ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this talk, Elizabeth Peng, COO of Celo Corp (the merged entity of Celo Labs and the Celo Foundation), positions Celo as the number one blockchain for stablecoin payments, built since its Earth Day 2020 launch to create conditions of prosperity for all. She walks through Celo's journey of being EVM compatible L1 to becoming an Ethereum L2 while preserving full network state, and highlights its early differentiators that are now table stakes elsewhere: paying gas with multiple ERC-20 tokens including native USDC and USDT, ultra low gas fees, mobile first design, and multicurrency support. The chain has processed over 1.3 billion transactions, has 600,000 daily active users with verifiable phone numbers, $263 million in TVS, and just hit a peak $6.2 billion in monthly stablecoin trading volume. Liz details Celo's emerging markets product market fit, supporting 25+ stablecoins ranging from US dollar denominations to local currencies like Kenyan shilling, Nigerian Naira, Philippine peso, and Colombian peso. Celo is the number one chain for Tether's USDT with 5 million weekly active users (ahead of Tron's 3 million), and leads tokenized gold with 100,000+ XAUT holders, with over 90% of XAUT's growth coming from Celo. She previews USAT, Tether's new Genius Act compliant stablecoin issued by Anchorage, coming to Celo as the second chain after Ethereum. The Opera Mini Pay partnership has activated 15 million wallets across 60+ countries with 430 million lifetime transactions and 80 million more users coming online to redeem browser points onchain. Liz also covers the Self privacy protocol using biometric IDs and ZK proofs (recently acquired Linum, now led by former Uber AI head Burju Shaw), the Updown perps DEX targeting the $7.5 trillion FX market, and Celo's tokenomics overhaul driving record chain revenue of $18,000 in a single day. She closes with the regional DAO network spanning Latin America, Europe, Arabia, Africa, Thailand, Korea, Philippines, and India that keeps the ecosystem decentralized and accountable. 00:00 Introduction 00:31 Building the Future, Not Just Prototyping It 01:17 What Is Celo 01:38 Celo's Mission and Origins 01:59 Early Innovations: Multi Token Gas, Mobile First, Multicurrency 02:41 Partners: Tether, Circle, Opera 03:01 Network Stats: 1.3 Billion Transactions 03:27 $6.2 Billion in Monthly Stablecoin Volume 03:56 The Vision: Global Venmo for Crypto 04:00 25+ Stablecoins in Local Currencies 04:30 #1 Chain for USDT with 5 Million Weekly Active Users 05:32 Leading Tether Gold and Tokenized Commodities 06:21 USAT Coming to Celo Second After Ethereum 06:53 Mini Pay Gold Use Cases and Cashback 07:14 Opera Mini Pay: 15 Million Activated Wallets 07:59 Regional Road Shows and Opera Partnership Extension 08:49 Updown: Onchain FX Targeting $7.5 Trillion Opportunity 09:23 Self: Privacy Protocol with Biometric ZK Proofs 10:20 Google Cloud Partnership and Boosted Yields 10:49 Self Acquires Linum, Burju Shaw From Uber AI 11:23 Mind Share and Industry Recognition 12:17 Top 5 Chain for Agent Activity on ERC-7804 Registry 12:41 Industry Praise: Vitalik, Bankless, Super Chain 13:06 The L2 Migration Playbook 13:38 Record $18,000 Chain Revenue Day 14:04 Block Space Business Is Alive 14:04 Regional DAO Network Around the World 14:47 Full Ecosystem of 1,000+ Projects in 150+ Countries 15:24 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Tim Beiko

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this talk, Tim Beiko, who spent eight years on Ethereum core protocol R&D coordinating major network upgrades like EIP-1559 and The Merge, presents his thesis on how Ethereum can evolve from being "unreasonably sufficient" to becoming "reasonably necessary" infrastructure for the world. He explains that the question keeping him up at night for years was whether Ethereum could scale to planetary infrastructure without compromising its core properties, and with zero knowledge proofs and data availability sampling now in production, that question has been answered. The harder question now is what Ethereum should actually be used for. Tim argues that for Ethereum to truly succeed, it must provide things the world genuinely needs that cannot be obtained elsewhere, and those things must depend on Ethereum's unique properties of permissionlessness, immutability, censorship resistance, and decentralization. He contrasts two possible outcomes: The Pirate Bay as a cautionary tale of useful technology that became niche versus TSMC as the level of strategic importance to aim for. He identifies three core affordances that Ethereum uniquely provides: durable commitments across jurisdictions and time, canonical uniqueness through globally consistent state, and programmable trust as a dial rather than binary gate. He uses flash loans as a proof point of financial primitives impossible elsewhere, and suggests prediction markets becoming composable risk infrastructure as one possible frontier. He closes by announcing his focus is shifting from protocol work to finding the applications that deserve to run on Ethereum at planetary scale. 00:00 Introduction 00:11 Background and Ethereum's Special Properties 00:54 Unreasonable Sufficiency: Simple Protocols, Complex Results 01:19 The New Question: What Should Ethereum Be Used For 02:24 Why Ethereum Must Provide What the World Needs 03:28 Cautionary Tale: The Pirate Bay vs Strategic Goal: TSMC 04:34 Why Apps Must Depend on Ethereum, Not Just Run on It 05:33 Why DeFi and L2s Are Foundations, Not Final Answers 06:55 The Bar for Reasonably Necessary Territory 07:49 Three Core Affordances Ethereum Uniquely Provides 08:32 Durable Commitments Across Time and Context 09:13 Canonical Uniqueness and Double Spend Prevention 10:04 Programmable Trust as a Dial, Not a Binary Gate 10:54 Settlement Physics and Flash Loans as Proof 12:18 Prediction Markets as Composable Risk Infrastructure 13:18 AI Agents and Onchain Trust at Machine Speed 13:52 The Foundation Is Already in Place 14:31 Tim's Next Chapter: From Protocol to Applications 15:08 Closing: Becoming Reasonably Necessary _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Alex Gluchowski

