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 becoming more urgent in the age of AI and what the community will be exploring next year.

Ecosystem

ZK Systems Story

Lattices

Ligero

Quantum

ZK-ID

More

 

 

**If you like what we do:**

* Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree

* Subscribe to our podcast newsletter

* Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm

* Join us on Telegram

* Catch us on YouTube

 

**Support the show:**

* Patreon

* ETH - Donation address

* BTC - Donation address

* SOL - Donation address

* ZEC - Donation address

Read transcript

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 blockchain space.

Pratyush shares how these ideas intersect with one another, from faster proving to smallest proof sizes to real-world uses. He also touches on his collaborations with other leading cryptographers like Benedikt Bünz and Alessandro Chiesa, and how ZK is finding its place in broader computer science.

 

 

 

Aztec is a privacy-first Layer 2 on Ethereum supporting smart contracts with both private and public state and execution. 

 

Details about Aztec’s technology, research, and community programmes are available at aztec.network.

 

 

ZK Whiteboard Sessions is an educational video series produced by ZK Hack in collaboration with Bain Capital Crypto. It is focused on the building blocks of zero knowledge technology. Find season 3 of the Whiteboard Sessions as well as previous seasons here.

 

Check out the latest jobs in ZK at the ZK Podcast Jobs Board. 

 

 

**If you like what we do:**

* Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree

* Subscribe to our podcast newsletter

* Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm

* Join us on Telegram

* Catch us on YouTube

 

**Support the show:**

* Patreon

* ETH - Donation address

* BTC - Donation address

* SOL - Donation address

* ZEC - Donation address

Read transcript

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 their tradeoffs.

Binyi goes on to introduce Symphony, his new work that eliminates the need to implement Fiat-Shamir in the recursive verification circuit, and describes how that improves efficiency and removes the chances for a KRS-style attack.

 

 

 

 

Aztec is a privacy-first Layer 2 on Ethereum supporting smart contracts with both private and public state and execution. 

 

Details about Aztec’s technology, research, and community programmes are available at aztec.network.

 

 

Check out the latest jobs in ZK at the ZK Podcast Jobs Board. 

 

 

**If you like what we do:**

* Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree

* Subscribe to our podcast newsletter

* Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm

* Join us on Telegram

* Catch us on YouTube

**Support the show:**

* Patreon

* ETH - Donation address

* BTC - Donation address

* SOL - Donation address

* ZEC - Donation address

Read transcript

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 cutting-edge privacy cryptography and cover potential optimizations and real-world uses. While iO is still far from being truly practical, their work shows tangible steps ahead and offers interesting insights into how this could actually work.

 

 

ZK Whiteboard Sessions is an educational video series produced by ZK Hack in collaboration with Bain Capital Crypto. It is focused on the building blocks of zero knowledge technology. Find season 3 of the Whiteboard Sessions as well as previous seasons here.

 

 

Check out the latest jobs in ZK at the ZK Podcast Jobs Board. 

 

 

**If you like what we do:**

* Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree

* Subscribe to our podcast newsletter

* Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm

* Join us on Telegram

* Catch us on YouTube

**Support the show:**

* Patreon

* ETH - Donation address

* BTC - Donation address

* SOL - Donation address

* ZEC - Donation address

Read transcript

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 enough, and what users will need to do to protect their own funds. They also outline potential mitigation strategies, including how Project 11 is approaching the challenge with post-quantum signature schemes, secure vaults, and a global namespace to coordinate user migrations ahead of “Q-Day.”

The conversation also touched on how post-quantum thinking overlaps with zero-knowledge research, as hash- and lattice-based SNARKs offer resilience against future quantum attacks.

 

 

 

 

ZK Whiteboard Sessions is an educational video series produced by ZK Hack in collaboration with Bain Capital Crypto.

It is focused on the building blocks of zero knowledge technology. Find season 3 of the Whiteboard Sessions as well as previous seasons here.

