ZK Hack Kraków: Welcome presentation & Intro to ZK themes (ZK Hack team)

Transcript

[Music] so how are you all feeling are you as caffeinated as I am right now I am so excited for this event we've been working on this so it's easy for you yeah we've been working on this event for I mean since ZK hack 4 wrapped up I guess back in February um yeah who's who's in CCO for the first time a lot of people nice nice nice yeah first time I visited was in January to actually Scout for the event with Agy and we found this space and we were just

like floored but even in January kraco was really really cool and you kind of wouldn't think so like in the winter it's kind but it was really such an a vibrant City and so we decided to set our next ZK hack hackathon here oh who's who's here in kco for the second time this person me too all right so yeah hi guys by the way I'm gay uh you probably heard of Zak of course if you're here so it's this really a hub for zik Learning and building is how we try to pitch it in one word we do many things uh we're

going to actually jump into that right after but before we do this uh well if we it would be a good opportunity to kind of give you the the origin story some some words about how zik hack came to be yeah and I forgot to introduce myself as well I'm Anna I have this podcast called zero knowledge and that's where the origin story for ziki hack starts uh the podcast started in 2017 and in 2019 I opened uh I co-founded another company called zkv or ZK validator and we validate on proof of stake Networks um we've recently changed our logo so it looks like that now but now they look a little too similar so I'm going to

change that to purple yeah um but anyway so I had in 2019 I started ckv with my co-founders and then in 20 end of 2021 these two orgs decided to co-produce an online event called ZK hack and originally it was just meant to be this onetime online event but it was I don't know it was like there was a community that formed around this event we had we had all these applied cryptographers and Builders joining us and so we decided to spin it out and it's now its own company with a unique team its unique channels and you might know us for having produced these online events since 2021

just back in January we did ZK hack online 4 and we actually have another one planned for later this year we also produced something called the ZK whiteboard sessions I'm not sure if you've has anyone seen the Whiteboard sessions CK whiteboard sessions a couple of you yeah and since last year since 20123 we've been hosting these IRL hackathons and we are now at our third so yeah these I mean these three reasons these three events are probably one of the ways you guys actually discovered zik hack I know that was my case through hackathons some people knew it through the white Bo session but there are actually many other projects that were working on uh at ZK hack um a lot of them I would say actually are

based uh on Discord and I just want so as you can see it's a whole universe by itself I just wanted to focus uh for now on the study groups so study groups are a great opportunity to learn about ZK with other people in a kind of a nay sync fashion so at the moment we actually have two different study groups that are ongoing the ZK whiteboard study group So based on the ZK whiteboard sessions that we Pro so really going full circle here uh we also have the moon MAF manual uh study group the second cohort that's ongoing right now and uh in case you missed the announcement on discard we will actually also have a new cohort for thalab book that's going to start in the next few

weeks so I would say this one is the most advanced but if some of you want really to reach out the expert level well don't miss that hop on the Discord and check it out uh so yeah the two main point of entry to interact with the zik hack projects are the website so it looks like that that's where you get the info about the upcoming events Z cracker in our case but also where you can find all the all the resources that have been produced in the past so the DK white bar session Etc the Discord is probably the most important Place uh you need to check out right now because that's where the online action will happen uh during the whole weekend so when we have like

uh announcement I want to update some informations want to give a you know to give you uh some info about the upcoming events Etc that's why it will happen and also that's where you can interact with the sponsors if you can't find them at the boo right there we'll show them up after so make sure you're on the Discord if you're not already that's really important yeah and once you arrive on the Discord just let us know that you're part of this event because there's a secret Channel that I think a lot of you are in we have to actually enable that for you so once you join maybe in the introduce yourself section just be like I'm hacking add me and then we'll add you as as well are most of you there like can you put up your hands if you're

