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This week, Anna is joined by Nico and Kobi to speak with Mathias Hall-Andersen and Giorgio Dell'Immagine from zkSecurity about zkGolf, a competition challenging humans and AI agents to build the most efficient, formally verified ZK circuits. They look back at ZK Hack puzzles and CTFs, exploring how AI is changing the nature of technical competitions. They then dive into Clean, zkSecurity's framework for writing and formally verifying circuits in Lean, and how an experiment using AI to optimize a SHA-256 circuit inspired zkGolf. They discuss how the zkGolf competition works, the breakthroughs and exploits participants have uncovered, how it compares to other AI-driven optimisation challenges, and what AI-assisted circuit development could mean for the future of ZK engineering and security audits.   Related Links   zkGolf Website Clean GitHub Repo Clean WebsiteLean Programming WebsiteZK HackYukon Website ZK Podcast: Auto Research on Yukon with Soubhik DebZK Podcast: Alex Ozdemir on where Theorem Provers and ZK meet ECDSA.fail  SNARK.fast Flock ChallengeThe Proximity Prize     Sovright builds the critical infrastructure that preserves your right to choose. Discover more at sovright.com.     **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree * Subscribe to our podcast newsletter * Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm * Join us on Telegram * Catch us on YouTube   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address Read transcript

This week, Anna and Guillermo chat with Josh Yang, CEO and co-founder of Brightlight Photonics, about the lasers that power quantum computers. Josh explains how lasers are used in neutral atom and other atom-based quantum systems to cool and move atoms, manipulate qubit states and read out results. They explore why these systems require so many different lasers and how today’s bulky, expensive optical setups can become a bottleneck as quantum computers scale. They also cover Brightlight’s work miniaturising the Ti:sapphire laser, a longstanding workhorse of quantum optics. Josh explains how integrated waveguides and semiconductor manufacturing techniques make this possible, the challenges of packaging and powering these tiny lasers, and how a more compact, versatile laser platform could better support quantum computing. This one is a departure from the usual topics covered on the show, but we hope you find it as fascinating as we did.   Related Links Brightlight PhotonicsJosh Yang Google Scholar ProfileEpisode 357: Quantum Engineering with Jelena VučkovićStanford Report: Chip-scale titanium-sapphire laser puts powerful technology in reach Titanium:Sapphire-on-insulator for broadband tunable lasers and high-power amplifiers on chipTitanium:sapphire-on-insulator integrated lasers and amplifiersMulti-dimensional data transmission using inverse-designed silicon photonics and microcombsBrightlight Photonics Images shared by Josh YangEpisode 400: Quantum Advances, Hybrid Signatures and SNARKs to the Rescue with Dan BonehEpisode 402: The Quantum Question Panel – Live from zkSummit14     **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree * Subscribe to our podcast newsletter * Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm * Join us on Telegram * Catch us on YouTube   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address Read transcript

This week, Anna, Tarun and Nico are joined by JP Aumasson, co-designer of BLAKE3, author of Serious Cryptography and cryptography engineer at Cloudflare. They revisit the quantum threat to cryptography, looking at recent advances in quantum attacks on RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography, and discuss why JP remains cautious about predictions of an imminent “Q-day.” They then explore how AI is changing cryptanalysis, from recent RSA factoring records to the growing divide between symmetric and asymmetric cryptography. The conversation then turns to Poseidon and recent attacks that have challenged confidence in ZK-friendly hash functions, as well as China’s new NGCC competition, where AI is already being used to find weaknesses in candidate designs. JP shares his experiments using AI for cryptanalysis, why it could accelerate both the building and breaking of cryptographic systems, and a introduces a project exploring AI-driven attacks on hash functions.   Related Links   Too Much Crypto by Jean-Philippe AumassonSecuring Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities: Resource Estimates and Mitigations Flock: Fast Proving for Batch Boolean ComputationsFlock ChallengePOSEIDON: A New Hash Function for Zero-Knowledge Proof Systems (Updated Version) Ngcc.devChinese NGCC Algorithms: The First Week of AI CryptanalysisJP Aumasson PapersYukon.orgZK Podcast Episode: The Quantum Question Panel – Live from zkSummit14!ZK Podcast Episode: Quantum Advances, Hybrid Signatures and SNARKs to the Rescue with Dan Boneh     Sovright builds the critical infrastructure that preserves your right to choose. Discover more at sovright.com.     **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree * Subscribe to our podcast newsletter * Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm * Join us on Telegram * Catch us on YouTube   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address Read transcript