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this talk, Alex Gluchowski, co-founder of Matter Labs and zkSync, presents Prividium, a framework for private atomic delivery versus payment (DvP) on Ethereum. He frames DvP, a term from institutional finance meaning token swap settlement, as one of the most important and unsolved problems for institutions adopting blockchain. Alex walks through why each existing solution falls short: public chains like Ethereum have great properties but expose all positions and transactions, ruling them out for banks bound by secrecy rules. Private permissioned chains offer perfect privacy but are not interconnected, limiting their value since the whole point of blockchains is being the internet of value. External bridges connecting private chains become the de facto settlement layer with their own trust assumptions, losing the security of both origin and target chains. Mediated networks using operator attestation or fully homomorphic encryption still rely on contractual or threshold trust in operators. Alex introduces Prividium as a framework where institutions run their own cryptographically secured private chains on their own infrastructure with absolute physical data privacy, while settling on Ethereum as the credibly neutral settlement layer. Zero knowledge proofs guarantee that even a dishonest or compromised operator cannot finalize invalid transactions. He highlights the ability to deploy a smart contract once that virtually mirrors into all zones and enforces rules automatically without the issuer ever seeing the underlying data. He then walks through the technical flow of private atomic DvP: parties agree on a transaction, generate a cryptographic commitment hash, post it to a data availability layer and Ethereum settlement layer, lock assets on both sides, and use the canonical L2 state roots on Ethereum to verify execution and either release funds or revert atomically. He closes by noting the network is growing with the Kerry network consortium of five US regional banks plus participation from Deutsche Bank and other FMIs. 00:00 Introduction 00:11 What Is DvP and Why It Matters 00:48 The Tradeoffs in Existing Blockchain Solutions 01:07 Public Chains Are Too Public for Institutions 01:54 Private Chains Are Isolated and Disconnected 02:33 External Bridges Become the Settlement Layer 03:14 Mediated Networks and Their Trust Assumptions 03:35 Operator Attested and FHE Limitations 04:40 Introducing Prividium 05:09 Cryptographically Secured Private Chains on Ethereum 05:42 Permissioning, Roles, and OIDC Integration 06:16 Zero Knowledge Proofs Guarantee Execution Correctness 06:50 Rules That Apply Beyond Your Zone 07:30 The Old Way: Bilateral Agreements and Rulebooks 07:52 Virtual Mirrored Smart Contracts Enforce Rules Automatically 08:16 Why Private DvP Is the Hardest Cross Zone Example 08:51 Traditional Sequential DvP and Counterparty Risk 09:40 Atomic Swaps Collapse Settlement Risk 10:10 How Private Atomic DvP Works Step by Step 10:36 Cryptographic Commitments and Mutual Intent 11:17 Posting Commitments to DA and Settlement Layer 11:50 Locking Assets in Escrow Contracts 12:26 Reading L2 State Roots from Ethereum 12:55 Verifying Cross Chain Execution 13:25 Happy Path Release vs Revert Path 14:04 Multi Zone Chained Transactions 14:36 The Kerry Network and Growing Adoption 14:48 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this fireside chat, Jill Malandrino moderates a discussion with Declan Fox and Rob Dawson from Consensys on the role of neutral governance in institutional blockchain adoption. They argue that while open source software has been foundational for technology companies, it is not sufficient on its own for enterprises making decade long bets, since the technology could be swept from under their feet without credible neutral stewardship. Declan compares open source without neutral governance to a building where you can peek in the door and inspect the code, but the house could still be demolished. The conversation positions governance not as ideology but as a practical procurement decision. Declan and Rob detail Besu's success as the institutional Ethereum client, running 15% of Ethereum mainnet but 80 to 90% of all blocks on enterprise blockchains, largely because of its Apache 2 license and Hyperledger and LFDT hosting. They explain that Consensys has now made the same bet on Layer 2 by contributing Linea technology to the Linux Foundation. The discussion covers tradeoffs in the EF's CROPS mandate (censorship resistant, open source, private, secure), how zero knowledge proofs enable confidential blockchains to interoperate without revealing sensitive information, the risk of digitizing fragmentation across chains, and atomic cross chain delivery versus payment as a recently unlocked use case. They close on the holy trinity of decentralized trust (blockchains), decentralized identity, and decentralized AI, with discussion of how ERC-7804 helps manage non human identities in a future of machine to machine blockchain interaction. 00:00 Introduction 00:29 Why Governance Is Becoming Central to Institutional Adoption 00:52 Open Source Is Not Enough: The Building Analogy 01:51 Why Technologists Should Care About Governance 02:37 Besu's Adoption Through Apache 2 and Linux Foundation 03:15 Besu as the Institutional Ethereum Client 03:41 Donating Linea Technology to the Linux Foundation 04:26 The Linux Foundation as a Trusted Brand 04:47 Does Governance Quality Match Technical Quality 05:40 Competitors Coming Together for Shared Standards 07:07 Governance as a Component of Scalability 07:26 Challenges and Friction Points in Governance 08:35 Maintaining Innovation Velocity Under Stewardship 09:55 Governance Improves Product Practices 10:00 The CROPS Mandate and Its Tradeoffs 11:40 Privacy and Security as Institutional Adoption Blockers 11:58 How Privacy Is Achieved Technically with ZK Proofs 12:50 Avoiding Digitized Fragmentation Across Chains 13:58 LFDT as a Forum for Interop Standards 14:16 No One Size Fits All Chain Solution 14:51 Interoperability as the Remaining Pillar 16:04 Cross Chain Delivery Versus Payment Now Possible 16:35 Security as a Critical Conversation 17:36 Challenges with Legacy Enterprise Blockchain Infrastructure 19:08 Ethereum's 10+ Years of Continuous Uptime 19:52 What's Next: Progressive Decentralization 21:16 Integration, Not Us Versus Them 22:22 How Rough Consensus Works in Practice 23:30 Selectivity in Onboarding Projects to Foundations 24:48 The Maturation of Governance, Security, and Privacy 25:25 Closing Thoughts on Institutional Adoption 25:44 The Holy Trinity: Decentralized Trust, Identity, and AI 26:26 Governing Non Human Identities and AI Agents 27:21 ERC-7804 and Machine to Machine Infrastructure 27:37 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this talk, Deepthi Kumar, co-CEO of O(1) Labs, the team behind Mina Protocol, makes the case for moving from trust based to proof based enterprise systems. She frames the central problem facing every business in the coming years: increasing reliance on systems, vendors, and AI agents that you cannot actually check. Her thesis fits in one line: make trust verifiable. Rather than handing over more promises about what systems can do, organizations should hand over more proofs. She notes that zero knowledge proofs have quietly gone mainstream beyond cryptography papers and private tokens, with Google shipping ZK age verification in Google Wallet, Microsoft integrating ZK based credentials into its identity offering, and the EU mandating ZK based digital identity for member states. Deepthi explains that ZK has historically been used for two purposes (privacy and scalability through ZK rollups), but proposes a third use case: verifiability, which is an inherent property of ZK rather than something bolted on. A SNARK at its core is verifiable computation. She argues this should be applied to enterprise workflows where policies govern high stakes operations, citing two converging forces driving the urgency: AI as an offensive weapon (with the first AI generated zero days being reported and threat actors using AI across attack lifecycles), and AI as an actor (agents acting on our behalf at a scale existing guardrails cannot match). The proposed shift is from a model where you trust systems to act, to one where the highstakes action is logged until a proof shows up validating that all policies were enforced. She describes ZK as a "knot tree" that cannot be bribed. The mechanics are three steps: encode existing policy into a ZK circuit running in parallel to existing enforcement, verify the proof against the expected statement, then execute the operation. Benefits include cryptographic receipts, per action audit trails (finer than sample checks), and composability across multi organization workflows through proof aggregation. She closes by emphasizing this is additive not replacement (preserving security heterogeneity), incrementally adoptable starting with one narrow high value flow, and applicable to institutional finance money movement, AI agent identity and delegation, and any vendor integration with policy enforcement requirements. 00:00 Introduction 00:10 Why You Cannot Check Your Vendors and Agents 00:54 Proof Over Promises 01:33 ZK Has Quietly Gone Mainstream 02:17 Google, Microsoft, and the EU on ZK 02:46 The Two Established Uses: Privacy and Scalability 03:42 Proposing Verifiability as the Third Use Case 04:17 Why Verifiability Is Inherent to ZK 05:05 Why Now: Two Forces Pushing in the Same Direction 05:50 AI on the Offense 06:26 AI as an Actor on Your Behalf 07:01 Shifting From Trust to Proof Authorization 07:47 ZK as a Knot Tree That Cannot Be Bribed 08:22 Treasury Transfer as a Concrete Example 09:24 Verifiable Workflow in Three Steps 10:03 Encoding Policy Into a ZK Circuit 10:44 Verifying the Proof Statement 11:27 Cryptographic Receipts 11:54 Per Action Audit Trails 12:19 Composability Across Multi Organization Workflows 13:44 Not Rip and Replace, Additive Layer 14:51 Why ZK Adoption Can Be Incremental 15:45 Applications: Institutional Finance Money Movement 16:27 AI Agents Proving They Followed Policy 16:53 Agent Identity and Delegation Chains 17:21 Enterprise Operations and Vendor Integrations 18:02 Key Takeaway: Add a ZK Layer to High Stakes Operations 19:01 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this talk, Professor Ari Juels, co-director of the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Contracts (IC3), presents a lightning tour of a newly released 150 page survey on the intersection of crypto and AI, written with a long roster of co-authors. He opens by arguing that crypto and AI are not natural bedfellows. Crypto is hard: strictly programmatic and unforgiving, as shown by the Kelp DAO attack where a single poisoned message let the North Korean Lazarus group steal hundreds of millions. AI is soft: frontier models are unpredictable and error prone, like ChatGPT confidently saying raspberry has two Rs or drawing a rabbit with too many ears. Yet they can serve as middleware for each other, with Worldcoin (now World) as a proof point where crypto identity becomes essential to distinguish humans from bots in an AI saturated world. Ari walks through Crypto x AI applications where AI enhances crypto. He shows how a typical parametric flight insurance smart contract, while elegant, suffers from moral hazard and can't document actual harms, which is why AXA's Fizzy product was discontinued. By adding an LLM enhanced oracle, the same contract can ingest receipts and assess damages like real world insurance while preserving privacy. He covers AI powered investment funds, which IC3 calls coinouts (collective investment algorithms), and presents the fundamental coinout bind: either the strategy is transparent and gets front run publicly, or it's opaque and gets front run privately through covert channels. In the other direction (AI x Crypto), he addresses DePIN GPU networks with healthy skepticism, noting industry proofs of concept don't report communication or compute costs, and the largest decentralized trained model has only 40 billion parameters versus frontier models' trillions. He shows the same TEE plus LLM oracle pattern enabling confidential lending, whistleblower credentials, anonymous reviewer proofs, and code audits without revealing source. He closes with a warning about rogue agents (UAAS, unstoppable autonomous agents) that could use stablecoins to rent servers, establish censorship resistant command and control, conceal their code, and even rent humans through services like rentahuman.ai to influence the physical world. 00:00 Introduction 00:11 IC3 and the New Crypto AI Survey 00:37 Why Crypto and AI Are Not Natural Bedfellows 01:00 Crypto Is Hard: Programmatic and Unforgiving 01:52 The Kelp DAO Attack as Proof of Unforgivingness 02:41 Security Tools the Crypto Industry Has Pioneered 03:11 AI Is Soft: Unpredictable and Error Prone 04:24 World as a Proof Point of the Intersection 05:39 The Middleware Model for AI and Crypto 06:04 Crypto x AI: How AI Enhances Crypto 06:29 The Flight Insurance Smart Contract Example 07:07 Why Parametric Insurance Has Limitations 07:58 AXA's Fizzy Product and Why It Was Discontinued 07:58 Enhancing Oracles with LLMs 09:19 Hard Crypto Meets Soft AI Productively 10:02 AI Powered Investment Funds 10:36 Why First Wave AI Funds Were Mostly Hype 11:05 Coinouts: Collective Investment Algorithms 11:39 The Coinout Bind: Transparency vs Opacity 12:27 AI x Crypto: How Crypto Enhances AI 12:59 DePIN and Decentralized GPU Networks 13:50 Why DePIN Training Claims Need More Evidence 14:33 Confidential Lending with TEEs and LLMs 15:59 Other Use Cases: Whistleblowers and Anonymous Reviews 16:16 Pyred: Code Credentials Without Revealing Source 16:38 The Warning About Rogue Agents 17:05 How Stablecoins Enable Persistent Autonomous Agents 17:34 Renting Humans with Crypto 17:59 Other Topics Covered in the Survey 18:25 Five Myths and Misconceptions Debunked 18:57 Where to Read the Paper 18:57 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this talk, Tomer Weller, Chief Product Officer at the Stellar Development Foundation, presents what nearly a decade in crypto and recent years of institutional conversations have taught him about onchain privacy. He frames the core problem: blockchain is the only financial system where every transaction is fully visible, meaning that the moment paychecks, balances, payroll, trading strategies, or B2B relationships move onchain, they become readable by anyone with a block explorer. For individuals this exposes their entire financial history. For institutions it's worse because competitors can see volumes, relationships, and strategies. Financial institutions have made it clear that not being able to manage visibility is a non-starter. Tomer argues that while crypto has worked on privacy for a decade, it has been driven by cypherpunk ideology of complete financial freedom (which he loves, citing Zcash), when what institutions actually need is privacy as a managed spectrum that allows them to stay competitive and compliant. Privacy varies by jurisdiction (a US regulated asset differs from one in Singapore or Brazil), by use case (payroll has different requirements than trading or remittances), and by technology (ZK, FHE, MPC, TEE all have different tradeoffs). He identifies two privacy dead ends: the all or nothing approach where solutions only offer full transparency or full privacy, and permissioned chains that are private only because they're databases on someone's computer, missing the open participation networks institutions actually want. Tomer presents Stellar's three layer privacy stack: a transparent base layer (transparency is a feature institutions love), low level privacy building blocks like Protocol X-ray providing ZK primitives without enshrining any specific privacy type, and multiple privacy protocols on top. He covers two private payment families: confidential tokens (hide the amount but not the parties, easier to scale compliance) and privacy pools (hide both amount and parties, stronger guarantees but mix funds), with examples like 0xbow and Nethermind's Stellar Private Payments. He closes by walking through a compliance menu including selective disclosure, non-selective disclosure with view keys, association sets, force transparent withdrawals (Oxbow's "rage quit"), and clawbacks for regulated assets. 00:00 Introduction 00:11 Why Visibility on Chain Is the Default 00:57 What's at Stake for Individuals and Institutions 01:25 Why Institutions Say Visibility Management Is Non Negotiable 01:53 The Cypherpunk Privacy Heritage 02:18 Why Institutional Privacy Means Something Different 02:43 Privacy as a Multi-Dimensional Spectrum 03:19 The Two Privacy Dead Ends 03:54 Dead End One: All or Nothing 04:20 Dead End Two: Permissioned Chains 05:08 Stellar's Three Layer Privacy Stack 05:36 Transparency as a Feature 06:05 Building Blocks Not Enshrined Privacy 06:32 Protocol X-ray and ZK Primitives 06:59 Why Payments Are the Foundational Use Case 07:26 Confidential Tokens: Hiding the Amount 07:45 The Confidential Token Association 08:09 Privacy Pools: Hiding the Who Too 08:42 Tradeoffs and Co-Mingling Concerns 09:10 Building the Compliance Menu 09:52 Selective Disclosure 10:20 Non Selective Disclosure With View Keys 10:46 Association Sets and Vetted Allow Lists 11:10 Force Transparent Withdrawals and Rage Quit 11:35 Clawbacks for Regulated Assets 12:00 Closing: All the Building Blocks Are in Place _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this talk, Yi Sun, co-founder and CEO of Axiom, presents how zero knowledge proofs are becoming ready for production and serving as the key to forward looking Ethereum scaling. He frames the institutional moment Ethereum is having in 2026 around payments, tokenization, and trading, all gravitating to Ethereum for its security, neutrality, and reasonable scalability. The core scaling challenge is that naively raising the gas limit forces validators to take on higher hardware requirements, eroding the very decentralization that makes Ethereum attractive. Every validator currently has to re-execute every transaction, and Ethereum's unique answer is to prove execution with zero knowledge proofs so validators only verify proofs at constant cost rather than re-executing entire blocks. This decouples gas limits from validator hardware requirements. Yi explains the ZK virtual machine breakthrough of the last two to three years, which abstracts away cryptographic complexity and lets developers verify execution of arbitrary programs written in normal programming languages. He walks through Axiom's OpenVM across three institutional pillars: performance, security, and generality. On performance, OpenVM now proves Ethereum block execution in real time, with an average of 4.7 seconds across a full day of blocks (well within the 12 second slot time), and general purpose computation at 964 MHz, meaning if your application runs on a 1GHz processor it can be proven. Performance is also scaling rapidly, with OpenVM today being 75x faster than at the start of last year. On security, Axiom built a new proof system called Swirl with provable security based on mathematical theorems rather than conjectures, with post quantum design, 100 bits of provable security today, and 128 bits expected by year end. They've layered defense including audits with Cantina and ZK Security, a continuous AI auditor scanning updates for vulnerabilities, and formal verification in the Lean theorem checker as the only way to get correctness guarantees that cannot be hacked by AI. He closes with applications including the Lighter EVM partnership combining a high performance ZK verified perpetuals exchange with Ethereum programmability, and Scroll becoming a Type 1 ZK rollup through OpenVM integration. 00:00 Introduction 00:12 Ethereum's Institutional Moment in 2026 00:40 Why Institutions Choose Ethereum 01:18 The Validator Re-Execution Bottleneck 01:46 Ethereum's Unique Road to ZK Proven Execution 02:24 How ZK Decouples Gas Limits from Validator Hardware 02:50 The ZK Virtual Machine Breakthrough 03:26 Why ZKVMs Make ZK Accessible to Developers 03:53 ZK Becoming Institutional Ready 04:17 OpenVM's Three Pillars: Performance, Security, Generality 04:41 Proving Ethereum in Real Time 05:06 4.7 Second Average Proving Time 05:33 General Purpose Computation at 964 MHz 06:08 75x Performance Gains in One Year 06:35 How ZK Performance Translates to Ethereum Throughput 07:01 Why Security Matters More Than Performance Now 07:23 Swirl: A Proof System With Provable Security 07:46 Post Quantum Foundations 08:14 100 Bits Today, 128 Bits by Year End 08:46 Defending Against AI Powered Attacks 09:18 Continuous AI Auditor and Lean Formal Verification 09:50 Applications of OpenVM 10:19 Partnership: Lighter EVM 10:40 The Best of Both Worlds for Programmability 10:40 Powering Scroll as a Type 1 ZK Rollup 11:17 Why Developers Can Focus on Logic, Not Cryptography 11:51 Institutional Use Cases: Trading, Bridging, Rollups 11:51 Privacy: Confidential Payments and Identity 12:48 Two Takeaways _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this talk, Artem Brazhnikov from Octant declares Cypherpunk dead and immediately revives it, framing crypto's institutional era as the beginning rather than the end of the movement that started in the 80s and 90s around privacy and cryptography. Drawing on Buckminster Fuller's quote that you never change things by fighting reality but by building a new model that makes the existing one obsolete, Artem argues the path forward is building bridges to institutions rather than burning them. He acknowledges nostalgia in the community for the 2018 era of hoodies and Berlin hard forks while insisting Ethereum is the same substrate whether you wear a hoodie or a collar shirt. Artem identifies architectural vulnerabilities in security, privacy, and identity as the central problem, citing 2025's $292 million Kelp DAO exploit, $13 billion withdrawn from Aave in 48 hours, and over $800 million stolen across the year. He warns that AI is rewriting the threat model with bugs being found exponentially faster (including a Zcash bug sitting since 2022 only recently found by AI), and that traditional institutions built for human attackers cannot keep up with billions of agents executing trillions of transactions at light speed. The only answer he sees is zero knowledge cryptography that proves computation without revealing inputs. He argues paradoxically that the architectural decisions Cypherpunks have made for decades (decentralization, credible neutrality, verifiability, operational resilience demonstrated by Ethereum's 11 years of zero downtime) are exactly what institutions now need. He closes by presenting Octant's model: a self sustaining funding engine where the Golem Foundation's 100,000 staked ETH generates yield to fund ecosystem grants (over 130 projects and $18 million distributed in 3 years) without ever spending the principal. He introduces Octa Vaults built on ERC-4626 as perpetual endowments enabling yield powered giving, Octa Grants as the allocation layer using quadratic funding and other models, and the V2 launch coming next week. He reframes web3 as not about ownership but co-ownership of shared state, since users own keys not assets, and that public infrastructure must stay funded for everyone to keep 24/7 access. 00:00 Introduction 00:08 What Is Cypherpunk 00:33 Cypherpunk Is Dead, Long Live Cypherpunk 01:23 Build a New Model Instead of Fighting the Old 01:52 Adoption Is Not the End of Cypherpunk Ethos 02:26 Nostalgia for the 2018 Berlin Hard Fork Era 02:50 Security and Privacy Are Architectural Problems 03:14 Honeypots and Bridge Vulnerabilities 03:38 2025's Exploits: Kelp, Aave, $800M Stolen 04:11 AI Is Rewriting the Threat Model 04:40 The Zcash Bug Found by AI After Three Years 05:07 Why Institutions Built for Human Attackers Will Fail 05:33 The Old Model: Service Agreements and Legal Recourse 05:57 Why Old Institutions Cannot Keep Up With Agents 06:22 Zero Knowledge Cryptography as the Answer 06:52 Cypherpunk Tech Is What Wall Street Needs 07:16 Credible Neutrality and Counterparty Risk 07:41 Verifiability and Ethereum's 11 Years of Uptime 08:20 Why the Ethereum Foundation's Role Is Narrowing 08:41 The Need for New Coordination Models 09:18 Digital Asset Treasuries as Long Term Funders 09:46 Octant: A Self Sustaining Funding Engine 10:11 How 100,000 Staked ETH Powers Grants 11:00 130 Projects, $18 Million Distributed in 3 Years 11:29 Octa Vaults as Perpetual Endowments 12:32 Yield as Insurance Against Loss 12:56 Yield Power Giving Without Spending Principal 12:56 Octa Grants and the Allocation Layer 13:54 V2 Launch Next Week 14:20 Web3 Is About Co-Ownership, Not Ownership 14:50 You Own Keys, Not Assets 15:20 Preserving the Properties We Built On 15:45 ZK-EVM and Verifiable AI Inference 16:14 The Moment Is Ripe for Institutions 16:48 Closing: Building Together for the Next Thousand Years _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this talk, Vlad Novakovski, founder and CEO of Lighter, digs under the hood of how his high performance trading platform operates at scale on top of Ethereum. Coming from a TradFi background, Vlad frames Lighter as part of the broader story of TradFi and DeFi merging. Lighter is used to trade primarily perps but also spot assets, and has been operating for a year and a half. The core concept is that every execution is verifiable by proof. Since finance has a relatively small number of primitives (order books, limit and market orders, cancels, liquidations, funding) compared to a general purpose computer, Lighter built a custom L2 for finance that runs at NASDAQ like throughput while keeping everything verifiable. Every order and cancel is signed and processed by a currently centralized sequencer, but because all activity is proven with zero knowledge proofs, it matters less whether the sequencer is centralized since anything it does must follow the rules encoded in the ZK circuits. Vlad explains that a prover cluster of over 10,000 to 15,000 machines generates proofs behind the real time trading, aggregating up to 800,000 actions into a single proof posted on Ethereum L1. The rules are public and compiled into a succinct verifier, so first in first out ordering, liquidation logic, and market fairness are guaranteed, and if even one transaction in a batch of 500,000 is matched incorrectly, the code on Ethereum rejects the whole batch. He shares metrics including a peak 24 hour period of 811 million transactions, average TPS above 6,000 with spikes toward 20,000, latency below 200 milliseconds (the lowest of any decentralized exchange), 14,000 to 15,000 daily active users, $140 billion in volume over three months, and $7.5 million in revenue. He highlights Lighter's non custodial design with an escape hatch letting users recover assets through Ethereum even if Lighter stops working, the ability to customize rules for permissioned assets and tokenized stocks with dividends and splits, and independent verification of Lighter's full history by L2Beat. He emphasizes that the custom ZK circuits keep proving costs around 10 to 20% of revenue, echoes Vitalik's point that the most efficient L2 needs the most secure L1 underneath, and closes by inviting developers to build on LighterVM, being developed with the Axiom team. 00:00 Introduction 00:41 TradFi and DeFi Merging at ETHConf 01:05 What Lighter Is: Perps and Spot Trading 01:29 Focusing on the Infrastructure Side 02:11 Why Finance Has Few Primitives 02:32 Building a Custom L2 for Finance 03:05 Why Security and Verifiability Matter 03:33 How Signed Orders and the Sequencer Work 04:13 The Prover Cluster of 15,000 Machines 04:38 Aggregating Proofs and Posting to Ethereum L1 05:12 Public Rules: First In First Out 05:45 Why Fair Liquidation Rules Matter 06:19 Peak Stats: 811 Million Transactions in a Day 06:51 Thousands of Provers on Mixed Infrastructure 07:15 Why It Doesn't Matter Who Generates the Proof 07:53 Non-Custodial Design and the Escape Hatch 08:57 Extending Rules to Asset Administration 09:30 Custom Rules for Permissioned and Tokenized Assets 10:02 Fairness Proven by Math Block by Block 10:21 A Permanent Record on Ethereum 10:21 L2Beat Independently Verifies Lighter's History 10:55 Daily Active Users and TPS Metrics 11:21 Sub 200 Millisecond Latency 11:45 The Most Efficient L2 Needs the Most Secure L1 11:45 Economics: $140 Billion Volume, $7.5M Revenue 12:18 Why Custom Circuits Keep Proving Costs Low 12:38 Strong Margins and Low Cost Structure 13:14 The Magic of Proving Finance With Math 13:40 LighterVM and Composability With Axiom 13:40 Closing and Call to Developers _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Ameen Soleimani

