Work Overview

Saravanan Vijayakumaran

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

Crypto Origins

• 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
• Guided one PhD student thesis
  • Student graduated in August 2021
  • Worked at Aztec Protocol from 2021–2023; now works at Consensys

Research Projects

• 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

Consultancy Projects

• 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

Other Projects

• Participated in 0xPARC’s Halo2 Learning Group (June-July 2022)
  • Wrote a hash function circuit https://github.com/avras/mimc-halo2/
  • Final presentation video
• Got a small grant to work on BitcoinVM as part of Halo2 Working Group (Sep-Nov 2022)
  • https://github.com/avras/bitcoinvm
  • Implemented RIPEMD160 in halo2 
• Nova-based SHA256 circuit to compare with Celer Network’s benchmarks (Mar 2023)
  • https://github.com/avras/nova-sha256
• R1CS gadgets for SHA1, RIPEMD160, ed25519, non-native arithmetic (2023-24)
• Folding-based validation of Bitcoin headers. code (Aug 2024)

Talks/Tutorials

• Lectures on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Rollups as part of 2022 ACM Winter School on Topics in Digital Trust
  • Youtube playlist of lecture videos
  • Ethereum Lab Exercises https://www.ee.iitb.ac.in/~sarva/ethlab/
• Talks on ZK Proofs as part of Aptos Winter School 2023
  • Slides on ZK Proofs, Tornado Cash, Rank-1 Constraint Systems, Groth16
• Tutorial on Rust and the Bellpepper library at IIT Bombay in Feb 2024

Thanks for your attention

Saravanan Vijayakumaran

www.ee.iitb.ac.in/~sarva

sarva@ee.iitb.ac.in

sarva_v

avras

Blog: www.respectedsir.com

Slides URL: www.respectedsir.com/cv