lean Ethereum Part 3: Security of PQ SNARKs and an update about the Proximity Prize
From Zero Knowledge by Zero Knowledge Podcast
March 4, 2026 · 37 min
About this episode
The episode discusses the security of post-quantum SNARKs and updates on the Proximity Prize.
https://youtu.be/v8SGKS3T-3A In this episode, Nico Mohnblatt speaks with Giacomo Fenzi from EPFL and Antonio Sanso from the Ethereum Foundation . For this 3rd instalment of the lean Ethereum miniseries, they talk about the theory and security behind post-quantum SNARKs. They dive into the hash-based proof systems underpinning LeanVM, multilinear approaches like sumcheck, and how these fit into Ethereum's post-quantum upgrades. They cover the $1M Proximity Prize and the recent wave of papers on proximity gaps, correlated agreement, and list decoding. From negative results near the Elias bound to breakthroughs beyond the Johnson bound for certain codes, the discussion explores how new results slightly degrade conjectural security, why the 128-bit threshold still matters, and what it means to move from conjectural to provable security in large-scale systems like Ethereum. Related Links lean Ethereum Part 1: Introduction with Justin Drake lean Ethereum Part 2: PQ Signatures and Poseidon with Dmitry and Benedikt lean Ethereum Lean Consensus R&D Progress leanSig Implementation Poseidon2: A Faster Version of the Poseidon Hash Function On Proximity Gaps for Reed–Solomon Codes…
People in this episode
Host: Nico Mohnblatt
Guests: Giacomo Fenzi, Antonio Sanso
Topics covered
- post-quantum SNARKs
- Ethereum upgrades
- security theory
- hash-based proof systems
- Proximity Prize
- multilinear approaches
Keywords
- SNARKs
- Ethereum
- security
- Proximity Prize
- hash functions
- LeanVM
- multilinear approaches
- Elias bound
- Johnson bound
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: EPFL, Ethereum Foundation
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