This week, Anna is joined by Soubhik Deb, Head of Research at EigenLabs, to explore Yukon, a platform for collaborative AI-powered research. Soubhik traces the project’s origins to ECDSA.fail, a competition launched in response to Google’s work on more resource-efficient quantum circuits for breaking secp256k1. They discuss how researchers and their AI agents build on one another’s submissions, turning traditional research into a multiplayer process that can iterate at machine speed. The conversation then explores Yukon’s expansion into ZK proving, inference optimisation, coding theory and mathematics through challenges like SNARK.fast, better.codes, mlx.fast and lighter.fast. Soubhik explains the importance of well-defined problems and verifiers for AI-driven research, and shares Yukon’s vision for an “AI-native scientific institution” where humans and agents collaborate to accelerate discovery.   Related Links Yukon.orgECDSA.fail Flock ChallengeThe Proximity Prize (better.codes)Mlx.fastDarkbloomLighter Prover ChallengeECDSA.Fail: Open Autoresearch for Optimizing Elliptic-Curve Point Addition in Shor’s AlgorithmOptimized Point Addition Circuits for Elliptic Curve Discrete LogarithmsSecuring Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities: Resource Estimates and Mitigations ZK Podcast Episode: The Quantum Question Panel – Live from zkSummit14!ZK Podcast Episode: Quantum Advances, Hybrid Signatures and SNARKs to the Rescue with Dan Boneh     Sovright builds the critical infrastructure that preserves your right to choose. Discover more at sovright.com.     **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree * Subscribe to our podcast newsletter * Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm * Join us on Telegram * Catch us on YouTube   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address   Read transcript

This week, Anna and Kobi are joined by Ron Rothblum, Professor of Computer Science at Technion and researcher at Succinct. They catch up on Ron’s move from theory into practice, including his work on the SP1 zkVM, Jagged Polynomial Commitments, and a recent Fiat-Shamir attack that exposed vulnerabilities in practical uses of GKR. Ron explains what the attack revealed about Fiat-Shamir’s security assumptions and why it prompted changes to deployed systems.   The conversation then explores Ron’s recent work on faster and more efficient proof systems, from Blaze, TensorSwitch, BOLT and Veil to Flock, a proof system for batch proving Boolean computations. They discuss how new approaches to polynomial commitments and error-correcting codes can improve prover performance, before turning to snark.fast and zkGolf, experiments using AI agents to optimise provers and circuits. Ron shares what these efforts reveal about AI-assisted research and engineering, and how pushing proving closer to the speed of ordinary computation could unlock entirely new applications for verifiable computation.   Related Links Jagged Polynomial Commitments (or: How to Stack Multilinears)The Random Oracle Methodology, RevisitedBlaze: Fast SNARKs from Interleaved RAA Codes TensorSwitch: Nearly Optimal Polynomial Commitments from Tensor Codes Flock: Fast Proving for Batch Boolean Computations VEIL: Lightweight Zero-Knowledge for Hash-Based Multilinear Proof SystemsBolt: Faster SNARKs from Sketched CodeszkGolf WebsiteProving as Fast as Computing: Succinct Arguments with Constant Prover Overhead SNARK.fast WebsiteZK Podcast Episode: Error Correcting Codes & Information Theory with Ron RothblumFiat-Shamir via List-Recoverable Codes (or: Parallel Repetition of GMW is not Zero-Knowledge) Delegating Computation: Interactive Proofs for MugglesHow to Prove False Statements: Practical Attacks on Fiat-Shamir         **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree * Subscribe to our podcast newsletter * Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm * Join us on Telegram * Catch us on YouTube   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address Read transcript

This week, Anna catches up with Richard Liang from Peer, formerly ZKP2P. They trace the project’s evolution over the past two years, from their initial ZKP2P product that used ZK email proofs to connect Venmo payments with on-chain USDC, to their use of ZK TLS, and most recently, their move to using TEEs (trusted execution environments) and the rebrand to Peer. Richard breaks down what motivated each shift and how the team has navigated the trade-offs around privacy, speed, and UX. The conversation then explores Peer’s current approach to connecting traditional payment platforms and stablecoins, including why “ephemeral privacy” makes TEEs a compelling fit for their use case and what the move away from ZK has unlocked. Richard and Anna also reflect on the broader evolution of ZK from an experimental technology into infrastructure that increasingly underpins real world applications. Finally, they discuss Peer’s expansion into payments, its ambitions to support more currencies and fintech platforms around the world, and how AI is changing both the team’s development process and the possibilities for agentic payments.   Related Links Peer X Profile Peer Pay X ProfilePeer WebsiteAnnouncement of ZKP2P becoming PeerPeer Docs RepoZK Podcast: ZKP2P with Brian and RichardZK Hack Lisbon 2023ZK EmailZK Podcast: Is ZK dead? Or has it just begun? With the ZK Pod co-hosts     **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree * Subscribe to our podcast newsletter * Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm * Join us on Telegram * Catch us on YouTube   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address Read transcript