already in the ZK hack Kow Discord okay okay there are some people missing we really really really want you to get over there because that's how we're going to be communicating yeah who is not actually so we're leaving this up here for a moment please do join you have to be first on the ZK hack Discord itself and then let us know know we can let you into the group and we'll do it after this session so we've had two hackathons the first was Zack Lisbon was anyone at zck Lisbon hands up just a couple okay our second hackathon was ZK hack Istanbul was anyone in Istanbul also just a couple okay okay

who is it both all right you guys right now you're on the TR you're on the yeah ah all the lisban people actually if went to his you went to his interesting and now you're here well very cool so now we're at our third hackathon ZK hack CCO and now we're going to talk a little bit more about this event um this is our third edition it's a ZK focused in-person hackathon uh it's un it's unlike other hackathons in a lot of ways it's it's a little bit more advanced or Cutting Edge I feel um we I I actually I was trying to think of this I don't know if there any other ZK focused like chain agnostic hackathon series out there like there

are definitely ZK focused hackathons but they tend to be for one ecosystem in our case it really is open we have sponsors and partners from all sorts of different ecosystems and we're very very open for you to use all of these multiple tools obviously try to join them together if you can but yeah we've done our previous events in Lisbon and Istanbul and so far we've had over 70 projects build at ZK hack hackathons yeah I hope we reach 100 after this one yeah so yeah what you do here so maybe most of you guys have been to hackathons before maybe Web Two hackathon web three uh so of course we're here to build something that's kind of the point so yeah you will build try to do a

prototype uh if it's not fully fledged maybe it's uh it's kind of the the place where you do that uh this also where you meet other people that are really into Z either you just started you curious about it or you're an expert and actually want to share your knowledge that's the best place to do that and of course uh the reason also for being here is to learn an experiment with the technology from our sponsors so again I'm repeating it's very important please join the Discord uh we will enable you give you the CCO role to to go to the CCO chat channel uh another place where you where you you will get some information about the

hackathon is Def folio so you already use this hackathon platform to submit your application and you got accepted congrats uh that's also where you will have all the information about the prices and also a bit of the the schedule so that's a link to the dashboard feel free to to go there and check it out you can also get to it uh from the email that you received a little bit about this venue um we I as I mentioned I was here uh in January scouting with Ag and we found this you know this is a a refurbished vodka Factory uh it's very new but they've done they've done this renovation in a beautiful way we have this wonderful space and I don't know if

you've already explored but upstairs there's cafes there's a gym actually that you can get access to I think you have to pay a very small amount if you're if you're staying in the hotel here you already get it I thought that was kind of un unusual to have a hackathon with a gym in it but we thought we'd try it out um also you may have noticed some of our swag includes vodka shot glasses and that is why it's a we're in Poland we're in a vodka Factory we thought we might as well you know lean into it um a few house rules there's no smoking on the premise but as you've seen there's sort of this like area outside where you can sit down so if you go out there you can smoke but not in here this

venue is open until like tonight it's open until 11: what we've learned at previous hack hackathons is that the Friday night there were almost no hackers trying to hack overnight but the Saturday night a lot of people wanted to stay overnight so tonight it's not open overnight but tomorrow Saturday will be so it's open from Saturday morning at 8 I think all the way until Sunday after the event just try to remember if you are doing that overnight to keep the venue clean and what that really would mean is like if you're bringing dishes or glasses or Garbage into any of the rooms just remember to bring the those out to sort of the center part so that the cleanup crew can find them yeah for hackers so again the we'll

go through the exact schedule right after but the workshop start today right after this introduction session from 3:30 and um at every single break that we'll have during this day today also after dinner that that will be your opportunity to actually meet other hackers and find the team find also IDE to hack on with uh other participants and that's why we have a team formation Corner that's just right outside on the left from here on Saturday um after the workshops you start working on your project and you might face some challenges with the take from our sponsors and that's why we will have office hours so these are

dedicated time slots 1 hour in dedicated room that are in the back where you can exchange with the sponsors maybe show them uh some bugs that you found and maybe just having issue to understand a bit uh their documentation or stuff like that so yeah please make sure you check out when these office hars are because that's really your best chance to well get answers to you many question that I'm sure you will have we also have this time an expert corner so we don't have any official mentors for this hackathon but there are people here who aren't hacking and have expertise and so there's and there's this really cool kind of like loungy area right right off the the center part

