Work Overview

Saravanan Vijayakumaran

EE Department, IIT Bombay

March 24, 2025

Pre-Crypto

BTech (ECE), IIT Guwahati, 2001
PhD, Univ of Florida, 2007
- Thesis on wireless communication
SDET, Microsoft, Redmond
- Jan 2008 to June 2009
Faculty at EE, IIT Bombay since July 2009
From 2009 to 2016
- Error Correcting Codes
- High Performance Computing
- Radar signal processing for ISRO

Heard about Bitcoin in 2016
Got a grant to attend Scaling Bitcoin 2016 in Milan
Took a sabbatical year in 2017 to learn more about cryptocurrency
- Draft of Bitcoin book prepared
Introduced a new cryptocurrency course at IITB in 2018
- Bitcoin, Ethereum, Stellar, Monero, MimbleWimble, Hyperledger Fabric, Zero-Knowledge Proofs
- Slides, assignments, exams available online. 2018, 2019, 2024
Guided one PhD student thesis
- Student graduated in August 2021
- Worked at Aztec Protocol from 2021–2023; now works at Consensys

Proof of reserves protocols for privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies
- Monero: MProve (IEEE S&B 2019), MProve+ (IEEE TIFS 2021), MProve-Nova (PETS 2025)
- MimbleWimble: Revelio (IEEE CVCBT 2019)
- QuisQuis: Nummatus (Indocrypt 2019)
Transaction graph analysis of privacy coins
- Grin (IEEE CVCBT 2020)
- Monero (code, docs, talk video) (AFT 2023)
Currently exploring Aadhaar-based age proofs using Nova
- Browser demo, Rust library, Web app code, Android app code
- Talk on Nova Aadhaar given at SETS on Mar 10, 2025

April - May 2018: White paper on Bitcoin security for Zebpay
Dec 2019 - Dec 2020: Micro-contracting on the Blockchain for Viacom18
- PoCs for contents rights managements in Quorum, Corda, Hyperledger Fabric
- React frontend, FeathersJS/Spring Boot backend
Dec 2021 - Aug 2022: White paper on Rollups for App-specific Blockchains with Arcana Network