This week, Anna and Guillermo are joined by Patrick O'Grady, founder of Commonware. They discuss his journey from Coinbase and Avalanche to building Commonware, a Rust library of composable primitives for blockchain development. They explore Commonware's "anti-framework" philosophy, why it gives developers control over every layer of the stack, and how its modular approach differs from traditional blockchain SDKs.   The conversation then turns to consensus research, examining how changing assumptions around Byzantine fault tolerance have unlocked faster consensus designs. Patrick explains the motivation behind Commonware's new protocols, Minimmit and Multimmit, discusses the influence of Simplex and Solana's Alpenglow, and shares how Commonware combines engineering, research, and cryptography to build the next generation of blockchain infrastructure.   Related Links CommonwareMinimmit: Fast Finality with Even Faster BlocksCommonware blog post announcing MinimmitSimplex Consensus: A Simple and Fast Consensus Protocol Commonware docs - Simplex ConsensusPatrick O’Grady’s X Post on Multimmit (July 2026)Multimmit: Extending Blocks for Faster Finality (draft)Alpenglow GitHub Progress UpdatesGolden: Lightweight Non-Interactive Distributed Key Generation     **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree * Subscribe to our podcast newsletter * Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm * Join us on Telegram * Catch us on YouTube   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address Read transcript

In this episode, Anna and Kobi are joined by Alex Hoover, cryptographer and Assistant Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology. They explore Private Information Retrieval (PIR)—a cryptographic primitive that lets users query public databases without revealing what they're looking for.   They trace PIR's evolution from its early theoretical foundations to modern, practical constructions, unpack key variants like batch and keyword PIR, and discuss emerging blockchain applications, from private state queries to Merkle proof generation. They also examine the latest research making PIR increasingly practical, and why it could become a core building block for privacy-preserving systems.   A quick note: Alex mentioned during the interview that preprocessing in SimplePIR is independent of the database. But it is in fact independent of the queried index, and does depend on the database. He asked us to highlight this correction   Related Links One Server for the Price of Two: Simple and Fast Single-Server Private Information RetrievalDon’t be Dense: Efficient Keyword PIR for Sparse DatabasesThe two papers that introduced client-side preprocessing:PPY18CK20 Piano: Extremely Simple, Single-Server PIR with Sublinear Server Computation  Simple and Practical Amortized Sublinear Private Information Retrieval using Dummy Subsets  Plinko: Single-Server PIR with Efficient Updates via Invertible PRFs (builds on Piano and RMS)  Doubly Efficient Private Information Retrieval and Fully Homomorphic RAM Computation from Ring LWE (LMW23)  Lower Bounds for PIR with Preprocessing from Blackbox Cryptography     **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree * Subscribe to our podcast newsletter * Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm * Join us on Telegram * Catch us on YouTube   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address   Read transcript

This week, Anna and Nico are joined by Alex Ozdemir, Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech, to explore the intersection of formal verification and zero knowledge. They begin by revisiting the evolution of the ZK DSL landscape since Alex's last appearance, discussing the rise of ZKVMs, new language tooling, and how his compiler infrastructure project, CirC, has evolved. The conversation then dives into formal verification and theorem proving, covering SMT solvers, Lean, and zkPi, the first zkSNARK for proofs expressed in Lean. They also discuss compiler correctness, the challenges of verifying cryptographic systems, and why verifiable software will become increasingly important as the industry matures.   Related Links zkPi: Proving Lean Theorems in Zero-Knowledge CirC: Compiler infrastructure for proof systems, software verification, and more Kevin Lacker on AI-Assisted Theorem Proving and Acorn Building ZK-Powered AI Guardrails with Wyatt Bennolean Ethereum Part 6: Formal Verification with Alex Hicks Groth16, IVC and Formal Verification with Nexuslean Ethereum   ZK Podcast and Alex Ozdemir ZK languages with Alex OzdemirzkSessions: Alex Ozdemir - The Taxonomy of Circuit LanguageszkStudyClub: Collaborative zkSNARKs (Alex Ozdemir, Stanford University)zkStudyClub: Unifying Compiler Infrastructure for SNARKs, SMTs, & More w/ Alex Ozdemir (Stanford)ZK HACK - Introduction to Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) - Alex Ozdemir     **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree * Subscribe to our podcast newsletter * Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm * Join us on Telegram * Catch us on YouTube   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript

