# Publications — Madars Virza

## Cryptocurrency and privacy

**[Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin](https://madars.org/papers#zerocash)**
[Eli Ben-Sasson](https://x.com/EliBenSasson), [Alessandro Chiesa](https://ic-people.epfl.ch/~achiesa/), [Christina Garman](https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/clg/), [Matthew Green](https://isi.jhu.edu/~mgreen/), [Ian Miers](https://www.cs.umd.edu/~imiers/), [Eran Tromer](https://cs-people.bu.edu/tromer/), **Madars Virza**
IEEE S&P 2014 (35th IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy)
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2014-zerocash.pdf) · [extended version PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2014-zerocash-extended.pdf) · [ePrint](https://eprint.iacr.org/2014/349) · [slides](http://zerocash-project.org/media/slides/Zerocash-Oakland14-20140520.pdf) · [site](http://zerocash-project.org/)
*IEEE Test of Time Award, 2024*

**[zkLedger: Privacy-Preserving Auditing for Distributed Ledgers](https://madars.org/papers#zkledger)**
[Neha Narula](https://nehanarula.org/), [Willy Vasquez](https://wrv.github.io/), **Madars Virza**
NSDI 2018 (15th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation)
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2018-zkledger.pdf) · [ePrint](https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/241) · [slides](https://www.usenix.org/sites/default/files/conference/protected-files/nsdi18_slides_narula.pdf) · [talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpVc0p9RgFk) · [code](https://github.com/mit-dci/zkledger)

**[Hamilton: A High-Performance Transaction Processor for Central Bank Digital Currencies](https://madars.org/papers#hamilton)**
James Lovejoy, **Madars Virza**, [Cory Fields](https://github.com/theuni), Kevin Karwaski, [Anders Brownworth](https://andersbrownworth.com/), Neha Narula
NSDI 2023 (20th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation)
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2023-hamilton.pdf) · [talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wVxexxMhrM)

## Zero-knowledge proof systems

**[SNARKs for C: Verifying Program Executions Succinctly and in Zero Knowledge](https://madars.org/papers#snarks-for-c)**
Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, [Daniel Genkin](https://faculty.cc.gatech.edu/~genkin/), Eran Tromer, **Madars Virza**
CRYPTO 2013 (33rd International Cryptology Conference)
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2013-snarks-for-c-extended.pdf) · [ePrint](https://eprint.iacr.org/2013/507) · [talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS3smRAfUd8)

**[TinyRAM architecture specification, v2.000](https://madars.org/papers#tinyram)**
Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Daniel Genkin, Eran Tromer, **Madars Virza**
Technical report
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2013-tinyram.pdf)

**[Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments for a von Neumann Architecture](https://madars.org/papers#vntinyram)**
Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Eran Tromer, **Madars Virza**
USENIX Security 2014 (23rd USENIX Security Symposium)
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2014-vntinyram.pdf) · [extended version PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2014-vntinyram-extended.pdf) · [ePrint](https://eprint.iacr.org/2013/879) · [slides](https://www.usenix.org/sites/default/files/conference/protected-files/sec14_slides_ben-sasson.pdf) · [talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRDiNI883HM)

**[Scalable Zero Knowledge via Cycles of Elliptic Curves](https://madars.org/papers#recursive-snark-cycles)**
Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Eran Tromer, **Madars Virza**
CRYPTO 2014 (34th International Cryptology Conference)
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2014-recursive-snark-cycles-extended.pdf) · [ePrint](https://eprint.iacr.org/2014/595)
*Invited to a special issue of Algorithmica*

**[Cluster computing in zero knowledge](https://madars.org/papers#cluster-zk)**
Alessandro Chiesa, Eran Tromer, **Madars Virza**
EUROCRYPT 2015 (34th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques)
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2015-cluster-zk-extended.pdf) · [ePrint](https://eprint.iacr.org/2015/377)

**[Secure sampling of public parameters for succinct zero knowledge proofs](https://madars.org/papers#secure-sampling)**
Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Matthew Green, Eran Tromer, **Madars Virza**
IEEE S&P 2015 (36th IEEE Symposium on Security & Privacy)
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2015-secure-sampling.pdf)

**[Quasi-Linear Size Zero Knowledge from Linear-Algebraic PCPs](https://madars.org/papers#quasi-linear-zk)**
Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Ariel Gabizon, **Madars Virza**
TCC 2016-A (13th International Conference on Theory of Cryptography)
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2016-quasi-linear-zk.pdf) · [ePrint](https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/021)

**[Computational integrity with a public random string from quasi-linear PCPs](https://madars.org/papers#stark)**
Eli Ben-Sasson, [Iddo Bentov](https://www.cs.cornell.edu/~iddo/), Alessandro Chiesa, Ariel Gabizon, Daniel Genkin, [Matan Hamilis](https://matan-hamilis.com/), Evgenya Pergament, Michael Riabzev, [Mark Silberstein](https://marksilberstein.com/), Eran Tromer, **Madars Virza**
EUROCRYPT 2017 (36th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques)
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2017-stark.pdf) · [ePrint](https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/646)

**[On deploying succinct zero-knowledge proofs](https://madars.org/papers#thesis)**
**Madars Virza**
Ph.D. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
[PDF](https://madars.org/phd-thesis/Madars-Virza-thesis-20170831.pdf) · [thesis page](https://madars.org/phd-thesis/)
*George M. Sprowls Award for Best MIT Ph.D. Thesis in Computer Science*

