Grant Application: ZKP & Cryptography Course – 4th Edition

Community Grants Applications
1

Hi everyone,

I would like to share our Zcash Community Grants application for the 4th edition of our ZKP & Cryptography Course, an educational program focused on zero-knowledge proofs and modern cryptography.

The course has been organized for the past three years and has brought together more than 150 participants. The upcoming edition will consist of 10 sessions, followed by consultations and an in-person hackathon in Belgrade in April 2027.

The program includes:

  1. Introduction to ZKP; ZK-SNARKs and ZK-STARKs; algebraic structures; discrete logarithm problem;

  2. Hash functions; elliptic curves and pairings; private and public keys; BLS signatures;

  3. PLONK;

  4. Introduction to CIRCOM;

  5. Introduction to Cryptography;

  6. Semaphore and MACI;

  7. ZK bugs & special lecture;

  8. Workshop: Building ZKP Applications;

  9. ZKP on Ethereum vs. Solana;

  10. Private transactions: Zcash and stealth addresses; LWE, RLWE and FHE; preparation for the final project.

The goal of this edition is to combine theoretical foundations with practical implementation and give participants enough background to build their own ZK applications and final projects.

For this edition, we are requesting $5,000 from Zcash Community Grants to support the organization of the course and hackathon.

Our full grant application is available here. The application was originally submitted in August. Unfortunately, I subsequently experienced an issue with access to my GitHub account, which delayed me in creating this forum post.

Finally, a few words about the organization behind this initiative. The Mathematical Academy is an educational initiative that has been working with students for seven years through advanced mathematics, physics, cryptography, and university preparation programs. In addition to academic and professional-level cryptography education, the Academy develops programs for younger students that connect mathematics with modern technologies. In the previous academic year alone, students of the Mathematical Academy won 76 awards at national-level competitions.

I would be happy to provide any additional information or answer any questions from the community.

Best,
Marija Mikić
Mathematical Academy

4 Likes
2

I was interested in this proposal from an education perspective. I really like the combination of theory, hands-on learning, mentoring, and the hackathon.

I am curious about scalability. Could the curriculum and educational materials be shared so this model could eventually be adapted in other places, such as Mexico or other parts of Latin America?

Since this is the fourth edition, I am also curious about the students from previous cohorts. Have some continued working in ZK or privacy? Could former students eventually help mentor or teach new participants?

It seems there may be an opportunity for the impact of this program to extend well beyond one cohort in Serbia.

1 Like
3

I have submitted a grant application to Zcash Community Grants.

GitHub Issue: Grant Application - Verified Pasta Curve Operations, Poseidon R1CS Constraints, and Folding-Based Recursive Proof Architecture · Issue #436 · ZcashCommunityGrants/zcashcommunitygrants · GitHub

Summary: We have built and verified a complete cryptographic proof system over the Pasta curve cycle (Pallas and Vesta) — Zcash’s native curves — including Poseidon-3 as 1,088 R1CS constraints (SAT: YES), homomorphic Pedersen commitments on both curves, and a 1,600-byte recursive epoch proof (π_E) verifiable without the witness.

Requesting $150,000 to complete the production instantiation and package the bilingual golden-oracle methodology for Zcash developers.

I would create a dedicated topic but my account is new. I welcome the community’s feedback.

4

Thank you, Sewa. These are exactly the kinds of directions we would like the program to grow in.

Regarding scalability, yes, our goal is for the curriculum and educational materials to become reusable beyond the local course itself. We already prepare structured lecture materials, exercises, and practical assignments, and we would be very happy for these resources to be adapted for other communities and regions.

At the same time, the curriculum is not static. We update it each year to reflect developments in the field and the needs of the industry. For example, this year we added a dedicated topic on ZK bugs and common implementation and security issues. So while the core mathematical and cryptographic foundations remain, the practical content evolves together with the ecosystem.

In the shorter term, I primarily see the next step as expanding the program across the region, particularly to other countries of the former Yugoslavia. There have already been some early conversations in that direction for the future, more specifically for the next season of the program. After that, I can definitely imagine the model being adapted more broadly, including in places such as Mexico or other parts of Latin America, either independently or in collaboration with local educators and ZK communities.

We also see the alumni network as an important part of the program’s long-term impact. Many of our participants are exceptionally talented young people, and one of our biggest goals is to give them a real opportunity to become part of the ZK and privacy ecosystem. Some former participants have already continued into master’s and PhD studies related to cryptography, while others are working in research, engineering, and Web3 development.

We would very much like to involve former students more actively in future editions, first as mentors and teaching assistants, and eventually as lecturers themselves. For us, the long-term goal is not only to educate one cohort, but to create a sustainable pipeline of young researchers and developers who can grow within the ecosystem and later help educate the next generation.

1 Like