2024 Curriculum Overhaul (WIP) #24
Description
Summary
PSE EcoDev had a mini off-site session in February 2024 to work on overhauling the curriculum structure for 2024. The main changes are:
- Move easy sections to a "pre-requisite" module before program start.
- The "Practical Track" and "Study Track" will happen in parallel to encourage coding from the start.
- Certain concepts are "black-boxed" and links are placed in an optional section.
- Mini-hackathon will be placed in the middle of the program.
New Structure
0️⃣ Week 0 - Pre-requisite Module
Course Info
- About This Course
- Open-Source Culture, Git, and Github
- How to ask questions, where to find help
- How to submit your assignments (PR workflow)
- Course FAQ
Knowledge
- A Primer for ZKPs
- Thought Experiments
- Use-Cases and Applications
- Supplemental materials on ZKPs [optional]
- Number Theory
1️⃣ Week 1 - Cryptographic Basics
Practical
- Getting Started with Circom (syntax + zkrepl)
- Write a circuit to prove input to hash
- Write a circuit to prove private key to public key
- Write a circuit to prove inclusion in Merkle tree
- Write a circuit to prove set membership
Study
- Symmetric vs Asymmetric Encryption (AES, RSA)
- Hash Functions, Merkle Trees
- Digital Signatures (Schnorr)
- DLP-based Public-Key Cryptography (DLP, DH, Elgamal)
- Cryptographic Commitments
- Intro to Elliptic Curve Cryptography
- BLS Signatures (keep this simple and black-boxed)
- Pairing-Based Cryptography (keep this simple and black-boxed)
2️⃣ Week 2 - More Crypto and zkSNARKs
Practical
- Circom Crash Course (build from command line; ZKU course)
- Write a circuit for a token mixer
Study
- KZG Polynomial Commitments (keep this simple and black-boxed)
- Trusted Setups (keep this simple and black-boxed; reference Inevitable Ethereum)
- SNARKs and STARKs
- SNARKs
- From Computation to ZKPs (use only Vitalik's blog post; arithmetic circuits, R1CS, QAP)
- Groth16 (keep this simple and black-boxed)
- STARKs (follow Vitalik's blog posts)
3️⃣ Week 3 - Hackathon Week
4️⃣ Week 4 - PLONK Week
Practical
Study
- PLONK (follow Vitalik's blogpost)
- Publish a blogpost on PLONK and present at the end of week
5️⃣ Week 5 - The Frontier (Technologies and Applications)
Practical
- Halo2 (do 0xParc course: Intro to Circuit Ex. Part 1, 6 hrs)
- Halo2 Step by Step
Study
- FHE
- MPC
- Semaphore, Bandada
- TLSNotary
- ZKEmail
Weeks 6 to 8
These remaining 3 weeks will be purely about contributing to Good First Issues.
Reference Pictures from Off-Site
Practical Track
Study Track
