Year in Review: ZK Podcast in 2025 & Beyond

In this end-of-year episode, Anna 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 ZK MeshSubscribe to ZK MeshZK Podcast substackState of ZK Report ZK Systems Story Back to the Future with Zero KnowledgeZero Knowledge Systems, Privacy and Security with Jonathan WilkinsThe Founding of Zero Knowledge Systems with Austin Hill Lattices Implementing LatticeFold with Matthew and Albert from Nethermind Lattices, Folding, & Symphony with Binyi ChenZK Whiteboard:Lattice-based SNARKs, w/ Vadim LyubashevskyZK Whiteboard:LatticeFold, w/ Binyi Chen Ligero Ligero for Memory-Efficient ZK with MuthuZK Whiteboard:The Ligero Proof System, w/ Muthu Venkitasubramaniam Quantum Quantum Engineering with Jelena VučkovićQuantum Punks with Alex and NicolaCountdown to Q-Day with Project 11 ZK-ID Bringing ID Onchain with SelfzkPDF and zkID with Vikas Rushi and Ying TongEvolving ZK Identity from Iden3 to Privado & BillionsZKPassport, Obsidion & the Emerging Noir EcosystemBuilding ZK Registries Onchain with Rarimo More How ZK inspired AI Watermarking with Miranda ChristLighter, Perp DEXs and Custom ZK CircuitszkTLS with Maddy from Reclaim   ZKTorch & the Evolution of ZKML with Daniel Kang Zerocoin to zk-creds: Modern ZK History with Ian MiersEthproofs, zkVM Benchmarks & the Unstoppable Rise of ZK with Justin Drake ZK Benchmarks with Conner Swann Verifiable Key Management and TEEs with TurnkeyTLSNotary with Dan and Sinu  Local-First with grjte and Goblin Oats AI and ZK Auditing with David WongThe Quest for Practical iO with Machina iO  Indistinguishability Obfuscation (iO) with Huijia (Rachel) Lin Pratyush Mishra on Tiny Proofs, Folding, Low-Memory SNARKs and More     **If you like what we do:** * Find all our links here! @ZeroKnowledge | Linktree * Subscribe to our podcast newsletter * Follow us on Twitter @zeroknowledgefm * Join us on Telegram * Catch us on YouTube   **Support the show:** * Patreon * ETH - Donation address * BTC - Donation address * SOL - Donation address * ZEC - Donation address Read transcript