Eli Ben-Sasson: StarkWare – Productizing zk-STARKs to Provide Blockchain Scalability & Privacy #310

This past year, we have witnessed what some are calling a “Cambrian Explosion” in zero-knowledge proof systems. New proof systems based on a variety of cryptographic assumptions are popping up every week. And while zero-knowledge systems are known for their privacy-preserving characteristics, they have proven particularly useful for scaling blockchains through off-chain computations.

We're joined by Eli Ben Sasson, Co-founder and Cheif Scientist in the East at Starkware. His company is developing a full proof-stack, which leverages STARKs. Pioneered by Eli, STARKs are zero-knowledge cryptographic proofs, which are succinct, transparent, and post-quantum secure. StarkWare has demonstrated how zkSTARKs may be leveraged to provide off-chain scalability by generating proofs of computational integrity which may be verified on-chain.

Topics discussed in this episode:
- Eli's trajectory and transition from academia to the startup world
- The origin story of Starkware and the founding team
- The current explosion of zero-knowledge proof research
- An overview of zero-knowledge proof systems and how they work
- What are STARKs and what are their properties
- How STARKs are different from SNARKs and Bulletproofs
- What are zk-Rollups and how they are used by StarkWare to achieve scalability
- The StarkDEX experiment and scalability benefits it had demonstrated
- The issue of data availability with layer-2 scaling solutions
- StarkWare's business model and the solutions they are building for customers

Links mentioned in this episode:
- StarkWare: https://bit.ly/2W4sxXJ
- StarkWare resources: https://bit.ly/2Jfh82l
- StarkWare blog: https://bit.ly/33W9XDQ
- StarkWare Twitter: https://bit.ly/2BArGVs
- StarkWare Sessions conference videos: https://bit.ly/2pDMGrD
- Epicenter Podcast SFBW Week Meetup: https://bit.ly/2N1PQxv
- DeFi Hackathon sponsored by Cosmos: https://bit.ly/35YnJbd
- SF Blockchain Week 2019 (use the code EPICENTER for 20% off tickets): https://bit.ly/2BzSIfz
- Macro.WTF: https://bit.ly/2MAdths

Sponsors:
- Vaultoro: Trade gold to Bitcoin instantly and securely starting at just 1mg - http://vaultoro.com
- B9Lab: Level up and become a Solidity smart contract auditor – 5% off the with the code EPICENTER - https://solidified.b9lab.com/epicenter

This episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Sunny Aggarwal. Show notes and listening options: https://epicenter.tv/310