Pushpendra Pal

Journey to the now.

I am Pushpendra, an aspring cryptographer working my way through the maze of zero knowledge proofs and arguments.

Before completing my Masters in Cryptology & Security from ISI-Kolkata, I was fascinated with operating systems, network security and algorithms. But soon I discovered the real magic lies in the mathematics behind those security protocols and their attacks. Good thing was I had developed an interest in Algorithms in the final years of my BTech at BITS Pilani, which had helped me a lot at ISI and even after that. It is during this time that I realised the potential of mathematics behind algorthms which pushed me towards cryptology.

Even though the course at ISI was tough, I had managed to do really well in some subjects like algortihms and cryptographic implementations and average in extremely theoretical subjects like cryptography. Although Algebra and Number Theory, an exception, taught by Anirban Ghatak was the highlight of my first semester there. With the plethora of courses in cryptologyy there, one could be easily bewildered by the amount of stuff they don't know, and yet it ignites an insatiable hunger to know more about such stuff, atleast that's the case for me. Now with everything that I have studied, I find SNARKs and ZKProofs the most exciting thing currently. Wish you good luck in your endeavours.

Research Interests

• Zero Knowledge Proofs, SNARKs
• Multiparty Computation

Few Projects

• BLS Signature on BLS12-381 using Rust
• Shamir Secret Sharing & BGW MPC Protocol
• Tonelli Shanks algorithm for finding Quadratic Residue square root.
• Subset of important CP algorithms
• Fast fourier transform implementations in C and Java
• A bunch of weird hostorical cryptographic puzzle set from Cryptex fest
• Implementation of problems and solutions from Java Puzzlers book.
• Classical AES + HMAC + SHA-1 Implementations in C
• Quantum Algorithms in Qiskit
• Real-world attack simulations (Mitnick attack, IoT protocol analysis)
• These and more available at Github

Notes Collection

This is a growing collection of my cryptographic notes and summaries:

• GKR Interactive Proofs
• PLONK Explained
• Elliptic Curves & Bilinear Pairings
• Polynomial Commitment Schemes
• Number Theory in Cryptography
• For more, visit fletore

Book recommendations

Although not an avid reader, these are some titles to excite yoou.

• Journey to the west. Four volumes by Anthony C. Yu
• Story of my experiments with truth. by Mahatma Gandhi
• The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
• Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
• 1984 by George Orwell
• The Economic Naturalist by Robert H. Frank
• 'Surely, you're joking, Mr. Feynman!'' by Richard Feynman
• The Argumentative Indianby Amartya Sen
• The Arabian Nights Translation, Andrew Lang
• Sarva Darsana Samgraha, a 14th century book by Madhavacharya
• The First Three Minutes Steven Weinberg
• Gulamgiri by Jyotirao Phule
• Keepers of the Kalchakra by Ashwin Sanghi
• The Alchemist Paulho Coelho
• Bhagavad Gita as it is by HDG AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada