Post-Quantum and Transparent SNARKs

PhD Qualifying Examination


Title: "Post-Quantum and Transparent SNARKs"

by

Mr. Christodoulos PAPPAS


Abstract:

Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge are cryptographic protocols
that enable a prover to convince a verifier about the validity of an NP
statement by generating a small and easy to verify proof. Recently, SNARKs
have emerged as fundamental components crucial for numerous applications such
as scaling and bridging blockchains or proving the correctness of inference
or training of machine learning models. Unfortunately, the most widely used
SNARK systems to date have one key limitation: They rely on cryptographic
assumptions that are insecure against adversaries with quantum capabilities.
To overcome these limitations, post-quantum secure SNARKs have been proposed.
In this work, we provide a comprehensive survey of these SNARKs. We first
partition those works based on their underlying primitives, categorizing them
into code-based constructions—which utilize error-correcting codes and
cryptographic hash functions—and lattice-based constructions, which rely on
hard lattice problems. For each category, we dissect the foundational design
strategies, examine key algorithmic optimizations, and evaluate the
performance trade-offs inherent to their verification time, proof size, and
prover complexity.


Date:                   Thursday, 18 June 2026

Time:                   3:00pm - 5:00pm

Venue:                  Room 4472
                        Lift 25/26

Committee Members:      Dr. Dimitris Papadopoulos (Supervisor)
                        Prof. Ding Cunsheng (Chairperson)
                        Dr. Mingxun Zhou