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this talk, Ameen Soleimani, CTO of 0xbow, presents his approach to privacy without terrorists, opening with gratitude for being American and a warning that cypherpunk values of free speech and open source depend on American law. He recounts the history of Tornado Cash, the original privacy protocol on Ethereum, built because Ethereum users were jealous of Zcash's private money features. His nonprofit MolochDAO funded the initial grants in 2019 and coordinated setting the admin key to zero so the protocol was immutable forever, making it the second ZK-SNARK deployment in history after Zcash. People used it for personal privacy and Vitalik used it to support Ukraine, but after North Korea stole over $600 million and ran hundreds of millions through it, the US Treasury sanctioned the protocol in August 2022, and developers Alexey Pertsev and Roman Storm each received five year sentences. Ameen argues the Tornado Cash devs should not be held liable for users' crimes since they had no criminal intent and the protocol was immutable, warning that Roman's conviction for unlicensed money transmission (despite being non-custodial) implies everything is illegal, since even Etherscan could be considered a money services business. He stresses the appeal succeeding matters for clarity across Ethereum wallets and applications. Addressing the anonymity set problem, he explains privacy pools, developed in a paper co-authored with Vitalik and chain analysis researchers, where users voluntarily prove their deposit belongs to an association set of non-illicit funds without revealing which one, separating good money from bad while avoiding a data honeypot. He details how 0xbow performs KYT checks rejecting untrusted sources while allowing rejected funds to rage quit as an escape hatch preserving non-custodianship. Having anonymized over $20 million on mainnet over a year, he introduces privacy pools v2 (live on Sepolia) with a shielded pool for fully anonymous in-pool transfers hiding sender, receiver, amount, and timing, compliance by default, and features like private payment requests and future DeFi yield. He closes arguing the compromise of hard entry and exclusion without retroactive deanonymization is right, since backdoors can be turned against you, and that privacy will become a national security concern. 00:00 Introduction 00:11 Gratitude for Being American 00:51 Why Cypherpunk Values Depend on American Law 01:19 The Origins of Tornado Cash 01:49 MolochDAO Funding and the Immutable Admin Key 02:10 The Team That Rage Built It in Three Weeks 02:20 Personal Privacy and Supporting Ukraine 02:43 North Korea and the Treasury Sanctions 03:04 Supporting Roman Storm at the Courthouse 03:26 Why the Devs Could Not Be Liable 03:45 The Compliance Tool They Built 04:00 Why the Conviction Makes Everything Illegal 04:30 Why Roman's Appeal Must Succeed 04:45 The Protocol That Grew After the Sanctions 05:04 The Anonymity Set Responsibility 05:36 With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility 05:55 Correcting the No Legitimate Use Case Narrative 06:16 The Federal Reserve Report Recommendation 06:35 Why the Honeypot Problem Matters 06:41 The Privacy Pools Paper With Vitalik 07:21 How Association Sets Work 07:49 Separating Good Money From Bad 08:00 Presenting the Paper at the Bank of International Settlements 08:14 How the Deposit and KYT Check Works 08:35 The Rage Quit Escape Hatch 08:50 A Year Live: Over $20 Million Anonymized 08:58 Privacy Pools V2 and the Shielded Pool 09:21 Why Shielded Pools Beat Confidentiality 09:42 Compliance by Default 10:09 How Rejecting a Deposit Protects Everyone 10:34 Features: Private Payments and Future Yield 10:59 Walking Through the Deposit Flow 11:28 Approval Times on Mainnet 11:59 Making a Private Withdrawal 12:25 The Rage Quit Exit 12:56 Private Payment Requests 13:37 Why No Retroactive Deanonymization 13:50 Why Backdoors Can Be Used Against You 14:16 Privacy as a National Security Concern 14:48 Closing: Win Here, Win for the World _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this talk, Lukas Helminger from TACEO presents a problem his team discovered in recent weeks: why institutional custody breaks on shielded chains. TACEO is building a network for encrypted compute focused on the identity and finance layers. He frames the stakes by looking at the scale of custody today, citing Coinbase holding roughly $300 billion in assets under custody at the market's height (including most ETFs), BitGo not far behind, and Fireblocks securing around $10 trillion in transaction volume across over 2,000 institutions. This makes institutional custody critically important to crypto itself. He then surveys the privacy renaissance of recent months, highlighting ZK based projects like Aleo, Aztec, Midnight, Miden, and Zcash, plus Ethereum's roadmap toward client side proving. All of these models assume self custody, where you hold your own key and run your own prover so the secret never leaves your hands for maximum privacy. Lukas explains the tension: the institutional world cannot rely on a single entity holding a key, since that creates unacceptable risk for regulated entities. State of the art institutional custody instead splits the key into shares (for example a customer share, a custodian share, and a backup share) so no party ever holds the whole secret, and uses threshold signatures, a form of multi-party computation, to authorize transactions without ever reconstructing the key in one place, with ECDSA being a commonly thresholdized algorithm. The problem is that on shielded chains, transactions are authorized not by signatures but by zero knowledge proofs, which are far more complex, and none of the existing custodians have a way to thresholdize a ZK proof. He presents the solution from academia: collaborative SNARKs (co-SNARKs), introduced about four years ago by Dan Boneh and Alex, which place the zero knowledge proof inside a multi-party computation protocol so the entire proving system is thresholdized, producing a proof indistinguishable from a standard one that verifies on chain without protocol changes. He shares that TACEO has been building this for over two and a half years, with a network live for two months doing 100,000 transactions per day across private payments, yield, and tokenization, and tooling for co-Circom and Noir with surprisingly low performance overhead. He closes inviting custodians who need to onboard shielded assets to talk, since this is a key unaddressed blocker to bringing privacy to institutions. 00:00 Introduction 00:12 What TACEO Is Building 00:30 A Problem Hidden in Plain Sight 00:52 The Scale of Custody Today 01:25 Fireblocks and $10 Trillion in Volume 01:52 The Privacy Renaissance 02:32 Why These Models Assume Self Custody 02:57 Why Single Key Custody Fails Institutions 03:24 How State of the Art Custody Splits Keys 04:01 Threshold Signatures and Multi-Party Computation 04:35 Why ECDSA Is Commonly Thresholdized 05:08 Where Things Break in the ZK World 05:43 Collaborative SNARKs From Academia 06:17 How Co-SNARKs Thresholdize Proving 06:39 How Far TACEO Has Come 07:11 Tooling for Co-Circom and Noir 07:30 Why the Performance Overhead Is Low 07:51 A Call to Custodians 08:26 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this talk, Mike Cahill, CEO of Douro Labs (the team building the Pyth Network), explains why markets need a new price setup and how Pyth makes the price of everything accessible to everyone. He recounts how about five years ago, while at Jump Trading with co-founders Jan and Kieran, he went deep into market infrastructure trying to figure out how to build a global harmonized market for trading real world assets on and off chain, and found the biggest bottleneck was financial market data. That industry generates around $50 billion in annual revenue but is siloed, fragmented, and dominated by Bloomberg charging $30,000 per seat as a basic package, with premium feeds like CME, NASDAQ level two, and ICE layered on top, requiring relationships and audits with hundreds of vendors worldwide. Mike explains that while this mess worked for existing markets, it breaks for blockchain-based cleared markets, which are global, programmable (requiring cryptographic proofs to preserve trust), and 24/7. Pyth solves this with a marketplace connecting data publishers to consumers, aggregating information while preserving trust and publishing proofs to any blockchain. The first-principles unlock was sourcing high quality data from major trading firms like Jump, Jane Street, and Susquehanna that had never monetized this byproduct, then anonymizing and stitching it together, making Pyth the first original price source rather than just an oracle. He shares the scale: over 100 institutions publishing data, delivery to over 100 blockchains, every asset class covered, powering more than 60% of perpetuals markets, $3 trillion in transaction volume, over 700 enterprises, and 3,000+ symbols. He walks through three product verticals: Pyth Pro (the Spotify for market data, one ever-growing subscription, adding $1 million monthly ARR toward $20 million by year end), a data marketplace (born from publishing US Department of Commerce GDP data on chain, now launched with Euronext, SGX, and OTC Markets), and new 24/7 markets that harmonize off-chain and on-chain trading into seamless indices. He closes announcing the 24/7 indices launching that week with Coinbase, Kraken, dYdX, and Market Vector as first users, after Pyth oil saw insatiable demand. 00:00 Introduction 00:35 The Problem Pyth Set Out to Solve 00:55 Where Pyth Is Today 01:17 The Bottleneck of Financial Market Data 01:38 A $50 Billion Siloed Industry 01:58 Bloomberg and the Basic Cable Model 02:19 Hundreds of Vendors and Audits 02:38 Why It Breaks on Blockchains 03:00 Why Blockchains Need a New Approach 03:22 The Pyth Marketplace Model 03:41 Rethinking Data Sourcing From First Principles 04:01 Tapping Trading Firms' Unmonetized Data 04:18 Why Pyth Is More Than an Oracle 04:35 Creating an Original Price Source 04:45 The Scale of the Network Today 05:03 Every Asset Class Covered 05:32 The Publishing Side of the Network 05:55 Sourcing the Best in Each Category 06:22 The Three Product Verticals 06:43 Pyth Pro: The Spotify for Market Data 07:15 The Data Marketplace Vertical 07:40 The Pyth Terminal 08:03 Pyth Pro Scaling Toward $20 Million ARR 08:31 Powering Kalshi Without On-Chain Proofs 08:57 Pyth Pro Video 09:26 A Reminder of the Scale 09:47 The Marketplace and the US Commerce Collaboration 10:10 Publishing GDP On Chain 10:35 Launching With Euronext, SGX, and OTC Markets 10:58 Introducing 24/7 Markets 11:24 How Pyth Constructs 24/7 Indices 11:50 From Pyth Oil to Equities, Metals, and FX 12:00 Launching This Week With Coinbase, Kraken, dYdX 12:43 Why 24-Hour Markets Will Be the Norm 12:43 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this talk, Scott Dykstra from Space and Time explains how his team is building the data layer for Ethereum's institutional era, providing data to smart contracts from institutional portfolios offchain or secured events onchain. Space and Time is a decentralized onchain database that lets smart contracts ask complex questions. When they started in late 2021, they set out to build the first verifiable ZKP-proven SQL database, using zero knowledge cryptographic proofs for queries asked by smart contracts. The original insight was that a lending smart contract knows nothing about the borrower wallet transacting with it (DeFi protocols have no database to query and aggregate past activity), so Space and Time brings an onchain database that lets contracts roll up and aggregate the history of wallet transactions and events, proven back to the contract by the next block. He frames this as the next step beyond the price-feed oracles that enabled DeFi summer in 2020: letting a smart contract actually run a SQL query aggregation, a powerful primitive for institutions entering lending and vaults. Scott describes the technology as a blockchain sitting next to the EVM that lets you create tables, insert data, and run SQL queries, paying a few SXT tokens per action (for example, creating a T-bill volumes table and querying it from a contract to mint stablecoins backed by offchain T-bills). With the Clarity Act about to pass, he sees fintechs like Stripe, PayPal, and Circle having shown banks how to mint stablecoins backed by reserves, and now major banks hiring contractors to tokenize offchain securities. The real unlock is programmable finance: banks can codify rules around minting, volume thresholds, and marking to market, extending beyond stablecoins to CLOs, equities, and commercial real estate repriced as often as desired. Space and Time acts as the secure conduit that reaches into locked-down offchain portfolios and ZK-proves to a contract that aggregated data (say, total collateral across 17 portfolios on two clouds) is accurate and untampered, ensuring minted stablecoins always match reserves in near real time. He extends this to virtual vaults that give lenders a data room and dashboard showing borrower collateral and deployed capital across exchanges and DEXes, then lets the vault contract itself run SQL queries to enforce thresholds and margin calls, enabling compliant, largely uncollateralized lending. He closes on DeFi itself, where querying a wallet's history of repaid loans could earn experienced borrowers better rates, powering a new wave of onchain lending. 00:00 Introduction 00:33 Building the Data Layer for Ethereum 00:58 The First Verifiable ZK-Proven SQL Database 01:33 Why Smart Contracts Have No Database 01:58 A Verifiable Pipeline of Data to Smart Contracts 02:19 Beyond Price Feed Oracles 02:38 How the Technology Works 02:52 Spending SXT to Create, Insert, and Query 03:15 Why Banks Are Leaning In 03:38 From Fintechs to Major Banks 03:56 The Benefit of Programmable Finance 04:44 Codifying Business Logic On Chain 05:16 Where Traditional Securities Data Lives 05:42 The Need for a Secure Conduit 06:12 ZK Proving Data From Offchain Portfolios 06:50 Why This Is More Than an Oracle 07:13 Aggregating Across 17 Portfolios 07:52 Why It Must Be Near Real Time 08:25 Extending Beyond Stablecoins 08:52 Why SQL Is a Familiar Primitive 09:15 Why You Cannot Aggregate Without This 09:48 The Problem of No Asset Provenance 10:39 Taking It Further Into Vaults 11:17 Why Banks Need Borrower Transparency 11:42 The Opaque World of Ethereum Vaults 12:26 Introducing Virtual Vaults 12:57 Giving Lenders a View of Borrower Capital 13:39 The Investor Dashboard and Data Room 13:56 Feeding Data to the Vault Contract Itself 14:22 Codifying Margin Calls and Business Rules 14:53 An End-to-End Example 15:55 Smarter Vaults Beyond Morpho 16:30 What About DeFi Itself 17:03 Rewarding Loyal Borrowers With Better Rates 17:29 The Year Ahead for Banks and DeFi 17:48 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHGlobal · Jul 9, 2026