**[Aurora: Transparent Succinct Arguments for R1CS](https://madars.org/papers#aurora)**
Eli Ben-Sasson, Alessandro Chiesa, Michael Riabzev, [Nicholas Spooner](https://spooner.cc/), **Madars Virza**, Nicholas P. Ward
EUROCRYPT 2019 (38th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques)
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2019-aurora-extended.pdf) · [ePrint](https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/828)

## Cryptanalysis

**[Cryptanalysis of Curl-P and Other Attacks on the IOTA Cryptocurrency](https://madars.org/papers#curl-p)**
[Ethan Heilman](https://www.ethanheilman.com/), Neha Narula, Garrett Tanzer, James Lovejoy, Michael Colavita, **Madars Virza**, [Tadge Dryja](https://x.com/tdryja)
ToSC 2020 (IACR Transactions on Symmetric Cryptology)
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2020-curl-p.pdf) · [ePrint](https://eprint.iacr.org/2019/344) · [talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpUlFyg2-UI)

## AI ethics & election security

**[Software Independence Revisited](https://madars.org/papers#sw-independence)**
[Ronald L. Rivest](https://people.csail.mit.edu/rivest/), **Madars Virza**
Real-World Electronic Voting: Design, Analysis and Deployment (F. Hao and P. Y. A. Ryan, eds.), CRC Press, 2016
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2016-sw-independence.pdf)

**[An Open Letter to the Members of the Massachusetts Legislature Regarding the Adoption of Actuarial Risk Assessment Tools in the Criminal Justice System](https://madars.org/papers#massachusetts-risk-assessment-letter)**
[Chelsea Barabas](https://www.chelsbar.com), [Christopher Bavitz](https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/christopher-t-bavitz/), [Ryan Budish](https://ryanbudish.com/), [Karthik Dinakar](https://web.media.mit.edu/~kdinakar/), [Cynthia Dwork](https://dwork.seas.harvard.edu/), [Urs Gasser](https://www.professoren.tum.de/en/gasser-urs), [Kira Hessekiel](https://www.hausfeld.com/who-we-are/kira-hessekiel), [Joichi Ito](https://joi.ito.com/), Ronald L. Rivest, **Madars Virza**, [Jonathan Zittrain](https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/jonathan-l-zittrain/)
Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2017-massachusetts-risk-assessment-letter.pdf) · [site](https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/34372582)

**[Interventions over Predictions: Reframing the Ethical Debate for Actuarial Risk Assessment](https://madars.org/papers#interventions)**
Chelsea Barabas, **Madars Virza**, Karthik Dinakar, Joichi Ito, Jonathan Zittrain
FAT* 2018 (1st Conference on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency)
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2018-interventions.pdf)

## Quantum computation & complexity

**[Sensitivity versus block sensitivity of Boolean functions](https://madars.org/papers#sensitivity)**
**Madars Virza**
Information Processing Letters 111(9), 2011
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2011-sensitivity.pdf) · [arXiv](https://arxiv.org/abs/1008.0521)

**[Advantage of Quantum Strategies in Random Symmetric XOR Games](https://madars.org/papers#random-xor)**
[Andris Ambainis](http://home.lu.lv/~ambainis/), Jānis Iraids, Dmitry Kravchenko, **Madars Virza**
MEMICS 2012 (8th Doctoral Workshop on Mathematical and Engineering Methods)
[PDF](https://www.lu.lv/fileadmin/user_upload/lu_portal/projekti/datorzinatnes_pielietojumi/publikacijas/Ambainis_12_2.pdf) · [Springer PDF](https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-642-36046-6_7)

**[Quantum strategies are better than classical in almost any XOR game](https://madars.org/papers#xor-games)**
Andris Ambainis, [Artūrs Bačkurs](https://www.mit.edu/~backurs/), Kaspars Balodis, Dmitry Kravchenko, Raitis Ozols, Juris Smotrovs, **Madars Virza**
ICALP 2012 (39th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming; earlier version presented at QIP 2012 poster session)
[PDF](https://www.lu.lv/fileadmin/user_upload/lu_portal/projekti/datorzinatnes_pielietojumi/publikacijas/Ambainis_11_2.pdf) · [Springer PDF](https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-642-31594-7_3) · [arXiv](https://arxiv.org/abs/1112.3330)

**[On symmetric nonlocal games](https://madars.org/papers#symmetric-nonlocal)**
Andris Ambainis, Dmitry Kravchenko, Nikolay Nahimov, Alexander Rivosh, **Madars Virza**
Theoretical Computer Science 494, 2013
[Elsevier](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcs.2013.03.011)

**[Worst case analysis of non-local games](https://madars.org/papers#worst-case-nonlocal)**
Andris Ambainis, Artūrs Bačkurs, Kaspars Balodis, Agnis Škuškovniks, Juris Smotrovs, **Madars Virza**
SOFSEM 2013 (39th International Conference on Current Trends in Theory and Practice of Computer Science)
[PDF](https://www.lu.lv/fileadmin/user_upload/lu_portal/projekti/datorzinatnes_pielietojumi/publikacijas/Ambainis_12_4.pdf) · [Springer PDF](https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-642-35843-2_12) · [arXiv](https://arxiv.org/abs/1112.2856)

## Computational linguistics

**[Angļu-latviešu statistiskās mašīntulkošanas sistēmas izveide: metodes, resursi un pirmie rezultāti](https://madars.org/papers#mt-en-lv)**
Inguna Skadiņa, **Madars Virza**, [Lauma Pretkalniņa](https://ailab.lv/en/people/lauma-pretkalnina/)
Baltistica (11th International Congress of Balticists)
[PDF](https://madars.org/papers/2012-mt-en-lv.pdf)

Last updated: March 2026