devcon 7 / the verifiability vision
Duration: 00:27:50
Speaker: Jens Groth
Type: Talk
Expertise: Intermediate
Event: Devcon
Date: Nov 2024
Keynote: The Universal Cryptographic Adapter
The "secret" third affordance of Zero-Knowledge proof after 1) Privacy and 2) Succinctness is Interoperability. ZK enables us to continuously refactor data, aggregate it from different sources, and transforming it without loosing its integrity. Starting with the Zupass project, and now with the broader adoption of the POD and GPC format, 0xPARC has been exploring using ZK for data sovereignty and creating more interoperable data ecosystem. We will cover our learnings and progress in this talk.
Keynote: Programmable Cryptography and Ethereum
Programmable Cryptography is a "second generation" of cryptographic primitives - primitives that allow arbitrary programs to be executed "inside of" or "on top of" cryptographic objects. Programmable cryptography provides three key affordances that complement and amplify the affordances of Ethereum--verifiability, confidentiality, and non-interactivity. We'll discuss how these technologies can reshape the Internet over the next 50 years.
Clookup - Composite Function based Lookup Argument
Presenting Clookup, a novel lookup protocol that enhances efficiency in verifiable computations. By using a composite function approach and multivariate polynomials within the sumcheck protocol, Clookup achieves optimal time complexity \(O(m(m+n))\) when processing \(2^m\) witness elements against a \(2^n\) table. This method eliminates the need to compute coefficient forms of composite functions.
Digital pheromones: MPC for human connection & coordination
Recent MPC research from Cursive and PSE enables a new concept called "digital pheromones": the ability to produce lightweight, privacy-preserving signals that people can use to coordinate safely and efficiently. The primary result we will cover is Trinity, a new 2PC scheme with nearly ideal UX/DevX, built on the trio of PLONK, Garbled Circuits, and KZG Witness Encryption. We will do a live demo with attendees and explore what a future filled with digital pheromones will enable!
Anon-Aadhaar Protocol using Halo2 and Noir
We will introduce the Anon-Aadhaar protocol which is an anonymity layer on top of a social security like Scheme (Aadhaar card) for Indian citizens using Zero-knowledge proofs. This can be used for getting many basic services in India like electricity, banking, etc. We will describe the implementation results of the protocol using Halo2 and Noir. We will also provide a comparative analysis of benchmarks using different backends like Circom, Halo2 and Noir.
Circom buses: a new journey
Circom is one of the most widely used languages in programmable cryptography. In this talk we present an amazing new circom feature, called buses. Like structs in other languages, programmers can define their own buses, as new types, in a general way to create structured collections of signals and freely use them in their code. Buses increase the readability, modularity and security of circuits. Illustrative examples as well as the renewed circomlib, using buses, are presented.
Folding STARKs with the Mova folding scheme
We will present a new folding scheme that is 5 to 10 times more efficient than Nova, and 2.5 to 4 times more efficient than Hypernova. We will then explain how to use the scheme so as to construct a folding scheme for STARK proofs.
Introduction to hash-based proof systems
Over the last decade, ZK has been gaining attention due to its applications in verifiable private computation and the scalability of blockchains. The development of general-purpose zkvms powered with STARK/hash-based proof systems have made writing provable applications simpler, abstracting developers from the details of ZK. In this talk, we will explain the basics of hash-based proof systems, different arithmetization schemes and how to prove computations without needing a trusted setup.
Leveraging High-Performance Computing for Efficient STARK Provers
Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) protocols' applicability hinges on the prover's ability to efficiently generate proofs. This talk explores the computational aspects affecting ZKP performance, specifically focusing on STARK provers. We will analyze performance across high-performance and standard computing architectures and interpret results by examining key workload characteristics. From this understanding, we can project ZKP capabilities in future scenarios.
Security of Fiat-Shamir transformation
Fiat-Shamir transformation underlies virtually every SNARK used in the Ethereum ecosystem as it makes interactive proofs non-interactive. In this talk, we discuss the security issues if the transformation is used incorrectly (e.g., parallel repetition of a ZKP defined over a small field; such protocols became very popular thanks to their efficiency), provide examples, show the security loss that the transformation brings, and the concrete security of ZKP. Finally, we discuss best practices for k