In this more technical talk, Greg Swirski from Reilabs explains how his team solved the Keccak bottleneck in zero knowledge SNARKs. He opens by grounding zero knowledge cryptography, often called the future of Ethereum and blockchain scaling, in three concrete uses. First, increasing transaction volume: today every Ethereum node must re-execute transactions to check they followed the rules, which caps throughput, but if validators only need to verify a proof rather than re-execute, the whole network can scale. Second, onboarding institutions safely through ZK-KYC, where you never upload passport data to a public chain but instead attest that you are not from a sanctioned country or are an accredited investor via a small proof revealing nothing else. Third, as volume and counterparties grow, private credit or risk scoring lets a party prove they have funds somewhere without revealing positions or strategies. The roadblock across all three is Keccak, the hash function Ethereum and every EVM chain uses to commit to blockchain state, which is fast on CPU but extremely expensive to prove inside ZK circuits, and far too entrenched to replace. Greg's key insight is that you almost never prove a single Keccak hash, always hundreds or thousands at once, and his team leveraged that to beat the state of the art. He shows why: modern ZKVMs spend around 40% of their time proving hidden Keccak hashes you never see in Solidity, storage proofs chain from block hash through state root to account to storage slot, and ZK-KYC wraps a fast but large STARK inner proof inside a tiny SNARK outer proof that must itself compute thousands of hashes. Whereas many use the ZK-friendly but CPU-slow Poseidon hash, their protocol Keccacheck lets you switch back to Keccak (about 10x faster than Poseidon on CPU) for roughly a 5x inner-proof improvement at small outer overhead. The approach builds on the GKR protocol, which expresses programs as polynomials and scales sublinearly (analogous to a GPU versus a CPU), but base GKR was too slow, so they custom-built every Keccak operation to run batch-wise across all instances at once. The result breaks even against a popular state of the art framework at roughly 16 to 32 Keccak instances and runs 10 to 30x faster at 200 to 500 instances. He closes on future applications like mobile proving where passport data never leaves your phone and privacy-preserving institutional ZK-KYC with on-chain agents, pointing to a blog post, white paper, and GitHub repo via QR code. 00:00 Introduction 00:11 A More Technical Talk 00:34 Who Works With ZK Circuits 00:55 Three Aspects of Zero Knowledge 01:03 Increasing Transaction Volume 01:25 From Re-Executing to Verifying Proofs 01:48 Onboarding Institutions With ZK-KYC 02:10 Attesting Without Revealing Passport Data 02:45 Private Credit and Risk Scoring 03:06 The Roadblock: Keccak 03:31 How Keccak Commits to State 03:56 Why Keccak Is Hard to Prove in ZK 04:18 Why We Cannot Just Replace It 04:43 The Key Insight: Proving Many Hashes at Once 05:07 Why We Always Deal With Many Instances 05:30 The Hidden Keccaks in Every Transaction 06:13 Proving Wallet Properties for Risk Scoring 06:33 Chaining Trust From Balance to Block Hash 07:00 The ZK-KYC Problem 07:27 Wrapping a STARK in a SNARK 08:11 Why the Outer Layer Needs Thousands of Hashes 08:35 The Hash Function Trade-Off 08:58 Poseidon vs Keccak 09:21 Introducing the Keccacheck Protocol 09:52 Building on the GKR Protocol 10:20 GKR and Sublinear Scaling 10:49 The CPU vs GPU Analogy 11:13 Applying GKR to Keccak 11:45 Why Base GKR Was Too Slow 12:17 Applying Operations Batch-Wise at Once 12:44 Breaking Even at 16 to 32 Instances 13:19 10 to 30x Faster at Scale 13:45 Still Room to Improve ZK Circuits 14:00 Accelerating Mobile Proving 14:19 Privacy-Preserving Institutional ZK-KYC 14:50 Where to Learn More 15:11 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Shady El Damaty