This week, Anna speaks with Sergey Gorbunov, Engineer at Circle, about Arc, Circle’s new EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain, and its approach to a TEE based on-chain privacy. They begin by revisiting Sergey’s journey from Axelar to Circle, reflecting on the evolution of cross-chain infrastructure, the aftermath of the Terra collapse, and how Circle’s acquisition of Interop Labs led to the development of Arc. The conversation then turns to Arc’s architecture, including its privacy layer, known as the Privacy Sector, and the decision to build it around Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) rather than ZKPs or FHE. Sergey explains the design trade-offs, discussing privacy, composability, enterprise infrastructure, and why he believes TEEs are currently the most practical foundation for programmable private execution. Related Links Axelar NetworkArc Privacy Sector: Keeping Blockchain State, Transactions, and Accounts Private and Quantum SafeCircle’s Post-Quantum Security RoadmapArc Documentation Arc: An open Layer-1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoin financeSergey’s X Post on the Arc Privacy Sector paper Ian Mier’s X Response to the Arc Privacy Sector works     **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree * Subscribe to our podcast newsletter * Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm * Join us on Telegram * Catch us on YouTube   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript

Last week on the show, we interviewed Benedikt Bünz, Chief Scientist at Espresso Systems and Professor at NYU. The conversation ran long, so we're releasing some of the extra material as an exclusive clip for zkMesh+ subscribers. We've also included the first five minutes here. In this segment, Anna, Kobi, and Benedikt discuss whether AI poses a genuine threat to the foundations of cryptography. They explore the 'immune system' metaphor for AI's dual role in security: it can uncover bugs and vulnerabilities, while also strengthening defenses through tools like formal verification. The conversation closes with the question of whether AI could ever break fundamental cryptographic primitives—or even invent new physics to do it. To hear the full discussion, head to https://zkmesh.substack.com/subscribe and become a paid subscriber.

In this episode, Anna and Kobi speak with Benedikt Bünz, Chief Scientist at Espresso Systems and Professor at NYU. They start with a quick update on Espresso's architecture, its role in delivering fast finality across chains, and the challenges of building high-throughput blockchain infrastructure. The conversation then turns to Benedikt’s recent research on folding schemes, hash-based proof systems such as Arc and Warp, and Golden, a non-interactive distributed key generation protocol for threshold signatures. The episode later explores Flock, a new proof system for standard hash functions such as Blake3 and SHA-256 that exceeds Ethereum's post-quantum proving targets without relying on specialized hash functions. They conclude by discussing proof system performance, post-quantum cryptography, and the use of AI-assisted development in cryptographic engineering.   Related Links Bulletproofs — Short Proofs for Confidential Transactions and MoreProtostar — Generic Efficient Accumulation/Folding for Special-Sound ProtocolsHyperPlonk — Plonk with Linear-Time Prover and High-Degree Custom GatesNova — Recursive Zero-Knowledge Arguments from Folding SchemesArc — Accumulation for Reed–Solomon CodesLinear-Time Accumulation SchemesGolden: Lightweight Non-Interactive Distributed Key GenerationFlock: Fast Proving for Batch Boolean ComputationsTensorSwitch — Nearly Optimal Polynomial Commitments from Tensor CodesBolt: Faster SNARKs from Sketched CodesLigero — Lightweight Sublinear Arguments Without Trusted Setup Systems and Infrastructure Espresso Systems DocumentationCAPE (Configurable Asset Privacy for Ethereum)Monero Additional Reading Vitalik Buterin — The Splurge: Post-Quantum EthereumAccumulation without HomomorphismNeo and SuperNeo: Post-Quantum Folding with Pay-Per-Bit CommitmentsEspresso’s HotShot: A Consensus Protocol Designed for Rollups     **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree * Subscribe to our podcast newsletter * Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm * Join us on Telegram * Catch us on YouTube   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript

