In this episode, Anna chats with Auryn Macmillan , founder of Gnosis Guild . They check in on Zodiac, which started as a DAO toolset and has evolved into a modular access control suite for on-chain entities. They discuss the state of DAOs today—what's worked, what hasn't, and how tools like Zodiac might have mitigated large-scale multisig hacks like the recent Bybit exploit. The conversation then shifts to The Interfold (formerly Enclave), Gnosis Guild's new project combining FHE, ZK, and MPC to...
May 20, 2026•53 min
In this 400th episode, Anna Rose welcomes back Dan Boneh , professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford University, for a wide-ranging conversation on quantum computing, post-quantum cryptography, and the evolving role of ZK. They discuss Google's recent quantum algorithm announcement—what the paper actually showed, why it was proven in zero knowledge, and the cryptographic ideas embedded in the work. Dan shares his perspective on quantum timelines, the risks of rushing t...
May 06, 2026•1 hr 25 min
In this episode, Anna is joined by co-hosts Guillermo Angeris , Nico Mohnblatt , and Tarun Chitra for a reunion on this 399th episode. They reflect on how they each joined the show and how both the podcast and the ZK space have evolved over time, before diving into discussion on whether ZK is ‘dead’ or simply maturing. They explore its shift from niche research to hype-driven narrative to becoming a widely used but increasingly invisible piece of infrastructure. They go on to discuss the changin...
Apr 22, 2026•1 hr 3 min
In this episode, Anna Rose and Nico Mohnblatt speak with Shyam Duraishwami and Emanuele Ragnoli , co-founders of Provably . They trace the origins of Provably, from early work on data ecosystems and blockchain infrastructure to the launch of their verifiable database approach, exploring how advances in cryptography and database theory enabled this shift. The conversation dives into what a verifiable database actually is and how this contrasts with Merkle-based systems and zkVMs, explaining how P...
Apr 08, 2026•56 min
In this episode, Anna Rose and Guillermo Angeris catch up with Dev Ojha , co-founder of Osmosis and longtime ZK researcher. They revisit the story of Osmosis since its 2021 launch as a key Cosmos DEX, its role in early IBC adoption, the DeFi summer surge, the Terra collapse fallout, and the later pivot by the team toward privacy-focused cross-chain tools. The conversation then turns to Dev’s return to privacy tech, focusing on Zcash. They explore ongoing challenges like shielded sync, nullifier ...
Apr 01, 2026•1 hr 12 min
https://youtu.be/9u4fu7TiZCA In this episode, Nico Mohnblatt speaks with Alex Hicks from the Ethereum Foundation about formal verification and its role in the lean Ethereum vision. This is the 6th and final episode of the lean Ethereum mini-series. Nico and Alex explore what it means to produce machine-checked proofs across the ZK stack, from RISC-V and zkVMs to circuits, compilers, and cryptographic primitives, and how these pieces connect in practice. The conversation also covers Alex’s path f...
Mar 25, 2026•58 min
https://youtu.be/Ul2bs8INF0k In this episode Nico Mohnblatt chats with Will Corcoran and Raúl Kripalani from the Ethereum Foundation . This is part 5 in the 6-part leanEthereum miniseries, shifting focus from the cryptographic primitives and LeanVM stack to the real-world integration happening through devnets, specs, and cross-team coordination. They dive into the human coordination layer, how independent teams align on post-quantum signatures, SNARK aggregation, and protocol changes, plus the n...
Mar 18, 2026•39 min
https://youtu.be/YWkyvTrwtQU In this episode of the lean Ethereum miniseries, Nico Mohnblatt speaks with Thomas Coratger and Emile from the Ethereum Foundation about the design and implementation of LeanVM, a minimal zkVM created to support post-quantum signature aggregation on Ethereum’s consensus layer. They explain why the team chose a VM architecture over fixed circuits and how LeanVM takes inspiration from Cairo with just 4 opcodes and 2 precompiles to keep the instruction set extremely sma...
Mar 11, 2026•33 min
https://youtu.be/v8SGKS3T-3A In this episode, Nico Mohnblatt speaks with Giacomo Fenzi from EPFL and Antonio Sanso from the Ethereum Foundation . For this 3rd instalment of the lean Ethereum miniseries, they talk about the theory and security behind post-quantum SNARKs. They dive into the hash-based proof systems underpinning LeanVM, multilinear approaches like sumcheck, and how these fit into Ethereum's post-quantum upgrades. They cover the $1M Proximity Prize and the recent wave of papers on p...
Mar 04, 2026•37 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh8hbz1nqxQ In this episode, Nico Mohnblatt speaks with Benedikt Wagner and Dmitry Khovratovich , cryptography researchers at the Ethereum Foundation , for the second instalment of the lean Ethereum miniseries. They explore leanSig, a hash-based multi-signature scheme designed as a post-quantum replacement for BLS in Ethereum consensus. The conversation walks through how one-time signatures and Merkle trees can be combined to support long-lived validators, and why...
