zkMesh: Sept 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 with support from Flying Nobita!

We include recent 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!   

** ZK Hack Istanbul is happening Nov 10 - 12 (APPLY TO JOIN)** 

Research

• Blockchain Privacy and Regulatory Compliance: Towards a Practical Equilibrium by Vitalik Buterin, Jacob Illum, Matthias Nadler, Fabian Schär and Ameen Soleimani 

• Sigmabus: Binding Sigmas in Circuits for Fast Curve Operations by George Kadianakis, Mary Maller and Andrija Novakovic

• Succinct Proofs and Linear Algebra by Alex Evans and Guillermo Angeris

• ZKROWNN: Zero Knowledge Right of Ownership for Neural Networks by Nojan Sheybani, Zahra Ghodsi, Ritvik Kapila and Farinaz Koushanfar

• Experimenting with Zero-Knowledge Proofs of Training by Sanjam Garg, Aarushi Goel, Somesh Jha, Saeed Mahloujifar, Mohammad Mahmoody, Guru-Vamsi Policharla and Mingyuan Wang

• Recursion over Public-Coin Interactive Proof Systems; Faster Hash Verification by Alexandre Belling, Azam Soleimanian and Olivier Bégassat

• An optimization of the addition gate count in Plonkish circuits by Steve Thakur

• Generic Security of the SAFE API and Its Applications by Dmitry Khovratovich, Mario Marhuenda Beltrán and Bart Mennink

• Naysayer proofs by István András Seres, Noemi Glaeser and Joseph Bonneau

• ZK-for-Z2K: MPC-in-the-Head Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Z2k by Lennart Braun, Cyprien Delpech de Saint Guilhem, Robin Jadoul, Emmanuela Orsini, Nigel P. Smart and Titouan Tanguy

• Zero-Knowledge Systems from MPC-in-the-Head and Oblivious Transfer by Cyprien Delpech de Saint Guilhem, Ehsan Ebrahimi and Barry van Leeuwen

• Cicada: A framework for private non-interactive on-chain auctions and voting by Noemi Glaeser, István András Seres, Michael Zhu and Joseph Bonneau

Articles/Threads

• Bonsai zkcoprocessor on Scroll | Geometry | Kobi Gurkan

• Don’t trust, verify: An introduction to light clients | a16zcrypto | Mariano Sorgente

• Explaining the lifecycle of a rollup transaction | cygaar

• Don't trust, verify or why you should care about benchmarks | Lambda Class Blog

• A thread on Zeth & why it matters | zerokn0wledge

• How Tornado Cash Works (Line by Line for Devs) | Rareskills | Jeffrey Scholz

• Why multi-prover matters. SGX as a possible solution | Taiko Labs | Lisa A.

• From CEX to CCEX with Summa | Privacy & Security Explorations | Enrico Bottazzi

• Why “nothing up my sleeve” curve points can be important | Geometry | Kobi Gurkan

• Making PEPC-DVT private with BLS Blinded Multi-Signatures | ethresear .ch | diego

• Introducing ERC-7521: Generalized Intents for Smart Contract Wallets | Essential Builders | Stephen Monni

• The Fast Fourier Transform over finite fields | Decentralized Thoughts | Ittai Abraham

• Revisiting Paradigm “Hardware Acceleration for Zero Knowledge Proofs” | Ingonyama | Omer Shlomovits

• ZK-EVM types: Ethereum-equivalent, EVM-equivalent, Type 1, Type 4, and other cryptic buzzwords | Taiko Labs | Lisa A. 

Videos/Podcast

• zkSummit10: Zero Knowledge Summit 10 all videos | ZK Podcast

• MEV, Mechanism Design & the Censorship Problem with Mallesh M Pai | ZK Podcast

• Tour de Boojum: Anatomy of a GPU prover, By Robert Remen | Ingonyama

• Zeromorph - A recipe for Univariate - Multivariate PCS transformations by Tohru and Patrick | Privacy & Scaling Explorations

• Folding with ProtoGalaxy - Liam Eagen | Privacy & Scaling Explorations

• Indexed Merkle Trees - Lasse/Aztec Labs | Privacy & Scaling Explorations

Guides and Resources

• Cooley-Tukey FFT | Polytope Labs Research | Seun Lanlege

• Thread on ZK learning resources | Lisa A.

