July 15, 2026

Alex Ozdemir on where Theorem Provers and ZK meet

1 hour 1 minute

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 Benno
lean Ethereum Part 6: Formal Verification with Alex Hicks
Groth16, IVC and Formal Verification with Nexus
lean Ethereum

ZK Podcast and Alex Ozdemir

ZK languages with Alex Ozdemir
zkSessions: Alex Ozdemir - The Taxonomy of Circuit Languages
zkStudyClub: 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

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