Episode 170: Hardware for ZKPs & VDFs with Supranational

In this week’s episode, Anna (https://twitter.com/AnnaRRose) and Tarun (https://twitter.com/tarunchitra) talk with Simon Peffers and Kelly Olson (https://twitter.com/kellymolson) from Supranational (https://twitter.com/_Supranational), a startup focused on building specialised software and hardware for advanced cryptographic computation. Simon and Kelly talk about their recent work helping out the Ethereum Foundation with VDFs, as well as building a better SNARK algorithm for Protocol Labs’ Filecoin.
They cover how specialised chips can push the boundaries of computation in a post-Moore’s law world, how hardware specialised for zero knowledge is optimised, and the challenges of building ASIC chips today.
Here are a few links to set the stage about what they discussed:
Zero Knowledge episode 103 (https://www.zeroknowledge.fm/103), Exploring VDFs with Joseph Bonneau
Supranational’s website (https://www.supranational.net)
Supranational’s Medium blog (https://medium.com/supranational)
Simon's talk on hardware acceleration approach at SBC (https://youtu.be/BXLcKQ6fLsU?t=3163)
The 20 year old puzzle (https://www.wired.com/story/a-programmer-solved-a-20-year-old-forgotten-crypto-puzzle/) by Ron Rivest, which the Supranational folks solved just a few days late.
Nvidia’s nerf of the RTX 3060 (https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/18/22289154/nvidia-rtx-3060-ethereum-mining-drivers-limit-cryptocurrency) for Ethereum mining
How more specialized chips may be the solution to the end of Moore’s law (https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/02/24/905789/were-not-prepared-for-the-end-of-moores-law/)
Thank you to this week’s sponsor, Aave (https://aave.com).
Aave is an open source, decentralised non-custodial liquidity protocol on Ethereum.
With Aave, users can participate as depositors meaning they provide liquidity to earn a passive income. or they can also act as borrowers to borrow in an overcollateralized way or undercollateralized way (think: one-block liquidity Flash Loan).
A new feature is Credit Delegation, where users can delegate their credit to another person who can borrow against it
Aave has an ecosystem grants program for anyone building anything that contributes to the Aave ecosystem. Check out the Aave developers portal to learn more: https://docs.aave.com/portal/
To learn more Visit aave.com to learn more
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In this week’s episode, Anna and Tarun talk with Simon Peffers and Kelly Olson from Supranational, a startup focused on building specialised software and hardware for advanced cryptographic computation. Simon and Kelly talk about their recent work helping out the Ethereum Foundation with VDFs, as well as building a better SNARK algorithm for Protocol Labs’ Filecoin.

They cover how specialised chips can push the boundaries of computation in a post-Moore’s law world, how hardware specialised for zero knowledge is optimised, and the challenges of building ASIC chips today.

Here are a few links to set the stage about what they discussed:

Zero Knowledge episode 103, Exploring VDFs with Joseph Bonneau

Supranational’s website


Supranational’s Medium blog

Simon's talk on hardware acceleration approach at SBC

The 20 year old puzzle by Ron Rivest, which the Supranational folks solved just a few days late.

Nvidia’s nerf of the RTX 3060 for Ethereum mining

How more specialized chips may be the solution to the end of Moore’s law

Thank you to this week’s sponsor, Aave.

Aave is an open source, decentralised non-custodial liquidity protocol on Ethereum.

With Aave, users can participate as depositors meaning they provide liquidity to earn a passive income. or they can also act as borrowers to borrow in an overcollateralized way or undercollateralized way (think: one-block liquidity Flash Loan).

A new feature is Credit Delegation, where users can delegate their credit to another person who can borrow against it

Aave has an ecosystem grants program for anyone building anything that contributes to the Aave ecosystem. Check out the Aave developers portal to learn more: https://docs.aave.com/portal/

To learn more Visit aave.com to learn more

*If you like what we do: *

Follow us on Twitter - @zeroknowledgefm

Join us on Telegram

Catch us on Youtube

Read up on the r/ZKPodcast subreddit

Give us feedback! -https://forms.gle/iKMSrVtcAn6BByH6A

Support our Gitcoin Grant

Support us on the ZKPatreon

Donate through coinbase.commerce

*Or directly here: *

ETH: 0xC0FFEE1B5083230a5154F55f253B6b6ae8F29B1a

BTC: 1cafekGa3podM4fBxPSQc6RCEXQNTK8Zz

ZEC: t1R2bujRF3Hzte9ALHpMJvY8t5kb9ut9SpQ