Podcast: Anna Rose & Kobi Gurkan: Zero Knowledge Proofs – State of the ZK Ecosystem - Part 2

• David Wong: The PLONK zero-knowledge proof system - YouTube 

• Delendum: Brakedown, linear-time encodable codes and SNARKs with Justin Thaler 

• Delendum: The feasibility of lattice-based SNARKs with Chris Peikert 

• Zero Knowledge Podcast: Episode 260: ZK in 2023 with Kobi, Guillermo, and Tarun

• Zero Knowledge Podcast: Episode 261: Proofs, Arguments, and ZKPs with Justin Thaler

ZK in a Tweetshell  

pseudo 📜 @pseudotheos

ZKPs will change the internet the same way TLS did

Matthew Green @matthew_d_green

I don’t know what’s going to happen first: SGX makes its way into some part of every blockchain system, or Intel removes every scrap of evidence that SGX ever existed.

Guides and Resources

• Proofs, Arguments, and Zero-Knowledge | Justin Thaler

• Pairings or bilinear maps | Alin Tomescu

• [MIT IAP 2023] Modern Zero Knowledge Cryptography | ZK IAP

 Tools 

• zkonduit/ezkl 

• https://web3analytic-xyz.github.io/scam-scanner/ 

• The Manga Guide to Cryptography | No Starch Press 

• https://github.com/nategraf/risc0-rust-examples/tree/waldo/waldo

• https://github.com/delendum-xyz/zk-benchmarking

• ZK System Benchmarking 

Project Updates

• Looking back: 2022 on ethereum.org | Ethereum Foundation

• zkIgnite, Cohort 0 Retro | Mina Protocol

• Four ZK Technologies You Should Know | Mina Protocol

• Account Abstraction: Improving Security and User Experience for Mainstream Crypto Adoption | StarkWare

• How to keep your company’s digital assets safe | Starlight

• Buidling Community with buidlbox. Community-first hackathons are coming | Matter Labs

• Configurable Privacy with Espresso Systems | Matter Labs

• Digital Identity Superpowers with Unstoppable Domains | Matter Labs

• Zero Knowledge Proofs for Games. Phil Kelly | O(1) Labs

• Release Note for 0109 Upgrade | Scroll

• Functional Commitments: ZK under a different lens | Geometry Research

• Paper Speedrun: zk-creds | Geometry Research

Events/Hackathons

• ZK Spring Residency | Vietnam. March 13 - April 7 APPLY by Feb 3

• Mina zkIgnite | Virtual. APPLY by Feb 15

• StarkWare Sessions 2023 | Tel Aviv. Feb 5-6

• ETHDenver | Denver, USA. Feb 24-Mar 5

• Interop Summit | Denver, USA. Feb 27-28 

• SXSW Conference | Austin, USA. Mar 10-15

• Paris Blockchain Week | Paris, France. Mar 20-24

• FHE.org | Tokyo. Mar 26 

• RWC 2023 | Tokyo. Mar 27 

• ZK Hack Lisbon | Lisbon, Portugal. March 31-April 1 [SAVE THE DATE!]

• zkSummit9 | Lisbon, Portugal. April 4 [SAVE THE DATE!]

• Gateway to Cosmos Conference | Prague, Czech Rep. Apr 12-14 

• Financial Cryptography 2023 | Brač, Croatia. May 1-5

• ethdam | Amsterdam. May 20-21 

• EthCC | Paris, France. Jul 17-21

• Stanford Blockchain Conference | Stanford, USA. Aug 28-30

• DappCon | Berlin, Germany. Sept 11-13

• DevCon | tbd. Fall 2023

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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!