Year in Review: ZK Podcast in 2025 & Beyond

In this end-of-year episode, x.com/AnnaRRose recaps the major ZK themes of 2025 and gives a preview of what’s coming in 2026 — new episodes, a mini-series, zkSummit14, and the rollout of ZK Mesh Plus, a unified space for newsletters, educational content, and events.

She highlights this year’s core research threads, from lattices and Ligero to quantum security, ZK-ID systems, emerging applications, and the ongoing push toward better proving benchmarks. Anna wraps with reflections on why privacy tech is becoming more urgent in the age of AI and what the community will be exploring next year.
Related Links

Ecosystem
• ZK Whiteboard Sessions (zkhack.dev/whiteboard)
• ZK Mesh (zkmesh.substack.com)
• Subscribe to ZK Mesh (zkmesh.substack.com/subscribe)
• ZK Podcast substack (zeroknowledge.substack.com)
• State of ZK Report (zeroknowledge.fm/the-state-of-zk-report)

ZK Systems Story
• Back to the Future with Zero Knowledge (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/347)
• Zero Knowledge Systems, Privacy and Security with Jonathan Wilkins (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/351)
• The Founding of Zero Knowledge Systems with Austin Hill (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/354)

Lattices
• Implementing LatticeFold with Matthew and Albert from Nethermind (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/361)
• Lattices, Folding, & Symphony with Binyi Chen (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/385)
• ZK Whiteboard:Lattice-based SNARKs, w/ Vadim Lyubashevsky (zkhack.dev/whiteboard/s3m3)
• ZK Whiteboard:LatticeFold, w/ Binyi Chen (zkhack.dev/whiteboard/s3m4)

Ligero
• Ligero for Memory-Efficient ZK with Muthu (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/369)
• ZK Whiteboard:The Ligero Proof System, w/ Muthu Venkitasubramaniam (zkhack.dev/whiteboard/s3m5)

Quantum
• Quantum Engineering with Jelena Vučković (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/357)
• Quantum Punks with Alex and Nicola (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/360)
• Countdown to Q-Day with Project 11 (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/383)

ZK-ID
• Bringing ID Onchain with Self (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/366)
• zkPDF and zkID with Vikas Rushi and Ying Tong (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/372)
• Evolving ZK Identity from Iden3 to Privado & Billions (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/377)
• ZKPassport, Obsidion & the Emerging Noir Ecosystem (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/380)
• Building ZK Registries Onchain with Rarimo (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/358)

More
• How ZK inspired AI Watermarking with Miranda Christ (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/371)
• Lighter, Perp DEXs and Custom ZK Circuits (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/374)
• zkTLS with Maddy from Reclaim (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/362)
• ZKTorch & the Evolution of ZKML with Daniel Kang (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/370)
• Zerocoin to zk-creds: Modern ZK History with Ian Miers (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/378)
• Ethproofs, zkVM Benchmarks & the Unstoppable Rise of ZK with Justin Drake (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/373)
• ZK Benchmarks with Conner Swann (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/356)
• Verifiable Key Management and TEEs with Turnkey (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/379)
• TLSNotary with Dan and Sinu (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/368)
• Local-First with grjte and Goblin Oats (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/367)
• AI and ZK Auditing with David Wong (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/364)
• The Quest for Practical iO with Machina iO (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/384)
• Indistinguishability Obfuscation (iO) with Huijia (Rachel) Lin (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/375)
• Pratyush Mishra on Tiny Proofs, Folding, Low-Memory SNARKs and More (zeroknowledge.fm/podcast/386)

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Read transcript (github.com/ZeroKnowledgefm/episode-transcripts…)