## 數位程密: plurality x progcrypto

@oskarth, d/acc day at ETHTaipei
Taipei, 2025

---

## What I'm not going to talk about

- waku (p2p private censorship-resistant comms)
- mopro (client-side zk proving)
- zkintro (my book on zk)
- ...all d/acc related efforts
- instead...

---

## Takeaway

**Programmable Cryptography will enable
a more ⿻ plural world.**

---

## ⿻ Plurality

- ⿻: Plurality/數位, both digital and plural
- Digital democracy in the 21th century
- Neither mountain-man nor king-tyrant
- Tech for collaborating across social differences
- A lot of overlap with d/acc

Note:
As nouns or verb
Mountain-main Libertarianism, focused only on individual in isolation
King-tyrant Technocracy, Big Tech top down control
Taiwan as a case study
Back to the roots of original Internet vision
Optimistic, build, accelerate/innovate

---

## Programmable Cryptography

- What's connection?
- Cryptography: Securing digital information
- ProgCrypto: Cryptography + Computation
- Tools: ZK, MPC, FHE, IO

Note:
Slide 6
Cryptography with tools like signatures and encryption
Rely on it for current Internet to do everything
Zero Knowledge Proofs, Multi-Party Computation, Fully Homomorphic Encryption
We'll look at this more in specific examples

---

## Programmable Cryptography (cont)

- Ex: Prove you 18+ with passport using ZK
- General-purpose privacy and succinctness
- ZK is single-player, MPC/FHE multi-player, IO god-mode
- Flexible lego blocks
- Solve trust issues with cryptography

Note:
Slide 6
Cryptography with tools like signatures and encryption
Rely on it for current Internet to do everything
Zero Knowledge Proofs, Multi-Party Computation, Fully Homomorphic Encryption
IO: new kid on block, any program obfuscated
We'll look at this more in specific examples

---

## d/acc matrix


Note:
- Top right corner

---

## Digital democracy

- Enshrined ⿻ Freedom and rights as foundation for a digital democracy
- similar to OS and apps, kernel/user space
- Dimensions identified, builds on each other
- Identity, Association, Commerce, Contracts, Access

Note:
OS, access control etc, robust foundation
Build on each other; on top we can build apps
Hardness - trustworthy, crypto, sound money
Look at each dimension in turn
Disclaimer: simplified view, mapping to progcrypto, not complete

---

## Case studies

- Look at a few examples and how fit in
- Identity: Rarimo
- Association: Cursive
- Commerce: Privacy Pools and Railgun
- Access: ZKP2P and ZK Email

---

## IDENTITY


- Challenge: Anonymity vs Centralized Control
- Without secure identity, digital democracy fails

Note:
"On Internet no one knows you are a dog"
Don't want either extreme
Without secure identity, digital democracy fails

---

## Example: Rarimo ZK-ID


- Used in Ukraine, Russian and Georgia
- Liquid democracy

---

## ASSOCIATION


Beyond public vs private; we live in *common context*

Note:
Too simplified only private or public
Free association requirement for free society
But it involves establishing and protecting context
Threat is e.g. unilateral oversharing

---

## Example: Cursive


- Private set intersection
- Digital pheromones with MPC/FHE

---

## COMMERCE

- Cash vs CBDC vs Crypto
- Cash: Dumb but works
- Digital world enables more (good and bad)

Note:
Native money for Internet, but how?
Private, fungible, not control/surveillance
Credit networks, community currencies
OSS contributions / group freedom interest

---

## Example: Privacy Pools / Railgun



- Not CBDC nor transparency
- Privacy without NK

---

## ACCESS

- Access as fundamental right
- Availability but also integrity
- Information integrity
- Deep fakes => signatures of content
- More signed data:
- ZK signed data and prove valid operations
- Prove emails with zk-email
- Openness and trust

Note:
Access as fundamental right
Not just availability, need integrity
Ability to verify and maintain privacy
Openness and trust
E.g. Reuters standard ops, grey/resize/crop
Time and place, ~trust Canon/Camera

---

## Example: zk-email / ZK-P2P


- Fiat on/offramp
- Prove access to email

---

## Programmable Cryptography
Hard and flexible, like bamboo and carbon fiber


> ⿻ develop tools that allow greater cooperation and consensus ... make space for greater diversity

Note:
We want to be both robust and flexible
Cryptographic hardness, sound money
But also flexible to the world we live in
Anchored in old, like bamboo
But also new into the digital future, carbon fiber
Programmble Cryptography allows us to build
new institutes and systems that leads to a more free and democratic world in 21th century

---


---

## Thanks! Q&A

- oskarth.com / @oskarth
- zkintro.com