you'll see it there's a sign but our idea with that was if you are one of those people who is not hacking but have some expertise hang out in the expert Corner people might come over and ask you for help and if you are stuck on something and don't know who to talk to if either like the sponsors here won't be able to help you or you don't know where the sponsor is head over to the expert Corner because we're going to have someone on site to help you find and track down that person it's not a guarantee there might be some obscured text stack you're using and we don't have anyone on the site but we're going to do our best to try to connect sort of experts with some of the learn one some of the some of the hackers we also had

so I think this is the second time we're doing this but in Istanbul we had a workshop where we had like a lamp making Workshop I don't know if anyone remembers that but it was really nice to take a break from the hacking and do something very different so this time around we again have a creative Workshop happening tomorrow Saturday at 4: I think yes yes and but we only have 30 spots so if you're really into that if you want to take advantage please sign up at the reception already and I made this little map today this is not professional in any way um but where we are right now is the main stage where you kind of entered was the catering hangout area you can see that

there's these three hacker rooms and our idea is that most of the hacking should probably happen in those hacking rooms but um if you are if if they're full or you kind of want to get a little bit away there's also a really large Ballroom over here we think of that as kind of a place where we're going to have meals but if the hacker rooms are full you're totally welcome to work in the ballroom as well just be aware that during meal time that will be filled with people eating um we have our catering in the middle I mean this venue it's not small but it's quite compact like the way you'll the minute you go out and explore everywhere you'll know where everything is um we're going to have office hour

rooms we have a workshop room we have a chill out room and we have an expert room as well you also have probably seen the sponsor area the team formation um something we I think I forgot to mention is we're going to have some games tomorrow as well to play with so yeah oh and the bathrooms are a little bit hard to find they're up in the corner next to the large staircase so if you have any trouble that's where they are this is the Wi-Fi yeah the Wi-Fi is good here I know some people had some issues with the Wi-Fi this one seems seems legit yeah maybe we'll leave it up for a minute if you guys want to grab a picture you also have signs on the on the table if maybe not all of them but yeah don't stress out too much the the

Wi-Fi password can be found easily in the venue this is the general timeline for the event we're current currently in the start we're going to be doing our top sponsor workshops today then the kickoff is at 6:00 and then we have a dinner on Saturday you hack there's office hours as mentioned lunch and dinner and then on Sunday the project submission deadline is noon 12 we're going to have lunch judging and then prizes and an Afterparty yeah yeah so this is this is a schedule for specifically for today we're currently in the intro to ZK hat CCO I just want to point out though those breaks at 4:30 and 6 that's the time when if you're looking for a team head over to the team formation area and I don't think I have anything

else here time to thanks the team so agneska thank you you can all thank her that's why we're here and that's why we have this amazing place yes thank you thanks to the team so Anna of course also Natalia D Builder and haa and all the volunteers really that are helping you can identify with the yellow uh orange shirt sorry and uh yeah if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask them they will know who to pun you to a yeah so now we wanted to come up for this intro we wanted to talk a little bit about the themes of this hackathon um the starting point is

actually just general ZK themes so ZK like this is a little bit um uh like in order of time so the first history sort of a little bit of history the first when zero knowledge first became practical the first types of things that people used it for tended to be privacy protocols then we had the scaling ZK for scaling with the ZK rollups we saw ZK for compression or ZK for light clients with ZK Bridges we had zki ID quite early as a tangible use case and then last year we started to see kind of new use case ideas or new new applications for ZK so the concept of a ZK co-processor there's now Prov marketplaces ZK VMS ZK ml ZK oracles and

