Episode 144: Aleo with Howard Wu

Published: Aug. 26, 2020, 1 p.m.

In this episode, we invite Howard Wu (https://twitter.com/1howardwu) back to the show to share more about his new project Aleo (https://aleo.org/) - a privacy-focused blockchain that enables fully private applications. Howard's previous ZKPodcast episode, Introduction to zkSNARKs (https://www.zeroknowledge.fm/38), remains one of our most popular episodes to date! We chat about why you need programming languages for SNARKs, what it is like to switch from VC/Academia to being a founder and the two important things missing in web services, high programmability and true user privacy. The project enables private applications with both data privacy and functional privacy - where the nature of the program running and all activity remains private. It is based on the ZEXE protocol and Proof-of-Succinct-Work, from the Proof-of-Necessary-Work originally presented Joseph Bonneau & Akis Kattis For more info check out these additional links & episodes: - Aleo Developer Preview I (https://aleo.org/) - Zexe: Decentralized Private Computation with Pratyush Mishra (https://www.zeroknowledge.fm/85) - ZEXE paper (https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/962.pdf) - Proof-of-Necessary-Work with Akis Kattis (NYU) (https://www.zeroknowledge.fm/131) Thank you to this week’s sponsor Least Authority (https://leastauthority.com/). Least Authority is a security consulting company known for their dedication to privacy-respecting solutions and boundary-pushing technology. You may know them as the team behind the security audits and reviews of the Eth 2.0 Specification, Protocol Lab's Gossipsub Protocol, Zcash Sapling upgrade, Tezos Foundation's TzBTC, Blockstack's Investor Wallet, MetaMask's Lavamoat and more If you are looking to improve the security of your protocol or verify your use of cryptography, schedule a no-obligation call to find out how Least Authority can help on your project. Visit leastauthority.com (https://leastauthority.com/) and hit the “Schedule a Call” button to book one of these calls. If you like what we do: Follow us on Twitter - @zeroknowledgefm (https://twitter.com/zeroknowledgefm) Join us on Telegram (https://t.me/joinchat/B_81tQ57-ThZg8yOSx5gjA) Catch us on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWsYz5cKw4wZ9Mpe4kuM_g) Read up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/zkpodcast) Give us feedback! https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A Support our Gitcoin Grant (https://gitcoin.co/grants/329/zero-knowledge-podcast-2) Support us on the ZKPatreon (https://www.patreon.com/zeroknowledge) Or directly here: ETH: 0xC0FFEE1B5083230a5154F55f253B6b6ae8F29B1a BTC: 1cafekGa3podM4fBxPSQc6RCEXQNTK8Zz ZEC: t-add: t1R2bujRF3Hzte9ALHpMJvY8t5kb9ut9SpQ z-add: zs1f8jjtkuqwvxy9h4q7grl6287hmpzyt4s55d392djx43wxxudwv20x7qgs74kp2h6e9k95lswst8