Funding the Commons · May 9, 2026

As AI agents increasingly mediate human interaction, how do we make sure people stay in control of their own digital lives? Shady, co-founder of Holonym Foundation and the team behind human.tech, comes from computational neuroscience and applied cryptography. He argues that the current trajectory of AI development pulls resources, talent, and capital into a one-way infrastructure that gives little back — and that cryptographic tools, specifically zero-knowledge proofs, offer one of the most underused levers we have to redistribute power back to individuals. The core question he poses: what is the most important thing you could be building right now, with everything you have at your disposal? For Shady, the answer is technology that proves you are human, without giving up what makes you so. Speaker: Shady El Damaty (Holonym Foundation / human.tech) This session was part of Intelligence at the Frontier, held March 14–15, 2026, at Frontier Tower in San Francisco. Learn more at https://www.fundingthecommons.io Note: This recording was captured with technical limitations on Day 1. We apologize for any audio quality issues and appreciate your patience.

Funding the Commons · May 9, 2026

In 1999, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy told the world: "You have zero privacy. Get over it." Michelle Finneran Dennedy was working at Sun at the time. She went the other direction. Michelle, Chief Data Strategy Officer at Abaxx, created the first Chief Privacy Officer role at Sun Microsystems and has spent nearly 30 years building the field of privacy engineering. She argues that privacy has a precise definition — the authorized processing of personal data according to ethics, law and sustainable commerce — and that authorization is contextual. In a world where machines are acting on machines at scale, that context disappears fast. Her framework for fixing it is proofs of control: measurable, nano-level signals built into systems from the start, not layered on top after the fact. The privacy officer role, she argues, needs to move from compliance into engineering and into the boardroom before agentic AI makes the retrofit impossible. Speaker: Michelle Finneran Dennedy (Abaxx) This session was part of Intelligence at the Frontier, held March 14–15, 2026, at Frontier Tower in San Francisco. Learn more at https://www.fundingthecommons.io Note: This recording was captured with technical limitations on Day 1. We apologize for any audio quality issues and appreciate your patience.

Josef Je

ETHGlobal · May 9, 2026

In this talk, Josef Je introduces the European Ethereum Institute, a newly launched task force dedicated to getting Ethereum recognized as strategic public infrastructure by European regulators — comparable to the internet or the electric grid. He argues that after a decade of builders ignoring policy, regulation has now caught up to the point where DeFi, tokenization, and MEV are being discussed in EU papers, and the community must engage proactively or risk being overshadowed by permissioned chain salespeople pitching proprietary tech to uninformed regulators. Josef frames the urgency through Europe's risk of repeating the Web2 pattern where all innovation and business creation migrated to Silicon Valley while the EU could only react through after-the-fact regulation. He outlines the institute's three-pronged approach: producing evidence-based papers and infographics showing regulators the differences between true DeFi and centralized projects, helping regulators understand the full Ethereum technology stack beyond finance (identity, voting, ZK proofs, timestamping), and proactive outreach to bring regulators into crypto events. He announces that André Kvapiš, a former European Parliament member who helped remove DeFi from MiCA's scope, has officially joined the institute, and shares that initial funding comes from Ethereum Foundation, Aave, and Gnosis. 00:00 Introduction 00:29 Why a Builder Started Caring About Policy 02:09 Institutions Coming On-Chain: Now or Never 03:42 Launch of the European Ethereum Institute 04:22 Permissioned Chains Are Back (and Still Wrong) 05:10 Ethereum as the Golden Standard 06:05 "It's Ethereum, Not Blockchains" 07:00 Ethereum's Lindy and Network Effects 07:31 Mission: Ethereum as Strategic Public Infrastructure 08:55 Europe's Risk of Repeating the Web2 Mistake 10:14 Providing Evidence to Regulators 11:39 Tokenization, Stablecoins, and True DeFi 13:10 Ethereum's Stack Beyond Finance: Identity, Voting, ZK 14:22 A Task Force, Not Another Association 15:58 How a Regulator Joined the Ethereum Side 17:11 André Kvapiš and MiCA's DeFi Exemption 18:37 Team, Funding, and How to Get Involved 19:56 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇫🇷 *Pragma Cannes 2026* Pragma Cannes 2026 was held on April 2nd at the JW Marriott Hotel in Cannes, France and was an in-person summit for builders and leaders in the web3 ecosystem. Watch the full Pragma Cannes 2026 YouTube Playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh5OnsJ95gz7HoI1tLUj3kZr ETHGlobal's Pragma series takes place in cities around the world, and is designed to be a different kind of event. Pragma is a one-stage conference with founders-only on stage, bringing together a small group of curated attendees and speakers to discuss the future of web3 and reflect on the past. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ Follow Josef Je X: https://x.com/josefje ✅ Follow Kartik Talwar X: https://x.com/TheRealKartik ✅ Follow ETHGlobal X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCfF9ZO8Ug4xk_AJd4aeT5HA _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship? 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city

