For the 6th session of Proof is in the Pudding, we teamed up with Archetype to whiteboard an introduction to Data Availability (Sampling).
In this introduction we talk about rollups, Ethereum's DA system (with blobs), DA chains, verifiable sharding in general, and the foundations of data availability sampling.
Many of us are using AI to generate code. Vibe coding cryptography is especially sensitive - you have to uphold strict mathematical correctness. This can lead to wrong security guarantees and soundness bugs. We will discuss what are some patterns to do it well.
zkVMs are moving to the center of Ethereum's roadmap, which means a bug in a zkVM is turning into a bug in Ethereum itself. We built zkvmBlast, a zkVM-agnostic differential fuzzer that runs the same program across SP1, RISC0, OpenVM, Pico, Zisk, and Airbender against a reference simulator and flags any disagreement. It hunts for both soundness and completeness bugs, with a deliberate focus on completeness, an under-explored class that can turn a single valid block into a liveness failure. We share the first batch of findings.
We are releasing zk-skills, a set of open-source security skills for AI coding agents, starting with circom-auditor: a first line of defense against vulnerabilities in Circom circuits, compatible with both Claude Code and Codex. On the zkbugs benchmark it detects up to 66 of 70 known bugs when pointed at the vulnerable circuits, and up to 40 of 56 when let loose on the full original codebases, far ahead of existing Circom security tools.
In Session 07 of "Proof is in the Pudding," we explore the other dark forest, the realm of offchain public keys. We dive into zkLogin, ZK Email, and ZKPassport, examining how these protocols handle authentication and privacy. We also discuss the issue of unlinkability in privacy protocols and why replacing traditional signature verifications with zero-knowledge proofs could unlock more interesting and powerful ZK products.
In our third whiteboard session with Archetype, we dive into the fascinating world of cryptographic protocols by breaking down the intricacies of the Fiat-Shamir security model and the GKR protocol. Whether you're a cryptography enthusiast or just curious about how these complex mechanisms enhance security, this is a chance to explore the theories with us in a friendly and digestible way. Don't miss the opportunity to expand your understanding of this cutting-edge topic!
In Session 09 of "Proof is in the Pudding," we explore the intersection of zero-knowledge proofs and Bitcoin. We break down Bitcoin's UTXO model and Script limitations, then dive deep into approaches for verifying ZK proofs on Bitcoin, from MPC-based techniques to BitVM's optimistic verification with fraud proofs. We cover timelocks, the statelessness problem and Lamport signatures for state, Taproot, simulated covenants, BitVM 3 with hashlocks and garbled circuits, cut-and-choose security, and witness encryption (BABE).
In this post, we dive deep into the Inner Product Argument (IPA), the mathematical core of Bulletproofs. Starting from simple vector folding, we build up to a full zero-knowledge proof with Pedersen commitments, explore how the mysterious `L` and `R` terms appear, and finish with smart verifier optimizations. All illustrated with clear, runnable SageMath code.
We recently brought Leo and Aleo support to zkao, our AI-powered bug-detection tool, and put it to work on a real engagement with HumanityLink. Getting an LLM to audit a young ecosystem like Aleo turned out to be less about the model and more about what we fed it - custom prompts or skills so it actually recognizes Aleo bug patterns, a harness called cheatVM that turns findings into real end-to-end proofs of concept instead of code that just looks right, and a clear threat model that significantly cut down our false positives.
We recently had the pleasure of auditing Renegade's circuits and smart contracts, and it was a great experience. Over three weeks, our team explored their top-notch code and documentation, with the Renegade team providing awesome support throughout. Curious how it all went? Dive into our full report for the inside scoop!