zkMesh: July 2021 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 put together by Mikerah (HashCloak) and Anna (Zero Knowledge Podcast, ZKValidator).
We include 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!
Also, if you are looking for a new job opportunity in the space, find open positions on the ZK Jobs Board.
Research
zkKYC A solution concept for KYC without knowing your customer, leveraging self-sovereign identity and zero-knowledge proofs by Pieter Pawels
On the Use of the Legendre Symbol in Symmetric Cipher Design by Alan Szepieniec
Fast Factoring Integers by SVP Algorithms, corrected by Claus Peter Schnorr
Elliptic Curve Fast Fourier Transform (ECFFT) Part I: Fast Polynomial Algorithms over all Finite Fields by Eli Ben-Sasson, Dan Carmon, Swastik Kopparty, David Levit
The Latus PCD scheme based on Marlin by Ulrich Haböck, Alberto Garoffolo and Daniele Di Benedetto
VDF Proving with SnarkPack - zk-s[nt]arks by Mary Maller
SecretStore: A Secrecy as a Service model to enable the Cloud Storage to store user’s secret data by Ripon Patgiri, Malaya Dutta Borah and Laiphrakpam Dolendro Singh
Assessment of Quantum Threat To Bitcoin and Derived Cryptocurrencies by Stephen Holmes and Liqun Chen
Publicly Auditable MPC-as-a-Service with succinct verification and universal setup by Sanket Kanjalkar, Ye Zhang, Shreyas Gandlur and Andrew Miller
A Lattice-based Provably Secure Multisignature Scheme in Quantum Random Oracle Model by Masayuki Fukumitsu and Shingo Hasegawa
ECLIPSE: Enhanced Compiling method for Pedersen-committed zkSNARK Engines by Diego F. Aranha, Emil Madsen Bennedsen, Matteo Campanelli , Chaya Ganesh, Claudio Orlandi and Akira Takahashi
Subset Privacy: Draw from an Obfuscated Urn by Ganghua Wang and Jie Ding
Articles
The Road to ZK-Finance (aka. ZK-Fi) | Lucca | ZeroKnowledge Podcast Blog
On the Optimization of PLONK | Chris Lin | ZeroKnowledge Podcast Blog
StarDrop - anonymous rewards on StarkNet | Kobi Gurkan | Kobi.one
Privacy-preserving Voting for certified Humans (using Starknet)
EY Takes Crack At Ethereum's Gas Fee Problem With New Protocol | Tim Hakki | Decrypt
Bug Found in Decoy Algorithm for Privacy Coin Monero | Sebastian Sinclair | Coindesk
Bitcoin Privacy Wallet Wasabi Lays Out Roadmap for Version 2.0 | Miles Sherman | Coindesk
EY aims to simplify cross-border withholding tax process with blockchain | Helen Partz | CoinTelegraph
Videos/Podcast
CMU Crypto Seminar: Ran Cohen: Reaching Agreement Without Saying Much: Byzantine Agreement with Polylog Bits Per Party
Information-Theoretic Cryptography Conference: ALL Videos
ZKStudyClub: Sumcheck Arguments and Their Applications w/ Jonathan Bootle
ETHCC Highlight: Jordi Baylina : ZK-EVM
Blockchain Privacy in a TweetShell
Vulnerabilities
Kaspersky Password Manager: All your passwords are belong to us By Jean-Baptiste Bédrune
Soundness bug in `mul_by_inverse` in arkworks - ark-r1cs-std from v0.2.0 to v0.3.0
TPM Fail paper uncovering side-channels vulnerabilities: Timing leakage on Intel firmware-based TPM
Anyswap-MPCNode Bug Report By Anyswap
Guides and Resources
Tools
Project Updates
Demystifying ZEXE | Yulia Khalniyazova | Anoma Blog
Introducing private Bitcoin. TLDR: Aztec has partnered with Ren | Yanay Prop | Aztec
A Dive into Fluidex's Architecture | Fluidex
Hermez Coordinator Is Live On Testnet! | Hermez Network
Celsius and Horizen Announce zkAudit -The First and Only Fully Decentralized and Privacy-Preserving Audit Blockchain | Horizen Blog
Keep Network 2021 Roadmap | Keep Network
Loopring Quarterly Update: 2021/Q2 | Daniel Wang | Loopring Protocol
The Return of Privacy? Interview with Harry Halpin | Nym Blog
Nym global privacy infrastructure is backed by the European Commission | Nym Blog
StarkNet Alpha 1 | StarkWare
Introducing zkChannels on Tezos | J. Ayo Akinyele | Bolt Labs
Events/Hackathons/TrustedSetups
Plumo Trusted Setup Ceremony Phase 2 Signup here Ongoing
CFAIL: The Conference for Failed Approaches and Insightful Losses in Cryptology Online. Aug 14, 2021.
IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy 2021 (EuroS&P) Online. Sept 6-10, 2021
ACM Advances in Financial Technologies Arlington, VA. Sept 26-28 2021
WAHC 2021 – 9th Workshop on Encrypted Computing & Applied Homomorphic Cryptography Seoul. Nov 15, 2021
Tokenomics 2021 Online. Nov 18-19, 2021
18th IMA International Conference on Cryptography and Coding Online. Dec 14-15, 2021
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 differently with the format - Tweet at us!