HyperNova: Toward practical zero-knowledge virtual machines
Zero-knowledge proofs are a powerful cryptographic technique for demonstrating the correctness of computations without revealing any secret inputs. They enable a new class of secure applications with enhanced integrity and privacy guarantees, including verifiable databases, private voting protocols, anonymous credentials, and privacy-preserving cryptocurrencies. Current interest centers on proving the correct execution of an entire virtual machine, which enables a single-proof system for the underlying substrate running all applications.
Abhiram Kothapalli (Protocol Labs) presents HyperNova, a new and highly-performant recursive zero-knowledge proof system. HyperNova achieves a significantly lower recursion overhead for computations represented with high-degree constraints. It represents a step forward in the pursuit of efficient zero-knowledge proof systems for virtual machine execution — a remarkably fertile research program over the past decade. Modern approaches are beginning to employ recursive zero-knowledge proofs (proofs that demonstrate the existence of other proofs) due to their distinct ability to prove stateful computations with dynamic control flow.
About the presenter Abhiram is recently earned his PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on designing zero-knowledge proofs, a powerful technique for proving the correctness of computations without revealing any secret inputs. He has been awarded a doctoral fellowship from Protocol Labs for his work in zero-knowledge proofs.
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