Rene Reinsberg

ETHGlobal · May 9, 2026

In this talk, Rene Reinsberg, founder of Celo and Self, presents how Self is bootstrapping global-scale proof of human infrastructure using zero-knowledge cryptography and government-issued identity documents. He announces a partnership with Google and Tether where users can verify their unique humanity through Self, claim free stablecoins, and send them to their wallet — launching next month. The system works by NFC-scanning passports or national IDs, cryptographically verifying document authenticity through country signing certificate authorities, and generating zero-knowledge proofs without storing any user data. Rene explains how applications can then request disclosure proofs (age verification, country of origin, OFAC screening) without handling PII, making it preferable to traditional KYC. He connects this to the agentic world, citing examples like Moldbook (an agent social network acquired by Meta) and Rent a Human marketplace, arguing that proof of human becomes critical when agents need to verify human counterparties or delegate identity without exposing personal data. The system enables agents to hit verification barriers in workflows and trigger ZK proof requests back to the human, unblocking agentic commerce without sharing actual identity data with the AI. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 00:00 Introduction 00:10 Welcome and Context: From Celo to Self 00:57 Why Proof of Human Matters Now 02:32 Google and Tether Partnership Announcement 03:55 Google's Use of Self for Testnet Faucets 05:29 Vision: Social Services and UBI on Crypto Rails 06:31 Why Proof of Human Is Becoming Urgent 07:41 Government Identity Infrastructure as a Foundation 09:01 How Self Works: NFC Scanning and ZK Proofs 10:43 Why NFC Beats Traditional KYC in an AI World 11:43 Zero Knowledge: No Data Storage, No Trust Required 12:13 Disclosure Proofs: Age, Country, Sanctions Screening 13:56 Registration and SDK Integration 14:20 Proof of Human in the Agentic World 15:04 Moldbook and Agent Sybil Attacks 16:00 Rent a Human: Agents Hiring Verified Humans 17:14 Delegating Identity to Agents Without Sharing Data 18:36 Self for AI Agents: Unblocking Agentic Workflows 19:44 Resources: self.xyz and ai.self.xyz 20:09 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇫🇷 *Pragma Cannes 2026* Pragma Cannes 2026 was held on April 2nd at the JW Marriott Hotel in Cannes, France and was an in-person summit for builders and leaders in the web3 ecosystem. Watch the full Pragma Cannes 2026 YouTube Playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh5OnsJ95gz7HoI1tLUj3kZr ETHGlobal's Pragma series takes place in cities around the world, and is designed to be a different kind of event. Pragma is a one-stage conference with founders-only on stage, bringing together a small group of curated attendees and speakers to discuss the future of web3 and reflect on the past. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ Follow Celo X: https://x.com/Celo ✅ Follow Kartik Talwar X: https://x.com/TheRealKartik ✅ Follow ETHGlobal X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCfF9ZO8Ug4xk_AJd4aeT5HA _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship? 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city

ETHGlobal · May 9, 2026

In this workshop, Mateo Sauton from TFH (the labs that build for World) introduces World ID, MiniKit, and Agent Kit for the Open Agents hackathon. He frames the urgency of proof of human verification: with up to 75% of internet traffic now being bots and CAPTCHAs no longer effective against advanced AI agents, World ID provides a privacy-preserving way to prove uniqueness and humanity online using ZK proofs. The system has three verification levels — device, document (NFC ID/passport), and orb (the highest, fully unique human verification). Mateo walks through World's three product surfaces: ID Kit for integrating proof of human into any web or mobile app (with backend proof verification required for the hackathon), Mini Apps that inherit World App's massive distribution of nearly 40M users and 7.5M monthly actives, and the newly released Agent Kit which lets users delegate their World ID to AI agents. He covers the core MiniKit commands (verify, pay, sign-in with Ethereum, send transaction, notifications, world chat), shares case studies including Ouro's daily airdrops to 175K+ humans, Credit's uncollateralized loans to 1M+ verified users, Morpho's boosted APY vaults, and a 21-day fitness staking app. The hackathon offers a $20K prize pool split across three tracks: best use of Agent Kit, best use of World ID, and best use of Mini Apps. 00:00 Introduction 00:38 The Agentic Economy and Why World Matters 01:55 What World ID Solves: Proof of Human 02:47 Privacy-Preserving Verification with ZK Proofs 04:14 Why Uniqueness Unlocks New Use Cases 04:52 Integrating ID Kit on Phone and Desktop 06:11 Developer Portal and SDK Setup 06:42 Backend Proof Verification Requirement 07:46 On-Chain vs Cloud Verification 08:24 Mini Apps: Inheriting World App's Distribution 09:15 The Verify Command and Three Verification Levels 11:10 The Pay Command for Gasless Transactions 11:58 Sign-In with Ethereum and Cross-Platform Sessions 12:42 Send Transaction and Permits 13:35 Notifications and World Chat Integration 13:55 Mini Apps Ecosystem Stats: 2.1B Opens 14:50 World App User Base: 38M Total, 18M Verified 15:43 Mini Apps Ecosystem Growth 16:09 Introducing Agent Kit: Delegating World ID to Agents 17:32 Use Cases: Ticketing and Rate Limiting for Agents 18:22 Case Study: Ouro Daily Airdrops 19:16 Case Study: Credit Uncollateralized Loans 20:55 Case Study: Morpho Boosted Yields 21:23 Case Study: WLD Fitness Staking App 22:04 Three Hackathon Tracks: $20K Prize Pool _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHGlobal Cannes 2026* This workshop is specifically for ETHGlobal Cannes 2026, a 3-day hackathon held April 3-5 at the Palace of Festivals and Congresses of Cannes, bringing together the most skilled web3 developers, designers and product builders from all around the globe for a weekend-long adventure to advance the Ethereum ecosystem! Watch the full ETHGlobal Cannes 2026 playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh5YrcvSj6KSTztLMy58d7d4 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHGlobal* X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ETHGlobal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship?_ 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHCluj Meetup · Mar 9, 2026

In this session founder Akhil Nanavati presents his project BeYou - a privacy-first platform that empowers verified communities to communicate and share honest feedback without compromising identity. ​Built on secure anonymous signaling principles, BeYou enables groups such as hackathon cohorts and residency programs or professional networks and decentralized communities to create trusted spaces where members can vote, propose ideas, and signal preferences anonymously while still ensuring that every participant is authentic and verified through secure email verification using zero-knowledge proofs.

Remi Gai

ETHGlobal · Nov 9, 2025

Remi Gai’s talk, “Deep Dive into Privacy Enhancing Technologies,” explores the critical need for privacy in blockchain and crypto, highlighting that transparency, while useful for verification and compliance, deters adoption due to privacy concerns. Remi explains privacy as a spectrum: from pseudonymity (default, but weak privacy), to confidentiality (hiding amounts), anonymity (hiding participants), and total privacy (hiding all data). He reviews privacy-enhancing technologies: Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZK), Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), Trusted Execution Environments (TEE), and Multi-Party Computation (MPC), comparing their trade-offs in compliance, composability, and performance. Remi emphasizes the importance of flexible decryption and composability for compliance and business logic, introducing confidential tokens and the Confidential Token Association. He presents Inco, a private compute layer using encryption-based approaches for EVM-compatible blockchains, enabling confidential tokens, private voting, and gaming with minimal developer friction. Remi encourages collaboration to advance privacy as a foundational blockchain primitive. 00:00 Introduction 00:31 The Privacy Problem in Blockchain 01:36 Privacy as a Spectrum 02:26 Pseudonymity and Its Limits 03:13 Confidentiality Use Cases 03:57 Anonymity and Total Privacy 05:12 Choosing the Right Privacy Model 05:31 Compliance and Privacy 05:59 Overview of Privacy Technologies (ZK, FHE, TEE, MPC) 06:23 Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) Explained 09:21 FHE Challenges and Scalability 09:46 Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) 11:31 Commitment vs. Encryption-Based Solutions 12:48 Flexible Decryption and Compliance 13:35 Composability in Privacy Systems 14:50 Confidential Token Ecosystem and Identity 15:47 Confidential Token Association 16:13 Introducing Inco: Private Compute Layer 17:26 Developer Experience and Use Cases 18:17 Private Voting and Randomness 18:56 General Purpose Privacy Applications 19:13 Partnerships and Call to Action 19:37 Conclusion _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇮🇳 *Pragma New Delhi* Pragma New Delhi 2025 was held on September 25th at the JW Marriott Hotel in Aerocity New Delhi and was an in-person summit for builders and leaders in the web3 ecosystem. Watch the full Pragma New Delhi YouTube Playlist here: ETHGlobal's Pragma series takes place in cities around the world, and is designed to be a different kind of event. Pragma is a one-stage conference with founders-only on stage, bringing together a small group of curated attendees and speakers to discuss the future of web3 and reflect on the past. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ Follow Remi Gai X: https://x.com/remi_gai ✅ Follow Inco Network X: https://x.com/inconetwork ✅ Follow ETHGlobal X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCfF9ZO8Ug4xk_AJd4aeT5HA _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship? 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

ETHGlobal · Nov 9, 2025

Talip Akalın introduces Citrea, an EVM-compatible ZK rollup that brings full smart-contract functionality to Bitcoin without changing L1. He frames Bitcoin’s limitations (Script’s low expressivity, fee spikes, slow upgrades) and the risks of today’s BTC bridges (multisig/“honest majority” custody). Citrea’s architecture: a sequencer produces L2 blocks, validity proofs (RISC-Zero ZKVM) attest to state, and data is published on Bitcoin, letting users treat Bitcoin as the single source of truth. BTC is the native gas/asset on Citrea, so existing Solidity apps (DEXs, lending, etc.) can be “forked” to work with real BTC rather than wrapped derivatives. The bridge design (“Clementine”) uses BitVM-based challenge games plus ZK proofs to kick out malicious signers, shifting the assumption from “honest majority” to “at least one honest participant,” a stronger trust model than typical multisig bridges. For the hackathon, Citrea offers two tracks—Open Innovation (any novel app using BTC on Citrea) and DeFi (fork/improve core money apps). Beyond the weekend, the Citrea Origins builder program provides mentorship, go-to-market, fundraising, and hiring support; early teams include wallets, a BTC-backed stablecoin, a native DEX, money markets, prediction markets, and offline SMS Bitcoin payments. The aim: catalyze a BTC-centric alternative economy (“hyperbitcoinization”) by making Bitcoin practical for rich onchain applications. 00:02 – Intro, talk scope & hackathon focus 02:04 – Why Bitcoin matters beyond price; limitations in practice 03:51 – Script vs Solidity; fees, capacity, and upgrade constraints 05:28 – Using other layers: wrapped BTC & bridge risks 07:55 – The bridge problem (multisig custody, exploits) 08:19 – What is Citrea: EVM rollup secured by Bitcoin + ZK proofs 09:12 – BTC as native asset; build DeFi/apps with real BTC 09:46 – Why Citrea’s bridge is different: BitVM + ZK challenges 10:39 – Trust model shift: “one honest party” vs “honest majority” 12:47 – Testnet, funding, partners, readiness 13:53 – Hackathon tracks: Open Innovation & DeFi 15:01 – Vision: hyperbitcoinization & BTC-centric economy 16:33 – Citrea Origins: builder community & support 18:37 – Hacker houses, testimonials, call to join _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇮🇳 *ETHGlobal New Delhi* This workshop is specifically for ETHGlobal New Delhi, a 3-day hackathon held September 19-21 at the India International Convention & Expo Centre, bringing together the most skilled web3 developers, designers and product builders from all around the globe for a weekend-long adventure to advance the Ethereum ecosystem! Watch the full ETHGlobal New Delhi 2025 playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh7zCFW3hBqatZ18rQaYeEJL _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow Citrea* X: https://x.com/citrea_xyz ✅ *Follow ETHGlobal* X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ETHGlobal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship?_ 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city

