Zcash faces a special challenge when it comes to vulnerabilities. Ethereum and others get away with a lot simply because the public nature of their blockchains favors auditing (and, well, surveillance). We don’t have that luxury.
This has genuinely been shifting how I perceive network upgrades that “touch” the privacy and hardness circuits. Every modification is a potential fatal liability being incurred — and we may not even know whether one already exists in the current state of things.
I think the community would do well to permanently fund researchers and scientists dedicated to continuously evaluating these components — and not only from a strict security standpoint. We know that even when the goal is innovation or optimization, the simple act of studying the circuits often surfaces issues that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Just as importantly, any findings (and the people who make them) should be held in very high regard publicly. In Big Tech, “pre-bugs” tend to go underappreciated, and that contributes to a culture where such work isn’t prioritized or rewarded. Zcash, given what’s at stake, can’t afford to repeat that pattern.
Which is why I want to take the opportunity to say thank you to the people who have designed, built, specced, reviewed, and audited these circuits over the past decade. This list is certainly incomplete, and any omissions are my own (and Claude’s) — but the work of the people below is a meaningful part of why Zcash exists and why it remains trustworthy:
- Alessandro Chiesa
- Alex Biryukov
- Andrew Miller
- Andrew Poelstra
- Ariel Gabizon
- Benedikt Bünz
- Brian Warner
- Chelsea Komlo
- Christina Garman
- Daira-Emma Hopwood
- Dan Boneh
- Daniel Kales
- Deirdre Connolly
- Derek Hinch
- Dmitry Khovratovich
- Dominic Tarr
- Eirik Ogilvie-Wigley
- Eli Ben-Sasson
- Emery Rose Hall
- Eran Tromer
- Eric Schorn
- George Tankersley
- Georgios Konstantopoulos
- Greg Pfeil
- Henry de Valence
- Howard Wu
- Ian Miers
- Jack Gavigan
- Jack Grigg
- Jack Lloyd
- James Prestwich
- Jan Winkelmann
- Jay Graber
- Jean-Paul Calderone
- Jennifer Fernick
- Jens Groth
- John Dobbertin
- Kobi Gurkan
- Kris Nuttycombe
- Lorenzo Grassi
- Madars Virza
- Markulf Kohlweiss
- Markus Schofnegger
- Mary Maller
- Matthew Green
- Mike Lodder
- Mirco Richter
- Nathan Ginnever
- Nathan Wilcox
- Nicholas Ward
- Nicolas Gailly
- Oana Ciobotaru
- Parnian Alimi
- Paul Bottinelli
- Peter Todd
- Peter Van Valkenburgh
- Philipp Jovanovic
- Pieter Wuille
- Pratyush Mishra
- Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan
- Roman Walch
- Sean Bowe
- Simon Liu
- Steven Smith
- Taylor Hornby
- Teor
- Thomas Pornin
- Ying Tong Lai
- Zac Williamson
- Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn