CBR Seminar - Brian Gu, 0xPARC

​Programmable Cryptography - Why and How

​Note: This event is hosted Center for Blockchain Research (CBR) as part of a Stanford Blockchain Seminar series. Event info: https://cbr.stanford.edu/seminar.html

​Brian Gu, 0xPARC -- Tuesday, 28 May 2024 -- 4:15pm PT -- Gates 498

​The talk will also be streamed via Zoom. To avoid "Zoom-bombing", please input your email address herehttps://stanford.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0vcOCorjMpGdPnS4_aBkWhphhnzld7sUKr to receive the Zoom meeting details via email.

​Abstract:

​Programmable cryptography is a second generation of cryptographic primitives - primitives that operate over general computation. First hypothesized in the 1990s, technologies like general-purpose zero knowledge proofs, fully homomorphic encryption, and secure multi-party computation are now entering production for the first time today. ​

​In this decade, these technologies will trigger a rearchitecting of the Internet on its most fundamental levels. Imagine a single, Turing-complete "Universal Protocol" for all of your social data, digital identity, financial interactions, professional history, medical data, and everything and anything else attached to you, that is understood by every website on the Internet; or a swarm of intelligent "nanorobots in cyberspace" that cryptographically mediate communication and commerce, replacing huge chunks of platforms like Facebook, Equifax, or Amazon. 

​In this talk, we'll argue that programmable cryptography technologies need to be considered holistically, rather than in isolation as they've been historically. We'll also lay out some surprising application-level consequences of looking at programmable cryptography as a unified field.

​Bio:

​Brian Gu is co-founder of 0xPARC Foundation, an applied cryptography research and development organization that has incubated many of the earliest efforts in areas such as ZK identity, ZK machine learning, SNARK coprocessors, Autonomous Worlds, and more. Previously, Brian built Dark Forest, a decentralized ZK game on Ethereum, and supported R&D efforts at the Ethereum Foundation.