Leveraging Duality for Programming with zkSNARKs

Watch a 26-minute conference talk from PriSC 2025 that explores a novel approach to programming with Non-Interactive Zero-Knowledge (NIZK) Proofs. Learn how researchers Rahul Krishnan and Ethan Cecchetti from the University of Wisconsin-Madison address the limitations of current NIZK specification tools by introducing a new language feature that leverages the inherent duality between proof construction and verification. Discover how this approach enables significant code reuse and simplifies maintenance by combining these operations into a single piece of code. The presentation explains their translation method that compiles this combined code into separate components compatible with existing cryptographic libraries, and outlines ongoing work to prove critical metatheory about their language, including powerful notions of compiler correctness. This ACM SIGPLAN-sponsored talk was presented at the PriSC 2025 workshop on January 19, 2025.