Cryptonet was an applied cryptography research labs at Protocol Labs (2018-2024) working to improve crypto-networks.

About

CryptoNet is a community of researchers and engineers working on designing, proving, improving the building blocks for crypto-networks to engender new capabilities across the Web 3.0 stack.

The group was founded to drive the research behind the Filecoin protocol, but it seeks to facilitate the development and incorporation of cryptographic tools to increase security and privacy of communication more broadly.

30+

Research Collaborators

15+

Filecoin Protocol upgrades

$5M+

Awarded Research Grants

Team

Nicola Greco, Research Director

Alex North, Engineering Director

Irene Giacomelli, Research Lead

Rosario Gennaro, Researcher

Luca Nizzardo, Researcher

Anca Nitulescu, Researcher

Matteo Campanelli, Researcher

Sarah Azouvi, Researcher

Nicolas Gailly, Research Engineer

Jakub Sztandera, Research Engineer

With contributions from: Akira Takahashi, Alexandros Zacharakis, Antonio Faonio, Arantxa Zapico, Carla Ràfols, Charalampos Papamanthou (Babis), Chaya Ganesh, Claudio Orlandi, Dan Boneh, Danilo Francati, Dario Catalano, Dario Fiore, Dimitris Kolonelos, Eduardo Soria-Vazquez, Emanuele Giunta, Giulio Malavolta, Hamidreza Khoshakhlagh, Janno Siim, Justin Thaler, Kelsey Melissaris, Leo Reyzin, Markulf Kohlweiss, Mary Maller, Mathias Hall-Andersen, Philipp Jovanovic, Sophia Yakoubov

Research

Proof of Space New constructions for faster retrieval and lower proof-generation costs.

SNARK Aggregation Combining many proofs into one compact, efficiently verifiable proof.

Verifiable Delay Functions Efficient sequential proofs for randomness, leader election, and consensus.

Vector Commitments Efficient, SNARK-friendly commitments with fast updates and compact openings.

Cheaper SNARK Proving Reducing proving time, memory use, and cost per gate for large circuits.

Verifiable Databases Cryptographic proofs that database queries are correct and complete.

Publications

Untitled

Academic Service

Conference Committee Member
ACM CCS 2024 Anca Nitulescu
DLT 2023 Matteo Campanelli
CIFRIS 2023 Matteo Campanelli
Asiacrypt 2023 Anca Nitulescu, Matteo Campanelli
Latincrypt 2023 Anca Nitulescu
ACM CCS 2023 Anca Nitulescu, Matteo Campanelli
ACNS 2023 Matteo Campanelli
CT-RSA 2023 Anca Nitulescu
Financial Crypto 2023 Anca Nitulescu, Rosario Gennaro
Crypto 2023 Rosario Gennaro
Eurocrypt 2023 Rosario Gennaro
ACM CCS 2022 Anca Nitulescu, Rosario Gennaro
ACNS 2022 Matteo Campanelli
Africacrypt 2022 Anca Nitulescu
Usenix Security 2022 Irene Giacomelli
Crypto 2022 Rosario Gennaro
Blockchain 22 (workshop) Luca Nizzardo

Grants

Network Grants