Pushing the Limits of Proof Systems with Benedikt Bünz

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1. 

   5 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 12 min

   Minimmit, Multimmit and the New Consensus Frontier with Patrick O'Grady

   This week, Anna and Guillermo are joined by Patrick O'Grady , founder of Commonware . They discuss his journey from Coinbase and Avalanche to building Commonware, a Rust library of composable primitives for blockchain development. They explore Commonware's "anti-framework" philosophy, why it gives developers control over every layer of the stack, and how its modular approach differs from traditional blockchain SDKs. The conversation then turns to consensus research, examining how changing assumptions around Byzantine fault tolerance have unlocked faster consensus designs. Patrick explains…

2. 

   29 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 4 min

   Private Information Retrieval (PIR) with Alex Hoover

   In this episode, Anna and Kobi are joined by Alex Hoover , cryptographer and Assistant Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology. They explore Private Information Retrieval (PIR)—a cryptographic primitive that lets users query public databases without revealing what they're looking for. They trace PIR's evolution from its early theoretical foundations to modern, practical constructions, unpack key variants like batch and keyword PIR, and discuss emerging blockchain applications, from private state queries to Merkle proof generation. They also examine the latest research making PIR…

3. 

   15 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 2 min

   Alex Ozdemir on where Theorem Provers and ZK meet

   This week, Anna and Nico are joined by Alex Ozdemir , Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech, to explore the intersection of formal verification and zero knowledge. They begin by revisiting the evolution of the ZK DSL landscape since Alex's last appearance, discussing the rise of ZKVMs, new language tooling, and how his compiler infrastructure project, CirC, has evolved. The conversation then dives into formal verification and theorem proving, covering SMT solvers, Lean, and zkPi, the first zkSNARK for proofs expressed in Lean. They also discuss compiler correctness, the challenges of verifying…

4. 

   8 Jul 2026 · 1 hr 7 min

   Sergey Gorbunov on TEEs and the Arc Privacy Sector

   This week, Anna speaks with Sergey Gorbunov , Engineer at Circle , about Arc , Circle’s new EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain, and its approach to a TEE based on-chain privacy. They begin by revisiting Sergey’s journey from Axelar to Circle, reflecting on the evolution of cross-chain infrastructure, the aftermath of the Terra collapse, and how Circle’s acquisition of Interop Labs led to the development of Arc. The conversation then turns to Arc’s architecture, including its privacy layer, known as the Privacy Sector, and the decision to build it around Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs)…

5. 

   1 Jul 2026 · 6 min

   zkMesh+ Exclusive Clip – Benedikt Bünz on the threat of AI

   Last week on the show, we interviewed Benedikt Bünz , Chief Scientist at Espresso Systems and Professor at NYU. The conversation ran long, so we're releasing some of the extra material as an exclusive clip for zkMesh+ subscribers. We've also included the first five minutes here. In this segment, Anna, Kobi, and Benedikt discuss whether AI poses a genuine threat to the foundations of cryptography. They explore the 'immune system' metaphor for AI's dual role in security: it can uncover bugs and vulnerabilities, while also strengthening defenses through tools like formal verification. The…

6. 

   18 Jun 2026 · 1 min

   Announcement: zkMesh+ Exclusive Clip – Vericoding and SMT

   No main episode this week, but we’ve got an exclusive bonus clip for our zkMesh+ subscribers! Continuing our conversation from last week, Wyatt Benno (ICME) describes the world of 'vericoding' - the next stage after the era of 'vibecoding.' Vericoding uses formal mathematics to prove that AI code is actually correct and help prevent bugs in AI-written code. We go deep on SMT (Satisfiability Modulo Theories), a decades-old verification technique originally built for cloud infrastructure, and discuss how SMT can now take a plain-English description and mathematically verify that your…

7. 

   10 Jun 2026 · 1 hr 7 min

   Building ZK-Powered AI Guardrails with Wyatt Benno

   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…

8. 

   27 May 2026 · 59 min

   The Quantum Question Panel – Live from zkSummit14

   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…

9. 

   20 May 2026 · 53 min

   From Access Control to Encrypted Execution with Auryn Macmillan

   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…

10. 

    6 May 2026 · 1 hr 25 min

    Quantum Advances, Hybrid Signatures and SNARKs to the Rescue with Dan Boneh

    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…