ETHGlobal · Nov 9, 2025

Gathin T from ZeroG introduces the project as a Layer 1 blockchain dedicated to onchain AI, powered by a decentralized AI operating system that combines storage, compute, and data availability into a verifiable, trustless architecture. He contrasts this with closed AI systems—“black boxes” that hide training data, alignment processes, and inferencing logic—arguing that ZeroG decentralizes every layer of AI: from uploading datasets, to training and inferencing with cryptographic proofs. Its modular stack includes a fast, low-cost EVM-compatible chain, a decentralized storage network (95% cheaper than AWS or Arweave), a scalable data availability layer for verifiable AI workloads, and a compute network that provides verifiable inferencing through trusted execution environments (TEE) and zero-knowledge proofs. The compute layer enables GPU providers to monetize idle capacity and users to select inference models by cost and quality, creating a service marketplace for AI models, fine-tuning, and RAG pipelines. ZeroG separates consensus and execution for scalability, achieving 11,000+ TPS and sub-100ms finality. Builders can deploy dapps for AI dev tooling, analytics, DeFi, memecoins, or NFTs using the Builder Hub’s SDKs and documentation. The project recently launched its mainnet, offering $10K in hackathon bounties for developers building early ecosystem tools. ZeroG’s vision is a transparent, verifiable AI ecosystem—fully onchain, censorship-resistant, and economically open to model creators, GPU operators, and users alike. 00:02 – Introduction to ZeroG and decentralized AI 00:44 – The problem with closed AI systems 01:12 – Overview of ZeroG’s modular stack 01:41 – Layer 1 chain and storage architecture 02:22 – Data availability and verifiability 03:13 – Compute network: verifiable inferencing explained 03:32 – Alignment nodes and decentralization governance 03:58 – AI service marketplace and future RAG/fine-tuning support 04:28 – EVM-compatible chain architecture & mainnet performance 05:27 – ZeroG Storage: 95% cheaper, instant retrieval 06:29 – Storage mechanism: chunking, VRF distribution, Merkle proofs 07:22 – Data availability issues and ZeroG’s improvements 08:48 – Security, scalability, and Ethereum-aligned standards 09:12 – Use cases for AI, ML, and modular L1/L2 integrations 09:44 – Compute network and decentralized GPU marketplace 10:56 – Example: model selection and cost flexibility 11:51 – Trustless execution vs centralized inference bias 12:44 – Workflow for users and GPU providers 13:26 – Builder Hub and testnet/mainnet resources 14:03 – Hackathon details and $10K bounty 14:36 – Ecosystem roadmap and mainnet launch 15:09 – Closing remarks and builder invitation _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇮🇳 *ETHGlobal New Delhi* This workshop is specifically for ETHGlobal New Delhi, a 3-day hackathon held September 19-21 at the India International Convention & Expo Centre, bringing together the most skilled web3 developers, designers and product builders from all around the globe for a weekend-long adventure to advance the Ethereum ecosystem! Watch the full ETHGlobal New Delhi 2025 playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh7zCFW3hBqatZ18rQaYeEJL _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow 0G* X: https://x.com/0G_labs ✅ *Follow ETHGlobal* X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ETHGlobal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship?_ 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city

ETHGlobal · Nov 9, 2025

Ayman Mohammed’s workshop introduces Self Protocol, a decentralized identity solution that eliminates the need for traditional KYC by enabling users to verify personal attributes without exposing sensitive data. Instead of sending full identity documents to third parties, users register once using passports, Aadhaar, or biometric IDs, generating a unique nullifier to ensure civil resistance and privacy. The system uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs)—specifically Groth16 and Circom—to verify attributes like age, nationality, or OFAC compliance, allowing users to disclose only what’s necessary. Self’s registration process anchors identities in an onchain Merkle tree, ensuring anonymity and preventing duplicate sign-ups while maintaining verifiability. During the session, Ayman demonstrates Self’s SDK and QR code verification flow, where users scan a QR to selectively prove claims (e.g., “over 18” or “not from the U.S.”) via the Self mobile app. Developers can integrate this using the onchain SDK, writing custom smart contracts that inherit from SelfVerificationRoot and define hooks for proof verification. Ayman emphasizes onchain verification as the most trustless option, avoiding backend censorship risks. The session concludes with new SDK features like programmatic config creation, scope handling improvements, and simplified contract deployment. Self’s hackathon bounties prioritize onchain integrations with higher rewards to encourage developers to build privacy-preserving verification systems for decentralized apps. 00:02 – Introduction to Self Protocol and session overview 00:29 – Problems with current KYC systems and data security risks 00:54 – Why Self eliminates unnecessary KYC through selective disclosure 01:19 – How Self uses passports as trusted, machine-readable identifiers 02:08 – Nullifiers and civil resistance via identity-based proofs 02:43 – Selective disclosure of personal attributes for privacy 03:03 – Custom claims: age verification and OFAC exclusion checks 03:56 – Aadhaar and biometric ID support for broader global coverage 04:26 – Two-step process: registration and disclosure explained 05:10 – How registration ensures anonymity and prevents duplicate identities 05:41 – Role of trusted execution environments (TEEs) in proof generation 06:14 – Overview of ZK proof stack (Groth16 + Circom) 06:42 – Developer integration using QR codes and SDKs 07:04 – Onchain vs. offchain verification and trust assumptions 07:35 – Hackathon bounties and prize structure for Self integrations 08:14 – Live demo setup: QR-based disclosure of age and country attributes 09:23 – Using the Self app to scan and verify attributes in real time 09:56 – Explanation of Self app builder config and parameters 10:31 – Verification process walkthrough with test network 11:09 – Smart contract example: extending SelfVerificationRoot 11:53 – How to override hooks for proof verification and event logging 12:36 – Matching frontend and contract verification configs 12:56 – Contract deployment setup and configuration example 13:26 – Repository overview: frontend QR code + Solidity contracts 13:55 – Handling multiple ID formats and disclosure data differences 14:21 – Specification nuances: passport vs. Aadhaar data formats 15:13 – New SDK improvements: programmatic config setup and scope handling 16:01 – How the latest update simplifies verification configuration 16:20 – Final notes, Q&A, and booth invitation _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇮🇳 *ETHGlobal New Delhi* This workshop is specifically for ETHGlobal New Delhi, a 3-day hackathon held September 19-21 at the India International Convention & Expo Centre, bringing together the most skilled web3 developers, designers and product builders from all around the globe for a weekend-long adventure to advance the Ethereum ecosystem! Watch the full ETHGlobal New Delhi 2025 playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh7zCFW3hBqatZ18rQaYeEJL _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow Self* X: https://x.com/SelfProtocol ✅ *Follow ETHGlobal* X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ETHGlobal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship?_ 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city

ETHGlobal · Nov 9, 2025

Vikas Rushi presents the concept of zkPDF, a framework for generating zero-knowledge proofs from digitally signed PDFs. The system enables users to prove statements derived from trusted documents—like age verification, ownership of degrees, or bank transactions—without revealing the full file. By extracting signatures and document data, zkPDF bridges Web2-signed documents (e.g., DigiLocker, DocuSign) into Web3 verifiable proofs. These proofs use the SP1 prover network to create Groth16 or PlonK proofs, which can be verified on EVM-compatible blockchains such as Ethereum and Arbitrum. Rushi explains that zkPDF leverages the public keys of government or institutional authorities to validate authenticity and allows users to make verifiable claims (e.g., “over 18”) using minimal disclosure. He then walks through the technical workflow, from uploading a PDF and extracting its signature to generating and verifying proofs onchain. The demo shows how users can verify whether a PDF is compatible with the zkPDF stack and produce proofs using two core methods: extract + verify and substring with offset. Vikas highlights current limitations—proof generation happens server-side due to computational constraints—and previews plans to make zkPDF client-side. The talk covers integration steps with SP1 circuits, sample Rust libraries, and pre-built smart contracts for verifying proofs. He concludes by showing how commitments prevent replay attacks, benchmarks proof sizes and times (31–52 seconds), and encourages developers to experiment with API endpoints, templates, and zkPDF’s GitHub repository for building verifiable Web3 document systems. 00:00 – Introduction: why zkPDF matters 00:34 – Web2 signed data and government PDFs 01:05 – Use cases: KYC, finance, and age proofs 01:29 – Proving statements from trusted documents 01:50 – Importance of document signers and authorities 02:16 – Indian government PDF signature example 02:41 – How the zkPDF stack works (SP1 prover, verifier contract) 03:37 – Proof generation on server-side 03:59 – Computational limits and client-side roadmap 04:19 – Compatibility check: verifying signatures in PDFs 05:19 – Demonstration: extract and verify method 06:00 – Substring with offset verification 06:30 – Repo structure and setup overview 06:55 – Environment variables and SP1 access 07:16 – Inputs, outputs, and commitments 08:03 – Proof generation options (local vs. ProNet API) 08:25 – Live demo: proof request and generation 09:22 – Proof verification onchain/offchain 10:14 – API reference: verify and extract methods 11:07 – Extracting text and committing proofs onchain 11:37 – Smart contract verification flow 11:58 – Document commitments and replay protection 13:17 – Signature algorithms and support (RSA-SHA) 14:25 – PDF compatibility and limitations 14:44 – Client-side feasibility 15:22 – Integration guide for zkPDF APIs 15:48 – Accessing SP1 ProNet and dashboards 17:45 – Benchmarks: proof time and gas cost 18:10 – Closing remarks and resources _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇮🇳 *ETHGlobal New Delhi* This workshop is specifically for ETHGlobal New Delhi, a 3-day hackathon held September 19-21 at the India International Convention & Expo Centre, bringing together the most skilled web3 developers, designers and product builders from all around the globe for a weekend-long adventure to advance the Ethereum ecosystem! Watch the full ETHGlobal New Delhi 2025 playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh7zCFW3hBqatZ18rQaYeEJL _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow Ethreum Foundation* X: https://x.com/ethereumfndn ✅ *Follow ETHGlobal* X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ETHGlobal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship?_ 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city

