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Introducing Dynamic zk-SNARKs—a breakthrough from the Lagrange research team Weijie Wang, Charalampos (Babis) Papamanthou, Shravan Srinivasan, and Dimitris Papadopoulos Dynamic zk-SNARKs mark a major step forward in making real-time, updatable cryptographic proofs a reality Here’s what that means and why it matters 🧵

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BITCOIN RAILS #69: ZERO-KNOWLEDGE PROOFS FOR POST-QUANTUM BITCOIN | with Benedikt Bünz 🔗 YOUTUBE: 🌿 SPOTIFY: While many Bitcoiners remain hopeful the network will embrace zero-knowledge proofs for protocol-level use cases, practical adoption has remained limited outside of BitVM and a handful of experimental proposals. Most of the world’s ZKP research has circled around Ethereum and other ecosystems, where significant resources have been dedicated to advancing these systems, particularly for scaling and privacy applications. One of the most notable contributors to this research is Benedikt Bünz ☕️ — professor of cryptography at NYU and collaborator of Dan Boneh, who together inarguably form one of the strongest blockchain-applied cryptography teams in the world. The pair recently announced they’ll be leading the new post-quantum cryptography unit localhost research — the first dedicated PQ research effort within a major Bitcoin development organization. With Benedikt leading the charge on the use of zero-knowledge proofs for post-quantum mitigation, the question emerges: will the post-quantum transition be the catalyst to finally bring zero-knowledge proofs to Bitcoin's core protocol? In more detail, Benedikt and I discuss: - Why ZKPs haven’t been widely adopted by the Bitcoin technical community — and why the threat of quantum computers may change that posture going forward - How ZKPs could be used for signature batching to address larger post-quantum signatures in Bitcoin’s post-quantum era - Why Bitcoiners will likely prioritize hash-based signatures as an initial post-quantum scheme — rather than more efficient but less proven alternatives (e.g., lattice-based) - How ZKPs have evolved over the last decade and may finally be ready for Bitcoin’s strict requirements around trust assumptions - Why Benedikt and Dan are teaming up with localhost research to create the first post-quantum cryptography unit within a major Bitcoin development organization + what they hope to accomplish This episode of Bitcoin Rails is brought to you by: LayerTwo Labs LayerTwo Labs — developing research, software, and technologies for scaling Bitcoin via the integration of Drivechains (BIP 300/301) Hashi on Sui — a primitive for executing Bitcoin DeFi transactions, without having to trust a federated bridge or other centralized entity BitBox BitBox — an open-source Bitcoin-only hardware wallet, with smooth UX and no compromises on security. Check out Bitbox [dot] swiss and use code BITCOINRAILS to get a discount TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Intro 00:22 — Benedikt's background 04:10 — How Benedikt got into Bitcoin and cryptography 07:42 — First ZK project: proving exchange solvency after Mt. Gox 16:01 — ZK proofs explained 27:43 — How security gets popular & ZK proofs in Bitcoin 35:49 — Other applications of ZK proofs for Bitcoin 40:15 — Why ZK proofs haven't been adopted in Bitcoin 50:46 — Why the Bitcoin post-quantum transition needs ZK proofs 01:07:00 — Cryptographic agility and why lattices win 01:18:00 — The size problem and how SNARKs solve it 01:33:57 — Proving a Bitcoin block in a laptop in 1.5 seconds 01:37:12 — Bitcoin as the primary quantum target 01:40:47 — ZK proofs for seed phrase recovery

Isabel Foxen Duke⚡️

19,872 views • 1 month ago

First Principles Ep. 6 with Shafi Goldwasser What if you could prove something is true without revealing why it’s true? Turing Award winner Shafi Goldwasser tells the origin story of zero-knowledge proofs: how a playful question about playing poker securely over the telephone led her, Silvio Micali, and Charles Rackoff to rethink what a mathematical proof could be. Goldwasser traces those ideas through interactive proofs, the sum-check protocol, SNARKs, and the systems now used to verify computation and preserve privacy on blockchains. She also reflects on why breakthrough ideas are often rejected at first, how toy problems can produce foundational theories, and whether AI systems should have to prove their answers. Hosted by Tim Roughgarden with Justin Thaler 00:00 Intro 03:36 How mental poker inspired zero-knowledge proofs: Proving that something is true without revealing the underlying information 06:30 The simulation paradigm and the meaning of “zero knowledge” 08:33 Why the original paper was repeatedly rejected 10:33 How interactive proofs became more powerful than conventional proofs 13:36 The road to modern SNARKs 19:02 Why the sum-check protocol is so useful for verifiable computation 25:31 Why many so-called “zk proofs” are not actually zero knowledge 34:06 Why toy examples, playfulness, and narratives can produce deep theory 37:23 The role of rigor and computational assumptions in cryptography 42:44 Applying zero-knowledge proofs to law, evidence, and secret software 45:23 Training AI systems to provide proofs alongside their answers 54:27 Why genuinely new ideas are often difficult for experts to recognize