 

 

Check out the latest jobs in ZK at the ZK Podcast Jobs Board. 

 

 

**If you like what we do:**

* Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree

* Subscribe to our podcast newsletter

* Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm

* Join us on Telegram

* Catch us on YouTube

 

**Support the show:**

* Patreon

* ETH - Donation address

* BTC - Donation address

* SOL - Donation address

* ZEC - Donation address

 

Read transcript

There is no episode this week, but we share some updates from the ZK Hack ecosystem.

Sign up here for ZK Mesh and find the latest module of ZK Whiteboard Season 3 here.

 

 

**If you like what we do:**

* Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree

* Subscribe to our podcast newsletter

* Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm

* Join us on Telegram

* Catch us on YouTube

**Support the show:**

* Patreon

* ETH - Donation address

* BTC - Donation address

* SOL - Donation address

* ZEC - Donation address

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 the benefits of including AI in math, and also the challenges that come with it such as hallucinations, and how Acorn could speed up research in areas like zero-knowledge proofs. The dicussion also covers the history of mathematics, community building around Acorn and its open math library, acornlib.

 

 

 

ZK Whiteboard Sessions is an educational video series produced by ZK Hack. It is focused on the building blocks of zero knowledge technology. Find season 3 of the Whiteboard Sessions as well as previous seasons here.

 

 

Check out the latest jobs in ZK at the ZK Podcast Jobs Board. 

 

 

**If you like what we do:**

* Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree

* Subscribe to our podcast newsletter

* Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm

* Join us on Telegram

* Catch us on YouTube

**Support the show:**

* Patreon

* ETH - Donation address

* BTC - Donation address

* SOL - Donation address

* ZEC - Donation address

Read transcript

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 privacy and compliance.

The discussion also delves into the history and past challenges of self-sovereign payments; how self-sovereign money goals were overshadowed by speculation, why many new stablecoin projects feel like a step back to traditional finance, and how privacy-focused payments are making a comeback in 2025. 

 

 

ZK Whiteboard Sessions is an educational video series produced by ZK Hack. It is focused on the building blocks of zero knowledge technology. Find season 3 of the Whiteboard Sessions as well as previous seasons here.

 

 

**If you like what we do:**

* Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree

* Subscribe to our podcast newsletter

* Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm

* Join us on Telegram

* Catch us on YouTube

**Support the show:**

* Patreon

* ETH - Donation address

* BTC - Donation address

* SOL - Donation address

* ZEC - Donation address

Read transcript

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 they’re working on.

They discuss Noir's evolution and their contribution to this accending zkDSL, how subcircuits and subproofs enable mobile proving, how ZKPassport differs from projects like Self and Rarimo, how they integrated ZKPassport in the wild with DevCon and Aztec, and their plans for better UX and user-friendly apps.

 

 

 

 

ZK Whiteboard Sessions is an educational video series produced by ZK Hack. It is focused on the building blocks of zero knowledge technology. Find season 3 of the Whiteboard Sessions as well as previous seasons here.

 

 

**If you like what we do:**

* Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree

* Subscribe to our podcast newsletter

* Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm

* Join us on Telegram

* Catch us on YouTube

 

**Support the show:**

* Patreon

* ETH - Donation address

* BTC - Donation address

* SOL - Donation address

* ZEC - Donation address

Read transcript

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 downgrade attacks, and the use of authorisation and policy layers to reduce misuse of keys while still enabling automation. 

 

 

 

ZK Whiteboard Sessions is an educational video series produced by ZK Hack. It is focused on the building blocks of zero knowledge technology.  Find season 3 of the Whiteboard Sessions as well as previous seasons here.

 

 

**If you like what we do:**

* Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree

* Subscribe to our podcast newsletter

* Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm

* Join us on Telegram

* Catch us on YouTube

 

**Support the show:**

* Patreon

* ETH - Donation address

* BTC - Donation address

* SOL - Donation address

* ZEC - Donation address

 

Read transcript