then we didn't really know how to place the other ones so we just call them ZK infra there's lots of experiments there um for our hackathon though we're going to narrow it down to like what we wanted to do is basically share with you how our partners kind of fit into the themes um you are welcome to build on any of those themes that I just mentioned here like if you want to go in any of these directions play with these tools feel free but in in our case we have yeah we have some great partners and we want to just share roughly where they live in this landscape so one of the first uh yeah kind of theme is uh the ZK rollups so we have as Community sponsors zik sync and

scroll so they are like evm compatible uh rollups layer to uh we also have as a based a sponsor polygon again with the KVM but you they will also accept uh they have different bounties about you know uh improving uh the products and protocol so yeah feel free to check it out most mostly speaking it's like you know inm evm environment so if you have like solidity knowledge that's typically something you want to look into privacy with the ZK volup is not by default so even yeah the ZK name might be confusing for that but you can also play with it of course to build uh privacy related applications so in terms of text if you know solidity you've played a bit with also C on Noir which can speed out

solidity verifier that's something you you will definitely look into next up we have a platform team so this is or teams rather it's Mina and 01 Labs so here you have an L1 with a unique execution environment again PRI oh actually I think you were gonna say this part privacy is possible you go ahead yeah possible but not by default I mean for Min now it's a bit different in that you actually generate a proof on the client side and then you you put it on chain basically uh and in terms of of textt is actually also quite interesting in that OJs is a typescript library so if you have experience with yeah JavaScript or typescript that's also something that's very interesting to look into to play with ZK without necessarily having a lot of ZK knowledge

we have a few projects that are focused on privacy we want to especially highlight Alf zero one of our top sponsors who would who one could also consider a platform but we felt like privacy was kind of its distinguishing characteristics so this is where it is uh in the case of alzero you have built in privacy using zero knowledge they they are a smart contract um platform so you can deploy on there and they they've been championing the selective disclosure idea we have a few other sponsors Phoenix and fair math who are actually not ZK this is the first time that we have non ZK Partners but they're they're FHA or working in related Advanced cryptography also focused on privacy there's lots of like ZK plus FHA or ZK plus MPC and uh maybe even FH and

NPC might be kind of the same thing depending on who you talk to but um yeah there's lots of ways to combine it and so we wanted to group these uh uh Partners a little bit under the Privacy umbrella so next yeah we we're back to this a bit more recent trade I guess related to all the yeah the the the ZK supply chain proof supply chain as it's called sometimes so kind of helping optimizing the proof generation and the proof verification so typically today and over the weekend at zika Cracker we have Gat that's a proof uh proof Prov Network and for for proving um proving layer so to speak we also have he verification layer so in a way they are a bit complimentary and

incidentally they yesterday I think they announced on Twitter a collab between them so there's definitely something to explore please go talk to them if you have any ideas of how to use them in your in your application ID yes uh we also have as Bas sponsor a veil so da solution mostly they also do do a liquid staking uh yeah it's ZK in the sense that it's powered by kzg maybe compared to Celestia uh on the also kind of infr related side we have a nether mind research so they cover kind of a wide scope of application that are for most of them related to infrastructure and in all cases they work a lot uh with

DK for the s syn property and for scalability reason but definitely a lot worth exploring in there so again you're invited to go and talk to them to to learn a bit more about what they do and maybe hack with them over the weekend and we also have snar ofi one of our community sponsors in that umbrella um we also have a few teams that are more on the application front so in terms of ZK applications there is somewhat a developed space around ID Solutions or ZK and defi or dex's and so we have ZK lighter worldcoin and I'm going to we're putting polygon again in here because they've have the ZK ID like the polygon ID um yeah and this these teams might be interesting if you're

building or thinking about an application these are teams that are using a lot of the existing tools so they might be able to point you in the right direction so this is our theme again yeah so have a think about this I mean obviously you're going to spend some time or actually later on even in this presentation we're going to share some more like tangible use cases but there are a lot of tools a lot of teams here to to to talk to to learn from and so I hope you'll get a chance to reach out to them yeah so before we kind of wrap up this uh very mini intro to ZK I just wanted to put together the the ZK text TX so to speak the the languages that

