Arantxa Zapico is a cryptography researcher at the Ethereum Foundation whose work focuses on algebraic techniques for universal succinct arguments. Her research is central to the development of zero-knowledge proofs (SNARKs) and their application to blockchain scalability. ^[1]​

Education

Zapico obtained her Ph.D. from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, in October 2022. Her dissertation, titled Algebraic Techniques for Universal Succinct Arguments, was completed under the supervision of professors Carla Ràfols and Vanesa Daza. Her doctoral studies were supported by significant fellowships; the first three years were funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie + INPhINIT scholarship from the La Caixa Foundation and the European Union, and her final year was supported by a fellowship from Protocol Labs. ^[1]​

Before her doctoral studies, Zapico earned a Licensee in Mathematics from the National University of Córdoba in Argentina, graduating in 2017. This degree is equivalent to a combined Bachelor of Science and Master of Science. During her undergraduate program, she also studied abroad for a semester at the University of Stirling in Scotland in 2015. ^[1]​

Career

In late 2022, after completing her doctorate, Arantxa Zapico began a full-time role as a Cryptography Researcher at the Ethereum Foundation. In this position, she conducts research in cryptography relevant to the Ethereum ecosystem. Her full-time employment followed a research internship with the foundation that ran from January to April 2022, during which she worked under the mentorship of cryptographer Mary Maller. Before starting her Ph.D., Zapico spent a year living in Australia, where she primarily worked in the hospitality industry. ^[1]​

Research and Publications

Zapico's research is concentrated on the theoretical and applied aspects of succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge (SNARKs), with a particular focus on universal and updatable proof systems. Her work aims to create more efficient and flexible zero-knowledge protocols. Her key collaborators include her Ph.D. supervisors Carla Ràfols and Vanesa Daza, as well as Mary Maller of the Ethereum Foundation. ^[1]​

An Algebraic Framework for Universal and Updatable SNARKs

While a Ph.D. candidate at Pompeu Fabra University in 2021, Zapico co-authored the paper "An Algebraic Framework for Universal and Updatable SNARKs" with her advisor, Carla Ràfols. The work was published on the IACR Cryptology ePrint Archive and presented at the CRYPTO 2021 conference. ^[2]​

The paper's main contribution was the introduction of a new information-theoretic interactive proof system called Checkable Subspace Sampling (CSS) Arguments. This system provides a unifying technical core that helps to explain and modularly design most universal and updatable pairing-based SNARKs. The framework offers a clear, algebraic method for creating and analyzing new SNARK constructions. ^[2]​

Basilisk SNARK

As a direct application of their algebraic framework, Zapico and Ràfols proposed a new SNARK construction named Basilisk. At the time of its publication, Basilisk was noted for achieving one of the smallest proof sizes for its class of SNARKs. This efficiency in proof size comes with a trade-off, as the size of the structured reference string (SRS) required by the system scales with the number of certain types of multiplicative gates in the circuit being proven. ^[2]​