• Once Upon a Finite Field | Wyatt Benno

• ZK Security Reviews | nullity00

• “Learn & Share, Cafe hour” Schedule | Privacy & Scaling Explorations

• Zexe vs. VeriZexe vs. Taiga | Anoma | Alberto Centelles

• List of Public ZK Grant or Training | Kobi Gurkan

• An overview of the Stone Cairo STARK Prover | LambdaClass

• Why EIP-4844 matters for rollups and how it works for ZK-EVM | Taiko Labs | Lisa A.

• Zk-bench | Polybase Labs

• Fully Homomorphic Encryption: A Mathematical Introduction | Sara Logsdon

Vulnerabilities/Disclosures

• GPU.zip: On the Side-Channel Implications of Hardware-Based Graphical Data Compression | Wang et al., 2024

Tools / implementations  

• Simple M31 implementation in CUDA | Ingonyama ZK-GPU Masterclass

• Dappicom - NES Emulation in Noir | tonk-gg

• Mina_bridge - Zero-knowledge state bridge from Mina to Ethereum | LambdaClass and Mina

• An overview of the Stone Cairo STARK Prover | Lambda class

• BLS Signatures with Arbitrum Stylus | Raul Jordan

• Continuation-batcher - customizable halo2 circuits batcher | Delphinus Lab

• MACI in Noir | nullity00

Project Updates

• An Introduction to Intents and Intent-centric Architectures | Anoma 

• Announcing Aztec Sandbox: The Endgame For Smart Contract Privacy | Aztec Labs

• Announcing Fernet: Aztec’s Decentralized Sequencer Selection Protocol | Aztec Labs

• Introducing Aztec.nr: Aztec’s Private Smart Contract Framework | Aztec Labs

• Launching Espresso Systems’ Cortado Testnet to the Public | Expresso Systems

• Mystiko.Network, the first privacy solution for L2, is now live on Base mainnet! | Mystiko Network

• Announcing Anon Aadhaar | Privacy & Scaling Explorations | Anon Aadhaar team

• TLSNotary Updates | Privacy & Scaling Explorations | sinu

• Interchain Privacy is Here | Penumbra

• Webb Protocol: A cross-chain private application and governance protocol | Webb

• fhEVM: Confidential EVM Smart Contracts using Fully Homomorphic Encryption | Zama

• ¡Hola Argentina! Buenos Aires Brings Digital Identity To Millions of Citizens | zkSync

• zkSync and Code4rena Bring the Largest Competitive Audit to Web3 | starts Oct 2 | zkSync 

• zkSync Fellowship | apply by Oct 15 | zkSync 

• Aleo Bootcamp with ZKCamp | starts on Oct 7 | Aleo and ZKCamp

• zkEVM Bootcamp | starts on Nov 20 | zkSync and Encode Club 

Events/Hackathons

• Cosmoverse 2023 | Istanbul, Oct 2 - 4 

• ZK Hack Istanbul | Istanbul, Nov 10 - 12 (APPLY TO JOIN US)

• Devconnect  | Istanbul, Nov 13 - 19 

• ZK Developer Day | Istanbul, Nov 15

• ZK Accelerate | Istanbul, Nov 15

• Progcrypto | Istanbul, Nov 16 - 17

• ETHGlobal Istanbul | Istanbul, Nov 17 - 19

• ZK HACK IV | Online, Nov 24 - Dec 15 (Save the dates!) 

• DevCon | Southeast Asia. Spring 2024

• RWC 2024  | Toronto, Canada March 25 – 27, 2024

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

• Eurocrypt 2024 | Zurich, Switzerland on May 26 - 30, 2024

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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__!