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189,185 views • 17 days ago

BITCOIN RAILS EPISODE #24: The History of Zero-Knowledge Proofs | with ZK “Godfather” Eli Ben Sasson In 2013, computer science professor Eli Ben-Sasson | Starknet.io presented his research on zero-knowledge proofs at a small Bitcoin conference outside of Standford University. The presentation immediately sparked interest from Bitcoin Core developer Greg Maxwell—leading Eli into over a decade of sustained work advancing ZK-based solutions for blockchain scalability and privacy. Today, zero-knowledge proofs are widely considered some of the most powerful and promising cryptographic primitives for scaling—with their full potential for Bitcoin simmering just beneath the surface of active development. This episode shares Eli’s early discussions of ZKPs for scaling, the use of proofs in privacy-enhancing technologies like Zcash, the explosion of ZKPs for Layer 2s on Ethereum… and his recent return to exploring ZKPs for Bitcoin. As always, you can view this episode on YouTube or Spotify via the linktree in my bio—YouTube link in comments as well. This episode is powered by Best In Slot—the leading API for Ordinals and BRC20 data aggregation and indexing. TIMESTAMPS: 00:51 Eli Ben-Sasson: Godfather of ZKPs 02:15 Revealing Proof Research to Bitcoiners 04:15 Meeting Greg Maxwell; Mike Hearn 06:10 ZCash: Bringing ZK Based Privacy for Crypto 07:05 SNARKs and STARKs Explained 08:10 Would Satoshi Approve of Bitcoin STARKs? 11:41 ZCash Privacy Versus Monero 13:45 When did the ZKP era begin on Ethereum? 16:34 What’s different about ZK STARKs? 18:40 Vitalik and STARKs on Ethereum with Starkware 21:10 Academics finally appreciating STARKs 23:18 Healthy competition in the ZK industry 24:20 What is Starknet? 25:50 What is an L2, in Eli’s view? 27:20 Focustree, an app on Starknet 30:00 How Eli arrived at Bitcoin Season 2 34:45 When did ZK look realistic for Bitcoin? 36:55 Eli first heard about OP_CAT 39:30 Why Lightning isn’t good enough 40:30 When did Starkware start focusing on OP_CAT? 44:20 Runes bridge to Starknet! 46:00 Expanding Starknet staking to BTC 48:20 Why is OP_CAT “barely enough” for Bitcoin L2s? 51:00 The real reason people oppose OP_CAT, per Eli 53:00 The risks of *not* changing Bitcoin 55:35 The weakness of Bitcoin’s lack of governance 01:00:15 We will need to softfork for quantum!

Isabel Foxen Duke⚡️

46,022 views • 1 year ago

DROPS E24: Francis - Co-Founder & CEO of zkPass: ZK Privacy Is About to Go Mainstream! We deep-dive into why private data is the next trillion-dollar battlefield and how ZK-TLS flips the internet from "trust me" to "prove it" without revealing anything. We talk about: - How ZK-TLS makes the entire HTTPS internet verifiable - Why private data will eclipse public data in value - Crypto use cases from reputation-based lending to accredited investor checks - Protecting medical records, killing data brokers, and enabling safer AI training - Lessons from eight startup failures and the long-game mindset founders need - The journey that led from bow ties → startups → ZK infrastructure And much more! Timestamps 0:00 Meet Francis of zkPass 1:50 The Fundamentals of Growing a Crypto Startup 3:17 From Congo to New York: Francis’ Journey 4:06 Launching a Bow Tie Business in College 7:07 Adaptability from a Global Childhood 8:35 Eight Failures and What They Taught 13:07 Surviving Burnout and Mental Struggles 15:15 Small Successes That Fueled the Fire 18:04 Crypto Rollercoasters & Sustainable Growth 18:30 From Bow Ties to Blockchain: The Crypto Pivot 21:33 What Is Zero Knowledge (ZK)? 23:12 ZK + TLS: Making the Internet Verifiable 25:20 Explaining zkPass to Your Mom 28:22 Chainlink for Private Data? zkPass vs Public Oracles 30:16 Why APIs Can’t Cover the Web 32:00 Crypto Use Cases for zkPass 33:38 Beyond Collateral: Trustless Reputation Lending 35:13 Medical Privacy & Stablecoin Bank Transfers 38:26 What Makes zkPass Tech Unique 40:29 Yes/No Verifications: Trusting the zk Black Box 43:34 Why Data Privacy Is the Future

MR SHIFT 🦁

48,983 views • 9 months ago

First Principles Ep. 7 with Noam Nisan More than 30 years ago, Gödel Prize winner Noam Nisan helped develop a proof technique he never expected anyone to use in the real world. Today, the sum-check protocol sits at the heart of some of the fastest modern SNARKs. Nisan traces its unlikely journey from early work on interactive proofs and IP = PSPACE to practical systems for verifiable computation. But Nisan’s career also tells a broader story about how research responds to technological change. When the web arrived in the 1990s, he deliberately left a field in which he was already a leading researcher to understand a new problem: How do you get independent actors on the internet to cooperate when they have different incentives? That question helped give rise to algorithmic game theory — and, decades later, brought Nisan back to questions around blockchain fees, token economics, and protocol design. Hosted by Tim Roughgarden with Justin Thaler 0:00 Intro 1:28 Noam Nisan and the origins of verifiable computation 2:58 Why Noam Nisan left complexity theory 7:52 POPcorn, distributed computing, and early blockchain-like ideas 11:10 The birth of algorithmic game theory 16:14 Justin Thaler discovers the sum-check protocol 25:05 From arithmetization to LFKN 27:06 The story behind IP = PSPACE 30:40 Why sum-check matters for modern SNARKs 31:15 What is a SNARK? 38:52 The key idea behind sum-check: turning two into one 44:03 When SNARKs went from theory to practice 46:03 Why blockchains were the breakthrough use case 50:36 Noam Nisan’s move into blockchain economics 56:15 EIP-1559, transaction fees, and efficient blockspace 1:02:07 From theoretical computer science to real-world systems 1:08:49 Boiling down the sum-check protocol: Two become one 1:10:58 Is the sum-check protocol optimal?

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52,413 views • 11 days ago