ZKP News - 2024-06

Note: The following content was translated into English by AI.

2024.6.26

[Papers]

• Escudero et al. introduce “Dishonest Majority Multi-Verifier Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Any Constant Fraction of Corrupted Verifiers,” a multi-verifier ZKP protocol that operates over rings and optimizes communication complexity. Note: Multi-verifier ZKPs are uncommon but useful when challengers may be dishonest, such as oracle settings. Paper

• Park et al. propose “zkVoting: Zero-knowledge proof based coercion-resistant and E2E verifiable e-voting system,” combining a revocable commitment scheme with ZKPs to provide coercion resistance and end-to-end verifiability while preserving voter anonymity. Paper

• Kim et al. present “Relaxed Vector Commitment for Shorter Signatures,” using semi-commitments and key-injection techniques to markedly improve the efficiency and practicality of MPCitH-style signatures without compromising security. Paper

• Chaliasos of zkSecurity and collaborators at Matter Labs formally analyze rollup L2s in “Towards a Formal Foundation for Blockchain Rollups,” expressing rollup designs in Alloy. Note: Alloy is a declarative specification language for describing structural constraints and behavior in software systems. Paper | Code

• Benarroch et al. from Inversed Tech publish “SoK: Programmable Privacy in Distributed Systems,” surveying privacy protocols in contemporary distributed and blockchain environments and offering guidance for future programmable privacy designs. Paper

[Open Source]

• FHE is often touted as ZKP’s successor but faces steep performance costs. Here’s an example of fully homomorphic evaluation within circuits: a TFHE construction with 1.5 billion constraints. Note: Rough estimates put the zkey at ~750 GB, implying 1–1.5 TB of RAM for proving machines. Blog | Code

• Tachyon is a GPU-driven modular ZKP proving backend written in C++, with benchmarks showing it outperforming rapidsnark, Scroll’s Halo2 backend, and others. Benchmarks | Code

[Info]

• Antalpha Labs released a June 23 zk summary.

• Eurocrypt 2024 session videos are live; the SNARKs track features Lasso, Jolt, and more. Program | SNARKs session

• It appears Singapore’s Monetary Authority is exploring zero-knowledge and “compliance-by-design” approaches. 𝕏 | Official site

• Solana-based ZK Compression lets developers and users compress on-chain state, greatly lowering costs without sacrificing security, performance, or composability—potentially enabling large-scale apps. Website

[Learning]

• Antalpha Labs published “Ariel Gabizon: The KZG PCS scheme and PlonK SNARK,” a step-by-step walkthrough from KZG to a streamlined Plonk with lookups—ideal if the original specs feel overwhelming. Blog

• zkStudyClub released a video deep dive on “FRI-Binius: Polylogarithmic Proofs for Multilinears over Binary Towers.” Note: FRI underpins STARKs, and Vitalik recently spotlighted Binius as next-gen ZKP infrastructure. Video

2024.6.19

[Papers]

• Devillez et al. propose “Verifiable and Private Vote-by-Mail,” a remote voting system that preserves verifiability and privacy while resisting collusion across multiple components, leveraging ZKPs for verification. Paper

• Liu et al. describe “Scalable Collaborative zk-SNARK and Its Application to Efficient Proof Outsourcing,” decentralizing proof generation via multivariate polynomial techniques to improve efficiency and reduce reliance on centralized servers. Note: This work builds on Libra and HyperPlonk—squarely in the sumcheck family. Paper

• Liu et al. also introduce “SmartZKCP: Towards Practical Data Exchange Marketplace Against Active Attacks,” strengthening data marketplaces against active attacks while boosting performance and fairness. Note: The paper uses Groth16; the key innovation is an encryption/decryption protocol that avoids information leakage. Paper

• Chaya Ganesh et al. present “Dual Polynomial Commitment Schemes and Applications to Commit-and-Prove SNARKs,” enabling flexible transitions between univariate and multivariate witness commitments and delivering better proof sizes and verification costs for commit-and-prove SNARKs. Paper

• Little et al. design “Secure Account Recovery for a Privacy-Preserving Web Service,” an account recovery protocol that reveals no user contact info—tailored for high-privacy platforms supporting, for example, survivors seeking peers. Note: The authors deliberately avoid ZKP, opting for OPRFs (oblivious PRFs). Paper

• Inbasekar et al. from Ingonyama document the ICICLE v2 polynomial API for running ZK provers on specialized hardware in paper style: “ICICLE v2: Polynomial API for Coding ZK Provers to Run on Specialized Hardware.” Paper

[Open Source]

• CertiK released Coq formal verification code for zkWasm. Code

[Info]

• David from zkSecurity published a walkthrough video for the noname proving system. Video

• A Poseidon hash learning site is available, complete with security analyses. Website

• Antalpha Labs published a June 16 zk summary.