No main episode this week, but we’ve got an exclusive bonus clip for our zkMesh+ subscribers! Continuing our conversation from last week, Wyatt Benno (ICME) describes the world of 'vericoding' - the next stage after the era of 'vibecoding.' Vericoding uses formal mathematics to prove that AI code is actually correct and help prevent bugs in AI-written code. We go deep on SMT (Satisfiability Modulo Theories), a decades-old verification technique originally built for cloud infrastructure, and discuss how SMT can now take a plain-English description and mathematically verify that your AI-generated code does exactly what you want it to do. If you want to hear this bonus clip, please head over to zkMesh and become a paid subscriber! Link to subscribe: https://zkmesh.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Anna and Nico chat with Wyatt Benno, technical founder of ICME Labs. They trace Wyatt’s start into ZK in the ZKHack Discord and Justin Thaler’s study group before diving into ICME’s early work on folding schemes, local proving, and NovaNet. The conversation then shifts to ICME’s work at the intersection of AI and ZK. Wyatt introduces ICMEPreflight, a ZK-based guardrail tool for AI. They then explore how succinct verification and privacy-preserving proofs can help secure agentic commerce and provide stronger guarantees than existing guardrail approaches. They also discuss Jolt Atlas, ICME’s zero-knowledge machine learning framework, the connections between ZK and AI and the challenges of scaling ZKML. Finally, Wyatt encourages future advances in ZKML that could unlock privacy and verifiability in AI systems.   Related Links ICME LabsNova: Recursive Zero-Knowledge Arguments from Folding Schemes (2022)Jolt Atlas: Verifiable Inference via Lookup Arguments in Zero Knowledge (2026)ZK Podcast:Is ZK dead? Or has it just begun? with the ZK Pod co-hosts ZK Podcast:Isogenies with Luca De FeoZK Podcast:How ZK inspired AI Watermarking with Miranda ChristNeo: Lattice-based folding scheme for CCS over small fields and pay-per-bit commitments (2025)Awesome Folding Schemes Repo by Lurk LabsProofs, Arguments, and Zero-Knowledge by Justin Thaler     Smart contracts have lost users billions of dollars to bugs. Zero-knowledge protocols are next. zkSecurity audits the full stack and publishes open research on ZK vulnerabilities.  Head to zksecurity.xyz to learn more.     **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree * Subscribe to our podcast newsletter * Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm * Join us on Telegram * Catch us on YouTube   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript

This episode was recorded live at zkSummit14 in Rome. In it, Anna and Nico Mohnblatt hosted the live ‘Quantum Question’ panel which began as an interview, but became something harder to categorize: part seminar, part group therapy, part improv theater, and — depending on the timeline you expect for viable quantum computers — part emergency briefing. The logistics of the panel were really unusual. The guests were meant to be Justin Drake and Dan Boneh, but Dan’s flight was delayed. And so the panel began with just Justin Drake and the hosts — what someone in the room jokingly described as the highest moderator-to-panelist ratio in zkSummit history. To compensate, the format broke open: researchers from the audience, including Daira-Emma Hopwood from the Zcash team and Jens Groth (author of Groth16), joined the conversation. A park bench materialized in real time. The conversation veered into the history of quantum computing research, why Shor’s algorithm threatens today’s public-key cryptography and pairing-based SNARKs, fault-tolerant ‘logical qubits’, physical qubit fidelities, and why neutral-atom machines—despite slower cycle times—may be the most practical path to ‘Q-Day.’ The group also debates the rush-to-post-quantum pitfalls, the benefits of lattice-based post-quantum schemes versus hash-based ones, and how hybrid transitions are unfolding in practice. This was a truly chaotic, spontaneous, informative and fun session at zk14 with some great contributors from attendees and community members, we hope you enjoy it!   Related Links ZK14 - The Quantum Question Panel VideoEpisode 391 -lean Ethereum Part 1: Introduction with Justin DrakeEpisode 400 - Quantum Advances, Hybrid Signatures and SNARKs to the Rescue with Dan BonehQuantum Algorithm ZooPOSEIDON: A New Hash Function for Zero-Knowledge Proof SystemsPoseidon2: A Faster Version of the Poseidon Hash FunctionSecuring Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities: Resource Estimates and Mitigations Oratomic (Neutral Atoms Startup)Neo and SuperNeo: Post-quantum folding with pay-per-bit costs over small fieldslean Ethereum          Check out all the talks from zkSummit14 in Rome on our YouTube channel here.         **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree * Subscribe to our podcast newsletter * Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm * Join us on Telegram * Catch us on YouTube   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address   Read transcript