In the past decade, systems that use probabilistic proofs in real-world applications have seen explosive growth. These systems build upon some of the crown jewels of theoretical computer science—interactive proofs, probabilistically checkable proofs, and zero-knowledge proofs—to solve problems of trust and privacy in a wide range of settings.

This talk describes my work building systems that answer questions ranging from “how can we build trustworthy hardware that uses untrusted components?” to “how can we reduce the cost of verifying smart contract execution in blockchains?” Along the way, I will discuss the pervasive challenges of efficiency, expressiveness, and scalability in this research area; my approach to addressing these challenges; and future directions that promise to bring this exciting technology to bear on an even wider range of applications.