Indistinguishability Obfuscation (iO) with Huijia (Rachel) Lin

Zero Knowledge

In this episode, Anna Rose and Tarun Chitra chat with Huijia (Rachel) Lin from the University of Washington to explore indistinguishability obfuscation (iO), often described as the 'holy grail of cryptography'. iO is a powerful primitive that, if fully realised, could have profound implications for privacy tech as a whole. Rachel helps break down the concept for listeners who may already be familiar with ZK, FHE and TEEs, clarifying how iO differs but also some of the similarities in the assumptions upon which it is based. Rachel also explains how it differs from similar concepts: garbled circuits and functional encryption. The discussion covers the evolution of iO research in her work over the last decade, how the cryptographic assumptions have hardened since that time, and what iO can offer in terms of precise, controlled information revelation. Related links:

• Indistinguishability obfuscation from well-founded assumptions
• Indistinguishability Obfuscation from DDH-like Assumptions on Constant-Degree Graded Encodings
• On Lattices, Learning with Errors, Random Linear Codes, and Cryptography
• How to Use Indistinguishability Obfuscation: Deniable Encryption, and More
• Functional Encryption for Quadratic Functions, and Applications to Predicate Encryption
• Garbled circuit

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ZK Whiteboard Season 3 just kicked off with our first Module all about Hash Functions! In this, we have host Nico and guest JP Aumauson walk us through how to build a Hash Function. JP was also previously on the show to discuss the topic, you can see his episode here! See all Whiteboard Sessions including previous seasons here.

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