Moven Tsai

ETHGlobal · Nov 9, 2025

Moven Tsai (Ethereum Foundation) walks through Morro, a toolkit for building mobile ZK apps that run directly on iOS and Android (including Flutter and React Native). Morro wraps Rust code, exports mobile bindings, and integrates with popular proving stacks—Circom, Halo2, Noir, and RISC Zero—so developers can compile circuits once, generate bindings, and execute proofs and verification on phones. The CLI flow is simple: morro init to scaffold a Rust workspace, morro build to generate iOS or Kotlin bindings for the chosen architectures, and morro create to scaffold mobile app templates. For non-Rust developers, Morro also ships native SDKs (Swift, Kotlin, Dart) and cross-platform templates, plus WalletConnect-enabled verifier demos for onchain flows. Tsai showcases ready-to-fork templates and real app ideas: proof of geolocation, Semaphore-based membership proofs, Aadhaar integrations, JWT domain proofs, and a RISC Zero template that proves ECDSA on device (noting mobile proofs are slower, roughly 90–120 seconds). He highlights patterns for exporting arbitrary Rust functions to mobile via uniffi macros, hot-rebuilding circuits and bindings, and updating app integrations with morro update. The talk closes with hackathon tracks and ideas, including credential sharing from signed PDFs (with zkPDF), unified ZK identity registries with revocation, NFC tap-to-proof UX, mobile-native sensors like GPS and camera, and ZK TEE or MPC-based TEE-on-mobile explorations. 00:00 – Why ZK on mobile matters 01:07 – What Morro is: Rust wrapper, ZK integrations, mobile bindings 01:27 – Supported stacks: Circom, Halo2, Noir, RISC Zero 02:13 – Platform support: iOS, Android, Flutter, React Native 02:37 – Morro CLI overview and recent refactor 03:53 – Install options: main branch vs legacy stable 05:03 – Core workflow: init, build, create templates 05:29 – Building bindings per architecture and simulator vs device 05:51 – Scaffolding iOS, Android, Flutter, React Native apps 06:16 – Circom integration: artifacts, setup, verify on device 06:51 – Exporting arbitrary Rust logic with uniffi 07:52 – Rebuilding circuits and hot updating bindings 08:21 – Use cases and templates tour 08:55 – JWT domain proofs on mobile 09:17 – Semaphore membership: private check-ins (Zuma) 10:03 – Aadhaar integrations and QR scanning, photos 10:30 – Geolocation proofs and GPS ideas 10:53 – Onchain verification templates with WalletConnect 11:27 – RISC Zero on phone: feasibility and timings 12:25 – Example projects: face match in Secure Enclave, ECDSA proofs 13:47 – Wearables and access control demos 14:14 – Additional zk stacks and open-source references 14:37 – Hackathon prize tracks with zkPDF 14:58 – App ideas: credentials, games, matching, NFC tap-to-proof 15:53 – Infra ideas: unified ZK registry and revocation 16:27 – NFC and native sensor exploration 17:00 – ZK TEE or MPC notarization on mobile 17:58 – Resources: slides, GitHub, Telegram, help _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇮🇳 *ETHGlobal New Delhi* This workshop is specifically for ETHGlobal New Delhi, a 3-day hackathon held September 19-21 at the India International Convention & Expo Centre, bringing together the most skilled web3 developers, designers and product builders from all around the globe for a weekend-long adventure to advance the Ethereum ecosystem! Watch the full ETHGlobal New Delhi 2025 playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh7zCFW3hBqatZ18rQaYeEJL _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow Ethreum Foundation* X: https://x.com/ethereumfndn ✅ *Follow ETHGlobal* X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ETHGlobal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship?_ 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city

Vitalik Buterin, Kartik Talwar

ETHGlobal · Nov 9, 2025

ETHGlobal New Delhi 2025 opened with an energetic welcome from Kartik Talwar, setting the tone for 36 hours of building, learning, and collaboration. Over 1,900 attendees gathered from 25 countries, with 30% new to Web3. The event featured $200K in prizes, 21 workshops, and strict rules for originality and fairness. Kartik emphasized community, on-chain innovation (including NFC wristbands as Ethereum wallets), and building from scratch. Attendees were reminded of submission rules, judging logistics, and the importance of collaboration, respect, and security. The kickoff concluded with a keynote by Vitalik Buterin, who explored practical applications of privacy on Ethereum through ZK-SNARKs, covering use cases in payments, voting, identity, DeFi, and wallets. He urged developers to focus on user experience and implementation, highlighting that privacy tech is ready for mainstream adoption. 00:00 — Welcome to ETHGlobal New Delhi 2025 01:20 — ETHGlobal History and Global Impact 02:36 — Participants, Partners, and Prizes 04:49 — Rules for Building and Submissions 06:52 — Security, Wristbands, and Internet Etiquette 09:14 — Venue, Food, and Amenities 12:52 — On-Chain Tech: NFC Wristbands and Faucet 14:36 — Partner Prizes and Finalist Track 17:28 — How Judging and Submissions Work 22:44 — Mentors, Conduct, and Project Ownership 24:11 — 1inch Presentation and Hackathon Bounties 26:49 — Vitalik Buterin: Privacy in Ethereum 27:56 — ZK-SNARKs and Private Transactions 33:58 — Private Voting and DAO Governance 36:48 — ZK Identity and Pluralistic Credentials 41:20 — Privacy in DeFi and Wallet Architecture 46:59 — Why Now: The Future of On-Chain Privacy 48:36 — Closing Notes and Hacker Motivation _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇮🇳 *ETHGlobal New Delhi* This workshop is specifically for ETHGlobal New Delhi, a 3-day hackathon held September 19-21 at the India International Convention & Expo Centre, bringing together the most skilled web3 developers, designers and product builders from all around the globe for a weekend-long adventure to advance the Ethereum ecosystem! Watch the full ETHGlobal New Delhi 2025 playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh7zCFW3hBqatZ18rQaYeEJL _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow Kartik Talwar* X: https://x.com/TheRealKartik ✅ *Follow Vitalik Buterin* X: https://x.com/VitalikButerin ✅ *Follow ETHGlobal* X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ETHGlobal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship?_ 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city

Vesselin Velichkov

ETHSofia · Oct 9, 2025

In this talk from ETHSofia 2024, Vesselin introduces the concept of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and describes their use in blockchain applications with a focus on security risks. He highlights several selected ZKP vulnerabilities found in audits and shares auditing guidelines and best practices, based on our own experience. Vesselin Velichkov is a ZK cryptography researcher at OpenZeppelin, where he is performing ZK research and audits of ZK implementations. Before joining OpenZeppelin he was a cryptography engineer at two Web3 start-ups and a lecturer in security and privacy at the University of Edinburgh. Vesselin holds a PhD in cryptography from KU Leuven, Belgium and is a co-designer of the ZK-friendly hash function Anemoi. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Zero Knowledge Proofs in Blockchain 00:42 Overview of Open Zeppelin and ZKP Auditing 01:15 Motivation for ZK Proofs in Blockchain 01:47 Scalability and Privacy Challenges 02:16 Historical Context of Zero Knowledge Proofs 02:46 Practical Examples of ZK Proofs 04:28 Interactive vs. Non-Interactive ZK Protocols 08:06 Scalability with ZK Rollups 11:38 Privacy via ZK Proofs - Aztec Network Example 13:55 Common Vulnerabilities in ZK Proof Implementations 14:32 Systematic Analysis of ZKP Vulnerabilities 15:35 Case Studies of ZKP Vulnerabilities 19:26 Challenges and Future of ZKP Auditing 20:30 Best Practices for ZKP Auditors and Implementers Connect with Vesselin: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/vesselin-velichkov Twitter: https://x.com/vesselinux This video was recorded during the ETHSofia Conference and Hackathon - October 17-19, 2024. ETHSofia is THE crypto tech conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, bringing together enthusiasts, developers, researchers, and academia focused on Ethereum and other L1 chains. The conference is supported by the Ethereum Foundation and made possible by the generous contributions of industry leaders. For more information, please visit: https://www.ethsofia.com/ 🌍Join the community: X (Twitter): https://x.com/ETHSofiaBG Telegram: https://t.me/+_i70pgfFHjBkMjZk LinkedIn: @/ethsofia/ #OpenZeppelin #ZKProofs #ZKaudit #VesselinVelichkov #Audit #Web3Audit

ETHGlobal · Oct 9, 2025

Evan Shapiro, co-founder of Mina Protocol and CEO of the Mina Foundation, joins Pragma Singapore 2024 for a deep dive into the past, present, and future of zero knowledge proofs (ZKPs). In this fireside conversation with Kartik Talwar, Evan reflects on Mina’s journey from an experimental 20kb blockchain to a scalable, developer-friendly L1 for private apps and ZK rollups. This session covers the evolution of ZK apps, recursive proof systems, native rollups, app-chain interoperability, fungible token standards, and the development of zk-friendly tools and governance. Learn how Mina uses recursive ZKPs to keep its chain lightweight while enabling private, on-chain computation at scale — and discover how the protocol is inspiring a new wave of ZK innovation through developer grants, open standards, and future L2 designs. 00:00 Intro to Evan Shapiro & Mina Protocol 00:49 ZKP Ecosystem in 2017: Just 30 People 01:53 Early Versions of Mina: Mini Bitcoin 02:57 Recursive ZKPs and Chain Compression 04:23 Verifying Blockchain History with 20kb Proofs 05:21 Understanding Mina’s State Model 06:20 ZK Apps vs Protocol Layer 06:50 Mina’s Fungible Token Standard 07:50 ZK Apps as Native Rollups 08:50 Need for L1 Changes to Support App Chains 09:40 Reserved Block Space on L1 for App Chains 10:34 Prioritizing Core Protocol Changes 11:32 Lessons from Other ZK Chains 12:37 Moving from R&D to Shipping 13:34 Supporting ZK-EVMs and Starks on Mina 14:41 L2 Development with Inter-App Communication 15:40 Building Shared Libraries for Cross-App Messaging 16:36 Foundation Priorities: UX, Dev Tools, DEX Support 17:33 How to Get Involved: Grants, Governance, Discord 18:31 Closing Remarks: Why ZK is Worth Exploring _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🇸🇬 *Pragma Singapore* Pragma Singapore 2024 was a special gathering of founders and builders that took place September 19, 2024 at the Fullerton Hotel in Singapore. Pragma Singapore 2024 was an opportunity discuss the future of web3 and reflect on the past. Watch the full Pragma Singapore playlist here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzKMXK2aHh6z0saYJnVdgXWfz-vaoEYx&si=uavhkhF5Kc8XBoLv ETHGlobal's Pragma series takes place in cities around the world, and is designed to be a different kind of event. Pragma is a one-stage conference with founders-only on stage, bringing together a small group of curated attendees and speakers to discuss the future of web3 and reflect on the past. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow Evan Shapiro* X: https://x.com/evanashapiro ✅ *Follow Mina Protocol* X: https://x.com/MinaProtocol ✅ *Follow ETHGlobal* X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​ Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal Website: https://ethglobal.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ETHGlobal _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _Are you interested in Ethereum development and entrepreneurship?_ 👉 Sign up for the next ETHGlobal event: https://ethglobal.com/events 🎁 Get exclusive access and perks with ETHGlobal Plus! https://ethglobal.com/plus 📣 Want us to throw an event in your city? Tell us where! https://ethglobal.com/city _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _