zkMesh: July 2020 Recap
Welcome to zkMesh - a monthly newsletter focused on sharing resources about decentralised privacy-preserving technologies, privacy protocol development and zero knowledge systems research.
It includes the latest research, useful articles, videos, podcasts, tweets, tools, project updates and events.
zkMesh is put together by Mikerah (HashCloak) and Anna (Zero Knowledge Podcast).
Expect a new edition at the beginning of every month and be sure to subscribe!
Research
Security Considerations of zk-SNARK Parameter Multi-Party Computation from Paul Bottinelli
Efficient Final Exponentiation via Cyclotomic Structure for Pairings over Families of Elliptic Curves by Daiki Hayashida , Kenichiro Hayasaka , and Tadanori Teruya
Zkopru (zk optimistic rollup) for private transactions - zk-s[nt]arks - https://zkopru.network/
Fast, Scalable, and Communication-Efficient Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Boolean and Arithmetic Circuits 1 Introduction by Chenkai Weng, Kang Yang, Jonathan Katz, Xiao Wang
Report 2020/915 - Does Fiat-Shamir Require a Cryptographic Hash Function? from Yilei Chen, Alex Lombardi, Fermi Ma and Willy Quach
FROST: Flexible Round-Optimized Schnorr Threshold Signatures from Chelsea Komlo and Ian Goldberg
zkPorter: Composable Scalability in L2 Beyond zkRollup from Alex Gluchowski
Articles
The Definitive Guide to Bitcoin Privacy & Surveillance: The need for financial privacy (You need to be signed into TheBlock to read this article)
CoinSwap and the Ongoing Effort to Make Bitcoin Privacy 'Invisible'
Zcash Privacy Back in Question after User Traces Shielded Transaction
zkReddit - Aztec’s submission to the Reddit Scaling Bake-Off
IBM completes successful field trials on Fully Homomorphic Encryption
Videos/Podcast:
zkStudyClub: *BONUS * Halo optimisations and constructing graphs of elliptic curves by Daira Hopwood
Trusted Setup Bonus: Tornado Cash on Zero Knowledge Podcast
Validium with DeversiFi & Starkware on Zero Knowledge Podcast
Findora with Benedikt Bunz and Ben Fisch on Zero Knowledge Podcast
Blockchain Privacy in a TweetShell
Tools
Guides and Resources
An Intro to Fully Homomorphic Encryption for Engineers by Ravital Solomon from Nucypher
Findora Blockchain Course - Lecture 5: Privacy Tools by Benedikt Buenz
Project Updates
Description of the Great Reddit Scaling Bakeoff and list of participating projects (including many using ZKPs)
Events/Hackathons
Upcoming Courses:
CS294: Foundations of Probabilistic Proofs (F2020) - by Alessandro Chiessa. Signup here
Open Jobs
Zero Knowledge Podcast is looking for a student or freelancer to help with admin, research, & episode production. Ideally Europe based. 5 Hours / week. Please email hello@zeroknowledge.fm if you are interested!
Aleo looking for 1-2 technical writers interested in cryptography to work with them over the coming weeks to help prepare content and materials that will be shared with developers around the world. Email work@aleo.org
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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There you have it! Hope you liked this edition of zkMesh. Be sure to subscribe to get the next edition in your inbox.
Also if you have something you think should be included in the next edition, or something you think we should do different with the format - Tweet at us!