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Youssef El Housni

Cryptography engineer at ConsenSys (NYC, USA)

ConsenSys

Linea

About

I am a cryptography engineer at ConsenSys working on a zero-knowledge cryptography open-source ecosystem in Go (see gnark and gnark-crypto libraries) and building Linea, an EVM-equivalent Type-2 zkEVM. I completed my PhD in Mathematics and Computer Science at Ecole Polytechnique. I was fortunate enough to be advised by three supervisors throughout my PhD journey: François Morain, Aurore Guillevic and Daniel Augot.

My research focus on efficient proof systems based on algorithmic number theory. I am particularly interested in the theory and application of bilinear pairings and elliptic curves in SNARKs.

Interests

  • Cryptographic proof systems
  • elliptic-curve cryptography
  • pairing-based cryptography
  • privacy and scalability of blockchains

Education

  • PhD in Cryptography, 2019 - 2022

    Ecole Polytechnique (Paris, France)

  • MEng in Electronics, 2014 - 2016

    ENSEIRB-MATMECA (Bordeaux, France)

  • BEng in Engineering Sciences, 2014

    ENSEIRB-MATMECA (Bordeaux, France)

Work experience

 
 
 
 
 

Applied researcher

ConsenSys

Dec 2020 – Present Paris, France and New York, United States
  • Applied cryptography research: zero-knowledge proofs.
  • Development of high-performance cryptographic libraires (Go).
  • Building Linea type-2 zkEVM.
  • Blockchain privacy and scalability R&D: zk-rollup, zk-EVM.
 
 
 
 
 

Cryptography engineer

EY Blockchain Hub

Aug 2018 – Nov 2020 Paris, France
  • Applied cryptography research: zero-knowledge proofs, proxy-reencryption.
  • Blockchain development with focus on privacy (Rust, C++, Solidity)
 
 
 
 
 

R&D engineer

Secure-IC

Oct 2016 – Aug 2018 Rennes, France
  • Applied cryptography research: Elliptic curves, pairings, SCA and FIA countermeasures.
  • Video steganography development on embedded devices (embedded C)
  • Conception of stochastic model and statistical tests for hardware TRNG and PUF

Blog

ZPrize competition 2022

1st place winner of the Mobile category

ZK-PAR 0x01

From my Medium blog - medium.com/@youssef.housni21

ZEXE - Zero-knowledge EXEcution

From my Medium blog - medium.com/@youssef.housni21

Shamir Secret Sharing — The magic 3S Spell

From my Medium blog - medium.com/@youssef.housni21

Zero-knowledge summit - ZK0x03

From my Medium blog - medium.com/@youssef.housni21

Talks

Faster Montgomery multiplication and Multi-Scalar-Multiplication for SNARKs

CHES 2023 - Prague, Czech Republic

Pairings in Rank-1 Constraint System

SIAM-AG23 - Eindhoven, Netherlands

Pairings in Rank-1 Constraint System

ACNS 2023 - Kyoto, Japan

The arithmetic of pairing-based proof systems

PhD defense - Palaiseau, France

Optimizing cryptographic algorithms in gnark

Devcon 6 - Bogota, Colombia