Feb 25, 2026•35 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dad2UonQ9Ag&feature=youtu.be In this episode, Nico Mohnblatt sits down with Justin Drake from the Ethereum Foundation to kick off a miniseries on lean Ethereum, a bold vision to rethink Ethereum’s consensus, data, and execution layers. Justin outlines how post-quantum cryptography, faster finality, and enshrined zkEVMs fit together into a cohesive redesign. At the heart of it is leanVM, an ultra-minimal zkVM built to aggregate hash-based signatures and recursi...
Feb 18, 2026•36 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbskOlf7oA0 In this episode, Anna Rose and Nico Mohnblatt kick-off a new six-part video miniseries exploring lean Ethereum . Lean Ethereum is a proposal initiated by the EF that weaves zero-knowledge cryptography and post-quantum upgrades throughout Ethereum’s stack. They discuss why the topic deserves a deeper series, what listeners can expect from upcoming episodes, and how this new video-first format will differ from the podcast’s usual style. The conversation ...
Feb 18, 2026•9 min
There’s no full-length episode this week, but we wanted to highlighting a new bonus segment available exclusively to zkMesh+ subscribers. In this, we revisit last week’s conversation with Ian Miers , Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland . Ian dives deeper into: The renewed cultural focus on privacy The evolving narrative around Zcash His recent research on reducing nullifier state growth without relying on traditional pruning Join zkMesh+ as a paid subscriber to ...
Feb 11, 2026•2 min
In this episode, Anna Rose and Nico Mohnblatt welcome back Ian Miers , Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland , to continue the conversation from a previous episode and dig deeper into his latest work like zk-Promises, zk-Cookies, and Cryptographic Personas. These ZK tools aim to build social networks that protect user privacy while maintaining integrity, like anonymous moderation and reputation systems without central databases. Ian explains how they differ from t...
Feb 04, 2026•1 hr 2 min
No full length episode this week, but we have released an additional podcast clip with Sean Bowe to our a zkMesh+ paid subscribers. Sean Bowe is a Zcash core developer and lead on Tachyon. In this clip, Sean shares his thoughts on the question of quantum computers and their real impact on blockchains and ZK systems. Join zkMesh+ as a paid subscriber to get access to this and all our extra members-only perks. https://zkmesh.substack.com/subscribe...
Jan 29, 2026•1 min
In this episode, Anna Rose catches up with Sean Bowe , a Zcash core developer now leading work on Tachyon , the upcoming Zcash shielded pool upgrade. They discuss the evolution of Zcash’s technical roadmap over the past five years and how it has influenced the design of Tachyon. Sean then walks through the cryptographic ideas behind Tachyon, including its proving systems, new techniques for pruning nullifiers without disrupting other parts of the protocol, and how the upgrade aims to address Zca...
Jan 21, 2026•1 hr 14 min
We share some updates about the upcoming episodes and the ZK Podcast & ZK Hack ecosystem - specifically zkMesh+ launching this Wednesday. zkMesh+ will bring together work from the Zero Knowledge Podcast, ZK Hack, and ZK Mesh. Subscribers will have access to a set of additional resources, including: the quarterly State of ZK Report monthly addendums on adjacent technologies such as FHE, iO, and MPC early access and discounts for events like zkSummit and ZK Hack hackathons select subscriber-on...
Jan 19, 2026•3 min
In this end-of-year episode, Anna recaps the major ZK themes of 2025 and gives a preview of what’s coming in 2026 — new episodes, a mini-series, zkSummit14, and the rollout of ZK Mesh Plus, a unified space for newsletters, educational content, and events. She highlights this year’s core research threads, from lattices and Ligero to quantum security, ZK-ID systems, emerging applications, and the ongoing push toward better proving benchmarks. Anna wraps with reflections on why privacy tech is beco...
Dec 03, 2025•15 min
In this episode, Anna Rose and Nico Mohnblatt catch up with Pratyush Mishra , Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania . They discuss the various themes in his ZK research and some of the works he has been a part of in the last few years. They explore how Garuda and Pari achieve extremely small SNARK proofs, how Arc facilitates hash-based folding, proximity proofs with FICS and FACS, his work on low-memory SNARKs, and ZK applications outside the b...
Nov 26, 2025•1 hr 2 min
In this episode Anna Rose and Nico Mohnblatt chat with Binyi Chen , researcher at Stanford University . They discuss his work on lattice-based folding schemes, revisit LatticeFold and LatticeFold+, and cover how lattices enable low-cost, post-quantum-secure folding by replacing Pedersen hashes with Ajtai commitments. They discuss the early folding work from 2023 and how it has evolved and explore the advantages of lattices over other approaches in the folding context while also highlighting thei...
