Season 15 · Episode 36
S15 E36: Eli Ben-Sasson on STARKs, Rollups & Privacy
Eli Ben-Sasson is an academic computer scientist whose interest in zero-knowledge proofs has led him to become a co-founder of Zcash. More recently, he became the CEO of StarkWare: a company which aims to scale blockchains with ZK rollups & STARKs.
May 23, 20241h 6m
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Show Notes
Back in 2014, Eli Ben-Sasson co-authored the Zerocash paper, which proposed a ZK SNARK system that creates anonymous Bitcoin payments. Around the same time, he also spoke about the compression benefits of zero-knowledge proofs – a full Bitcoin node can be synced within seconds just by verifying against a valid proof.
More recently, he became interested in STARKs and built a company around this cryptographic breakthrough. If SNARKs require a trusted setup, then STARKs are a major leap towards trust minimization.
If Bitcoin activates the OP_CAT soft fork, then this ZK rollup scheme also becomes possible to enable great privacy and low-sized transactions.
Time stamps:
Introduction to the Podcast (00:00:35)
What is a Zero-Knowledge Proof? (00:02:03)
Vision for Bitcoin Node Synchronization (00:04:09)
Current State of Zero-Knowledge Proofs (00:05:44)
Challenges in Implementing Zero-Knowledge Proofs (00:06:38)
Importance of OP_CAT Opcode (00:09:19)
Comparison of OP_CAT and OP_CTV (00:12:04)
Differences Between SNARKs and STARKs (00:13:13)
Popularity of SNARKs and STARKs (00:17:47)
Ellie's Journey to Starkware (00:19:52)
The Future of Zcash (00:23:50)
The Importance of Zcash Ceremony (00:24:17)
User Experience Challenges with Zcash (00:24:38)
Impact of Zcash on Zero-Knowledge Proofs (00:26:13)
Scaling Solutions: Sidechains vs. Rollups (00:27:03)
Stark Technology as a Gold Standard (00:27:20)
Quantum Computing Threats to Bitcoin (00:29:19)
Proactive Measures Against Quantum Threats (00:31:55)
Benefits of Starks Beyond Quantum Security (00:32:25)
Resurgence of the Block Size Debate (00:33:34)
Future of Bitcoin with Starks (00:34:15)
Cultural Shift in Bitcoin Development (00:35:12)
Data Availability in Blockchains (00:37:02)
Scalability Solutions and State Differences (00:40:34)
Founding Starkware: Joy and Challenges (00:42:33)
Drivechain and Stark Integration (00:46:02)
Efficient Operations for STARKs (00:47:02)
Bitcoin's Conservative Approach (00:48:22)
Integration with Bitcoin (00:49:55)
User Experience with STARKs (00:51:00)
Understanding Starkware and Starknet (00:53:43)
Starknet's Features and Capabilities (00:54:49)
Opportunities for Bitcoin Enthusiasts (00:56:11)
Potential Collaboration with Elizabeth Stark (00:58:56)
The Future of STARKs (01:01:20)
Following Starknet and Starkware (01:04:29)
Topics
Eli Ben-SassonZero Knowledge RollupSTARKStarkWareStarknetZK RollupOP_CAT