Zero Knowledge

In this episode, Anna and Nico chat with Wyatt Benno, technical founder of ICME Labs. They trace Wyatt’s start into ZK in the ZKHack Discord and Justin Thaler’s study group before diving into ICME’s early work on folding schemes, local proving, and NovaNet.

The conversation then shifts to ICME’s work at the intersection of AI and ZK. Wyatt introduces ICMEPreflight, a ZK-based guardrail tool for AI. They then explore how succinct verification and privacy-preserving proofs can help secure agentic commerce and provide stronger guarantees than existing guardrail approaches.

They also discuss Jolt Atlas, ICME’s zero-knowledge machine learning framework, the connections between ZK and AI and the challenges of scaling ZKML. Finally, Wyatt encourages future advances in ZKML that could unlock privacy and verifiability in AI systems.



Related Links
ICME Labs
Nova: Recursive Zero-Knowledge Arguments from Folding Schemes (2022)
Jolt Atlas: Verifiable Inference via Lookup Arguments in Zero Knowledge (2026)
ZK Podcast:Is ZK dead? Or has it just begun? with the ZK Pod co-hosts 
ZK Podcast:Isogenies with Luca De Feo
ZK Podcast:How ZK inspired AI Watermarking with Miranda Christ
Neo: Lattice-based folding scheme for CCS over small fields and pay-per-bit commitments (2025)
Awesome Folding Schemes Repo by Lurk Labs
Proofs, Arguments, and Zero-Knowledge by Justin Thaler








Smart contracts have lost users billions of dollars to bugs. Zero-knowledge protocols are next. zkSecurity audits the full stack and publishes open research on ZK vulnerabilities. 

Head to zksecurity.xyz to learn more.







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This episode was recorded live at zkSummit14 in Rome. In it, Anna and Nico Mohnblatt hosted the live ‘Quantum Question’ panel which began as an interview, but became something harder to categorize: part seminar, part group therapy, part improv theater, and — depending on the timeline you expect for viable quantum computers — part emergency briefing.

The logistics of the panel were really unusual. The guests were meant to be Justin Drake and Dan Boneh, but Dan’s flight was delayed. And so the panel began with just Justin Drake and the hosts — what someone in the room jokingly described as the highest moderator-to-panelist ratio in zkSummit history. To compensate, the format broke open: researchers from the audience, including Daira-Emma Hopwood from the Zcash team and Jens Groth (author of Groth16), joined the conversation. A park bench materialized in real time.

The conversation veered into the history of quantum computing research, why Shor’s algorithm threatens today’s public-key cryptography and pairing-based SNARKs, fault-tolerant ‘logical qubits’, physical qubit fidelities, and why neutral-atom machines—despite slower cycle times—may be the most practical path to ‘Q-Day.’ The group also debates the rush-to-post-quantum pitfalls, the benefits of lattice-based post-quantum schemes versus hash-based ones, and how hybrid transitions are unfolding in practice. This was a truly chaotic, spontaneous, informative and fun session at zk14 with some great contributors from attendees and community members, we hope you enjoy it!



Related Links
ZK14 - The Quantum Question Panel Video
Episode 391 -lean Ethereum Part 1: Introduction with Justin Drake
Episode 400 - Quantum Advances, Hybrid Signatures and SNARKs to the Rescue with Dan Boneh
Quantum Algorithm Zoo
POSEIDON: A New Hash Function for Zero-Knowledge Proof Systems
Poseidon2: A Faster Version of the Poseidon Hash Function
Securing Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities: Resource Estimates and Mitigations 
Oratomic (Neutral Atoms Startup)
Neo and SuperNeo: Post-quantum folding with pay-per-bit costs over small fields
lean Ethereum 












Check out all the talks from zkSummit14 in Rome on our YouTube channel here.











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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 create encrypted execution environments. These enable multiple parties to collectively compute over private data and produce a verifiable output without any single trusted coordinator. They explore use cases like secret ballot voting and sealed bid auctions, the broader potential for collaborative analytics and private AI training, and how this fits into the larger privacy ecosystem.



Related Links
Charting Zodiac & DAOs with Nathan Ginnever and Auryn Macmillan
theinterfold.com
gnosisguild.org
How Aztec Raised $59M With 17,000 Bidders Using Uniswap’s CCA








Check out the talks from zkSummit14 in Rome on our YouTube channel here.







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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 the post-quantum transition, and why algebraic signatures deserve more attention than hash-based ones in the blockchain world.

The conversation covers hybrid signature schemes, the web's quiet transition to post-quantum cryptography, and the intersection of AI and ZK. Dan also highlights witness encryption, explains why encrypted mempools are generating new research questions, and closes with an update on the Ethereum Foundation's Proximity Prize.

Related Links
Episode 100 with Dan Boneh
Episode 256 with Dan Boneh
Episode 345 with Dan Boneh
Episode 390 lean Ethereum Miniseries Kick-off with Anna & Nico
Episode 359 Lattice-based ZK Systems with Vadim Lyubashevsky
Episode 364 AI and ZK Auditing with David Wong
Episode 382 Kevin Lacker on AI-Assisted Theorem Proving and Acorn
Securing Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities: Resource Estimates and Mitigations
Optimal Proximity Gaps for Subspace-Design Codes and (Random) Reed-Solomon Codes
Oratomic (Neutral Atoms Startup)
Proximity Prize
The Trail of Bits Blog:We beat Google’s zero-knowledge proof of quantum cryptanalysis








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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 changing landscape of ZK companies, the explosion of new applications, and the trend of teams using ZK as an implicit primitive rather than a headline feature. The episode closes with a broader reflection on decentralisation, usability, and what the next phase of ZK adoption might look like.


Related Links

Between Two ZK Events with Nico and Guillermo
Building Private AMMs with Guillermo Angeris
2021 < 2022 with Co-hosts & Friends
Statistical modeling with PoS systems with Tarun Chitra
Indistinguishability Obfuscation (iO) with Huijia (Rachel) Lin 
Error Correcting Codes & Information Theory with Ron Rothblum
How ZK inspired AI Watermarking with Miranda Christ
Ethproofs, zkVM Benchmarks & the Unstoppable Rise of ZK with Justin Drake
Decentralized Storage Part 1: Looking back
Decentralized Storage Part 2: Solutions
Verifiable Databases with Shyam & Emanuele from Provably








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**If you like what we do:**

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Read transcript