• zkSecurity launched a ZK news aggregation site. Website

• PSE began phase two of the Semaphore V4 trusted setup ceremony—participants must meet specific GitHub criteria. Link | 𝕏

• Lambda Class announced a four-day hackathon in Brussels during EthCC 2024 (7/6–7/9). Link

2024.6.12

[Papers]

• 🌟 Helger Lipmaa (University of Tartu, Estonia) proposes a new zk-SNARK, Polymath, in “Polymath: Groth16 Is Not The Limit.” Built atop Groth16, it claims to halve proof size while preserving strong security and optimizing proving and batch verification. The scheme swaps Groth16’s G2 point commitments for polynomial commitments and collapses five trapdoors into one, aligning with KZG. Note: The paper is a preprint and unreviewed; if viable, it could be another milestone in ZKP history. Paper

• Kurik et al. study transcendental function approximations in ZKPs via “Novel approximations of elementary functions in zero-knowledge proofs,” offering algebraic approximation strategies and benchmarking them against optimal polynomial approximations. Note: Transcendental functions include exponentials, logarithms, and trig functions—not expressible via finite algebraic operations. Paper

• Zhang et al. introduce “Loquat: A SNARK-Friendly Post-Quantum Signature based on the Legendre PRF with Applications in Ring and Aggregate Signatures,” a PQ signature scheme with 46 KB signatures (smaller than SPHINCS+) and fewer SNARK constraints. Paper

• Santos et al. extend pairing-friendly elliptic curves to abelian varieties in “On cycles of pairing-friendly abelian varieties,” enabling more efficient pairing-based SNARKs and presenting several constructions. Paper

• Zhang et al. (Fudan University) present “Epistle: Elastic Succinct Arguments for Plonk Constraint System,” an elastic SNARK that balances time and space for different prover configurations. Note: Based on HyperPlonk’s sumcheck approach. Paper

• Scholars from Shandong University, Beihang University, and Inspur propose “zkCross: A Novel Architecture for Cross-Chain Privacy-Preserving Auditing,” designing a dual-layer architecture to tackle three cross-chain auditing challenges and evaluating its practicality. Paper

• Matter Labs, Chaliasos, and collaborators analyze ZK rollups in “Analyzing and Benchmarking ZK-Rollups,” focusing on ZK-EVM deployments, trade-offs, and improvement vectors. Paper

• Angel et al. (2023) developed the Reef system in “Reef: Fast Succinct Non-Interactive Zero-Knowledge Regex Proofs,” supporting broad regex syntax and accelerating proving and verification through a tailored skipping design. Recent materials include a video and slides. Paper | Code

[Open Source]

• The first BitVMX PoC is now open source. Code

• Jens Groth (inventor of Groth16) joined Nexus and released a zkVM that leverages memory consistency techniques aiming for a trillion CPU cycles per second in ZKP. Note: That’s roughly 200× today’s 5 GHz CPUs. Whitepaper | Code | 𝕏

[Info]

• Antalpha Labs released a June 9 zk summary.

• zkHack posted a May 2024 zk recap.

• a16z shared a blog on Lasso and Jolt progress, answering FAQs and noting plans to integrate Binius commitments for further performance gains. Blog

• zkSecurity published a study on the current landscape of ZKP security tools, covering common vulnerabilities and available auditing utilities. Blog

• ZK Hack announced its fourth in-person hackathon, August 9–11 in Montréal. Homepage

[Learning]

• The ZK Hack community and Least Authority launched a “MoonMath Manual” study group, covering ZKP theory and practice for newcomers and veterans alike. Course page

2024.6.5

[Papers]

• Sefranek et al. uncover and patch a vulnerability in PLONK in “How (Not) to Simulate PLONK,” proving the fixed system achieves statistical zero knowledge, while demonstrating attacks on prior versions that fail statistical witness indistinguishability. Paper

• Xie et al. from Polyhedra (zkBridge) design algorithms for data-parallel Boolean circuits on RAM in “Almost optimal succinct arguments for Boolean circuit on RAM,” cutting memory usage and runtime. Note: Boolean circuits underpin classic hash computations like SHA-256, so faster circuits can accelerate traditional hashing workloads. Paper

• Agrawal et al. present “Publicly auditable privacy-preserving electoral rolls,” allowing eligible voters to verify participation while auditors perform statistical audits, safeguarding fairness and privacy. Paper

• Yang et al. define a multivariate multi-polynomial (MMP) commitment in “Multivariate Multi-Polynomial Commitment and its Applications,” offering constant-size commitments, logarithmic proofs, and strengthened zero knowledge, with applications to SNARK aggregation and ZK range proofs for vehicle GPS traces. Paper

• Lee et al. introduce Cougar, a cubic-root verifier inner-product argument under the discrete log assumption, in “Cougar: Cubic Root Verifier Inner Product Argument under Discrete Logarithm Assumption,” combining two square-root IPAs and incorporating a Plonkish system to bolster proofs. Paper

[Open Source]

• Lita Foundation released an alpha C compiler for the Valida zkVM. Benchmarks show SHA-256 proving 5× faster than Jolt and 54× faster than SP1 (another Plonky3-based VM). Blog | Binary releases | Valida repo

[Info]

• Antalpha Labs shared a June 2 zk summary.

• Alpen authored a concise overview of the current SNARK landscape, categorized by cryptographic building blocks. Blog

• Lagrange announced its ZK Prover Network is live on EigenLayer, aggregating operators like Coinbase and OKX to support diverse proof types accessible via smart contracts. 𝕏