Zero Knowledge

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 traditional creds but share ideas around proving attributes securely.

The conversation explores real-world applications, such as banning bad actors without de-anonymizing them, setting rules in private group chats, and creating self-sovereign identities that persist over time. Ian also touches on challenges like stolen accounts, trolling, age checks, and how these primitives could shape future online interactions.


Related Links

Ian Miers: Academic profile and publications
zk-creds: Flexible Anonymous Credentials from zkSNARKs and Existing Identity Infrastructure
zk-promises: Anonymous Moderation, Reputation, and Blocking from Anonymous Credentials with Callbacks
zk-Cookies: Continuous Anonymous Authentication for the Web
Cryptographic Personas: Responsible Pseudonyms Without De-Anonymization
Zexe: Enabling Decentralized Private Computation
Zerocoin to zk-creds: Modern ZK History with Ian Miers








zkMesh+ is live! Subscribe for zkMesh+ and catch the latest State of ZK 2025 report.







**If you like what we do:**

* Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree
* Subscribe to our podcast newsletter
* Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm
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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

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 Zcash’s remaining scalability bottlenecks. They also explore plans for Zcash governance, wallet UX, and the long-term outlook for privacy-focused zero-knowledge systems.
Related Links

Tachyon Website
Zcash
Electric Coin Company (ECC)
Halo (ZK Proof System)
Orchard Shielded Pool
Tachyon (Zcash Upgrade)
ZK Podcast: Halo with Sean Bowe and Daira Hopwood from ECC
ZK Podcast: Sean Bowe on SNARKs, Trusted Setups and Elliptic Curve Cryptography
zkSummit4: Sean Bowe on Halo: Recursive Proofs without Trusted Setups
A Note on Notes: Towards Scalable Anonymous Payments via Evolving Nullifiers and Oblivious Synchronization by Bowe and Miers








zkMesh+ launches today! Subscribe for zkMesh+ and catch the latest State of ZK 2025 report.







**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

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-only Zero Knowledge Podcast segments and other experimental content


If that sounds interesting, you can subscribe ahead of launch directly on the ZK Mesh Substack https://zkmesh.substack.com/subscribe

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.
Related Links

Ecosystem
ZK Whiteboard Sessions 
ZK Mesh
Subscribe to ZK Mesh
ZK Podcast substack
State of ZK Report


ZK Systems Story
Back to the Future with Zero Knowledge
Zero Knowledge Systems, Privacy and Security with Jonathan Wilkins
The Founding of Zero Knowledge Systems with Austin Hill


Lattices
Implementing LatticeFold with Matthew and Albert from Nethermind 
Lattices, Folding, & Symphony with Binyi Chen
ZK Whiteboard:Lattice-based SNARKs, w/ Vadim Lyubashevsky
ZK Whiteboard:LatticeFold, w/ Binyi Chen


Ligero
Ligero for Memory-Efficient ZK with Muthu
ZK Whiteboard:The Ligero Proof System, w/ Muthu Venkitasubramaniam


Quantum
Quantum Engineering with Jelena Vučković
Quantum Punks with Alex and Nicola
Countdown to Q-Day with Project 11

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