I will discuss the following modular approach to the design of efficient zero-knowledge proofs and arguments: (1) design an information-theoretic probabilistic proof system; (2) apply a general cryptographic compiler to obtain a protocol whose security is based on cryptographic assumptions.

Most efficient zero-knowledge protocols from the literature, including those that have been implemented, can be cast into the above framework. The talk will give an overview of different types of proof systems and cryptographic compilers that give rise to a wide range of efficiency and security tradeoffs and motivate interesting questions for further research.