Nov 19, 2025•1 hr 6 min
In this episode, Anna Rose and Tarun Chitra chat with Sora Suegami and Enrico Bottazzi from Machina iO . They explain indistinguishability obfuscation (iO) technology and how they are working to bring this powerful cryptographic primitive from theoretical territory into the practical world. They discuss how the pair got into iO and how new assumptions like all-product LWE and evasive LWE will help bridge theory to practice. They explore the benchmarks, the challenges and opportunities of this cu...
Nov 12, 2025•1 hr 3 min
In this episode, Anna Rose chats with Alex Pruden and Conor Deegan from Project 11 . They revisit the topic of quantum computing and explore the threat it poses to cryptographic systems like blockchains. As blockchain technology becomes increasingly integrated into global financial infrastructure — especially through stablecoins and banking rails — the stakes for quantum security continue to rise. Alex and Conor break down which algorithms are most at risk, why simple network upgrades won’t be e...
Nov 05, 2025•1 hr 2 min
In this episode, Anna Rose and Guillermo Angeris talk with Kevin Lacker , creator of Acorn , a theorem prover utilising AI. They explore what theorem provers are, their history, and how they're used today. Kevin shares how Acorn brings in AI to simplify the proving process, letting users naturally write mathematical statements while the system checks the correctness of those statements. It's built to feel more like natural math, unlike tools like Lean that demand every step. They also explore th...
Oct 22, 2025•56 min
In this episode, Anna Rose and Tarun Chitra catch up with Sid Gandhi and Calum Moore from Payy to discuss the Payy private payment system and the newly released Payy credit card. They explore their focus on building a user-friendly privacy focused product, how ZK tooling advancement makes this possible, and a walkthrough into how it works with the Visa remittance system. Sid and Cal explain Payy's design as a ZK Validium rollup on Polygon, using client-side proofs and a Merkle tree to ensure pri...
Oct 15, 2025•1 hr 8 min
In this episode, Anna Rose chats with Théo Madzou and Michael Elliot from ZKPassport and Obsidion about their ZK-based identity solution. Théo shares his start in ZK through ZK Hack hackathons using Noir, while Mike shares his path from Bitcoin and MakerDAO to working on zkID systems. They explain how they teamed up to build ZKPassport, a non-profit public-good ZK identity solution project,and how they plan to bring it into Obsidion, a for-profit, privacy-focused fintech-style application that t...
Oct 08, 2025•53 min
In this episode, Anna Rose and Kobi Gurkan chat with Arnaud Brousseau and Jack Kearney from Turnkey about verifiable key management using trusted execution environments (TEEs). They share how their past work on custody and validators inspired them to build more sophisticated key management tools and some of the qualities TEEs enabled. The discussion covers a range of challenges and techniques: the role of remote attestation and reproducible builds in ensuring trust, strategies to prevent downgra...
Oct 01, 2025•1 hr 4 min
In this episode, Anna Rose and Nico Mohnblatt catch up with Ian Miers from the University of Maryland , starting with his work on seminal ZK blockchain research, Zerocoin and Zerocash and the creation of the first zk-focused blockchain project Zcash. They then explore the history of trusted setups, including the trusted setup bug discovery in Zcash, and subsequent improvements like Powers of Tau. Ian also discussed his work on ZEXE, a system that has inspired the formation of Aleo, and his more ...
Sep 24, 2025•1 hr 18 min
In this episode, Anna Rose chats with David Z and Oleksandr (Sasha) from Privado ID and Billions Network about the evolution of ZK-based identity systems, tracing their roots back to iden3 in 2018, one of the earliest projects to pioneer ZK for on-chain identity. They discuss their origin as the iden3, their creation of the influential Circom DSL, the move into Polygon ID, the spin-out as Privado ID with a focus on B2B privacy tools and verifiable credentials, and the recent launch of Billions N...
Sep 17, 2025•1 hr 5 min
In this episode, Anna Rose and Guillermo Angeris speak with Bobbin Threadbare and Gaylord Warner from Miden to explore their zkVM and edge blockchain architecture. The group also reminisces on how they've each been a part of the ZK Whiteboard Sessions over the years. Bobbin shares Miden's earliest beginnings from Winterfell at Facebook through its development within Polygon to the recent spin-out as an independent project. The team discusses their custom ISA designed for blockchain use cases, an...
Sep 10, 2025•1 hr 18 min
In this episode, Anna Rose and Tarun Chitra chat with Huijia (Rachel) Lin from the University of Washington to explore indistinguishability obfuscation (iO), often described as the 'holy grail of cryptography'. iO is a powerful primitive that, if fully realised, could have profound implications for privacy tech as a whole. Rachel helps break down the concept for listeners who may already be familiar with ZK, FHE and TEEs, clarifying how iO differs but also some of the similarities in the assumpt...
Sep 03, 2025•1 hr 26 min
