StarkWare: Productizing zk-STARKs to Provide Blockchain Scalability and Privacy
- Eli Ben-Sasson
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:
- 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