From Zero-Knowledge To Zksnarks

Decrypting and Programming zkSNARKs

What you'll learn

Mastering underlying zkSNARK cryptography

Generate your very first zkSNARK proof

Code with ZoKrates, a toolbox for zkSNARK on the Ethereum blockchain

Arithmetic Circuit

Rank -1 Constraint System (R1CS)

Quadratic Algorithmic Program (QAP)

Homomorphic Encryption

Finite Fields

Prime Fields

Elliptic Curve Cryptography and Pairings

Trusted Set-Up

Toxic Waste

Zero-Knowledge Voting

Privacy Coins and Encrypted Transactions

Confidential Identity Verification (KYC, Proof of Humanity, …)

Zero-Knowledge Roll-Ups

Proofs of Solvency

Zero-Knowledge Machine Learning (ZK ML)

Merkle Trees

Blockchain

Smart Contracts

Requirements

No technical pre-requisite, solely a will to learn !

Description

Hello and a warm welcome to this brand new course, From Zero Knowledge to zkSNARKs.While zkSNARKs being a highly-promising technology for the future of blockchain industry and Artificial Intelligence, there were so far no comprehensive online course on this topic. I understood the reason while I was preparing this one : zkSNARKs are genuinely hard.Luckily, thanks to this course, you will not have to struggle as much as former people attempting to learn about snarks did. From zero knowledge to zkSNARKs has been designed to be as simple as it could possibly be without sacrificing the complexity of the details. The result is a high-level course, explaining the underlying cryptography behind snarks and its current main use cases. We will start from a concrete example of a real computer program, and progressively proceeds all the transformations necessary for generating a zero knowledge snark proof of its correct execution. We will cover concepts such as arithmetic circuit, R1CS, QAP, homomorphic encryption, knowledge of coefficient assumption, elliptic curve pairings, toxic waste, and of course, the so-called trusted set-up. Sounds like dark magic for you ? With this course, you’ll become the wizard ! Which means, you won’t just learn and understand the tricks, you will also use them…I will show you how to efficiently code your very first SNARK proof, using zoKrates, a toolbox for zkSNARKs working With the Ethereum Blockchain.If you are eager to master a cutting edge cryptographic innovation that is already very demanded in the tech industry, go buy from zero-knowledge to zkSNARKs. It doesn’t require any prior knowledge about cryptography, neither Blockchain nor AI. We’ll cover everything from the start.I’ll see you there, so that we can begin your SNARK mastery.

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 Introduction

Section 2: Cryptography part 1 : Arithmetisation

Lecture 2 Arithmetic Circuit

Lecture 3 Rank - 1 Constraint System (R1CS) - part1

Lecture 4 Rank - 1 Constraint System (R1CS) - part2

Lecture 5 Quadratic Algorithmic Program

Section 3: Cryptography part 2 : zero-knowledgeness

Lecture 6 Homomorphic Encryption : part 1

Lecture 7 Homomorphic Encryption : part 2

Lecture 8 Knowledge of Coefficient Assumption

Lecture 9 Elliptic Curve Pairings : part 1 - Introducing Elliptic Curves

Lecture 10 Elliptic Curve Pairings : part 2 - Explaining Elliptic Curve Pairings

Lecture 11 Reinforcing Hidings : The Delta Shift

Section 4: Finalizing the zkSNARK proof

Lecture 12 Public Inputs & Parametrization

Lecture 13 Trusted Set-Up and Proof Generation

Section 5: zkSNARK use cases

Lecture 14 Blockchain technology : a primer

Lecture 15 Merkle Tree Basics

Lecture 16 Confidential Identity Verification

Lecture 17 Proof of Solvency

Lecture 18 Anonymous Blockchain Transactions

Lecture 19 Zero-Knowledge Voting

Lecture 20 Zero-Knowledge Roll-Ups

Lecture 21 Zero-Knowledge Machine-Learning (ZK ML)

Section 6: Coding a zkSNARK proof with ZoKrates

Lecture 22 Writting and Compiling a Program

Lecture 23 Compute our Inputs

Lecture 24 Generate the zkSNARK proof + last words and how to continue

Section 7: Sources

Lecture 25 Sources

Anyone with an interest in cryptography. This course is particularly recommended for Web3 developpers, as zkSNARK knowledge is more and more demanded from blockchain companies.