you can use to build your ZK application and that you might be using over the weekend so first wanted to Elight OJs so that's the typescript library that I was mentioning earlier uh developed by ow Labs so that's again a good candidate if you have some typ STP of JavaScript knowledge then you have uh quite a few ZK dsls domain specific languages starting with circum developed by a polygon team um then Noir Leo Caro L also other so mostly Rusty but also list for um is uh languages and dsls and last but not least you can also use well solidity rust and ink to actually build your ZK related application and yeah

incidentally solidity rest and ink are pretty much the Tex stack for Alf zero are one of our top sponsors so if you if you know this well you might be interested in checking lfz uh this is the V diagram that I often refer to because for me that's kind of the way to approach ZK hack hackathon as a hacker so so typically you would have two path that you can follow uh to brainstorm one is more the application path so that's why you're going to try and do a prototype a proof of concept of an application related to voting to ID to maybe a game uh a bit more like usable and tangible product the other path the other track is more

like applied cryptography so in most cases the the languages are not mature to say the least and we're always interested in adding some components filling filling the gaps in the technology here so that could be yeah implementing a new signature implementing a new hashing function in the specific dsls so that requires of course a bit more knowledge on the cryptography side but that's still a very a very big engineering feature to work on this and that's an interesting project to cover over over the weekend also we're not mentioning prizes in this session but our prizes and the bounties do kind of span both of these categories so yeah I think later on today when we do our announcement just keep keep your eye out for that as well to see kind of

where you want to direct your your work you can do both both together actually the middle of the vent diagram is also great it's actually the best so yeah you can you can try and fit this small area because that's where you can have very interesting results as well and this is a hackathon so hackathons are not really a real product so yeah actually shout out to dadan I I don't think he's here but he keeps popping up in my Twitter timeline and I thought it was really a great way to uh to describe the hackathon so we're here to build something and do cool stuff but it's also here where you we Face challenges with the technology we will face bug that happens all the time sometimes the

documentation is not quite clear and we have questions and that's why we do this in person you can go to the teams exchange with them face the challenges together and yeah really that's that's why we're here so this is fun this is hard but this is this is a hackathon this is zik hack we did notice that a few people applied who who didn't have very much hackathon experience and we do want to let you know that you have decided to start your hackathon journey with a very difficult hackathon um be aware uh but what's nice about this is you're also on The Cutting Edge like the teams that are building these tools they're here and those tools are built but you can actually contribute you could affect you could

help to direct and and make them better today um if you have done a lot of like more web to hackathons you will also find this different just the paradigms are different but we hope you'll you know come along with us learn with us and just yeah talk to everyone here so you can get on board here are a few of the ideas that have been explored in previous hackathons there's way more than this but we just wanted to put a few up here and we wanted to take a photo of the team formation corner just to remind you that during the breaks it would be a really good chance for you to meet your teams um there is no full break after this we're going to launch I think we're

going to take a very short pause just one minute then we're coming back but there's a break right after the next workshop and so you might want to check it out you might want to head over there then um we're also going to be directing people there after the kickoff so if you don't find a team before the kickoff don't worry there's more time so yeah I guess should we take our quick pause yeah we can maybe take one I mean a couple minutes pause just for Alf zero I think I saw Adam somewhere uh to come on stage and start the prep to being ready for the next one again two workshops coming kick up session at 6:30 that's where we want to have all of you and that's when

the hacking starts so keep that in mind enjoy the workshops just take a quick break now and then we'll go with Alf workshop and maybe let's say this because a few people were asking about like when does the hackathon start officially so what we would really like this this part of the day to be about is like meeting people maybe you can start brainstorming ideas you can learn you can do a little bit of setup but the real kickoff is at the kickoff at 6:30 or just after so push get push at 6:30 I guess keep keep that in mind um yeah I know a bunch of folks were asking we hope you'll enjoy these these workshops and yeah get to know everyone here and that's a wrap thank you very much thanks