ZKPs for Spam Protection & Decentralized Messaging with Status

This week, Anna chats with Oskar Thoren and Sanaz Taheri-Boshrooyeh from Status to learn about their work on Waku, a decentralized messaging protocol incorporating zk-SNARKs for spam protection. Waku is the successor of Whisper, a messaging protocol that turned out to be too resource-heavy and vulnerable to spamming.

Oskar and Sanaz explain how Waku V2 changes things, from ZKP-based spam protection to how its new networking system based on libp2p and Gossipsub can scale globally.

Here are some links for this episode:

• Trusted Setup Ceremonies Explored, Zero Knowledge episode 133
• IPFS, Libp2p & Filecoin with Juan Benet, Zero Knowledge episode 106
• Status’s write-up on how Waku improves Whisper.
• Rate Limiting Nullifiers, Status’s post on how the zk-based spam protection works.

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Thank you to this week’s sponsor, Least Authority!

Least Authority has a long history of working with privacy enhancing technologies, including Zero Knowledge Proofs.

With current projects like the MoonMath Manual – a beginner’s guide to zk-SNARKS - and the soon to be released whitepaper on ZKAPs - Zero Knowledge Access Passes, Least Authority is contributing to the advancement of learning and development in the field.

Least Authority also carries out security audits, including reviews of circuits and cryptographic code. They are committed to helping teams improve the security of their protocols and products, along with publishing their security research on these topics for the broader community to benefit from.

Be sure to check out the new Community Matters page on their website to read about how they engage with various communities, such as human rights organizations, to promote the use of secure systems and privacy-enhancing technologies.

To stay up to date, visit https://leastauthority.com and sign up for their newsletter. Be sure to follow them on Twitter using the handle @LeastAuthority.

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