Meet Our Team: 10 questions for Alp Bassa

Sep 27

| 8 min read

“Meet Our Team” is a blog series where we introduce you to the people behind Veridise. Today, we sit down with our Head of Cryptography Alp Bassa.

Alp joined Veridise in 2021 after spending over a decade as a mathematics professor in academia. Alp holds a double major in computer science and mathematics and earned his PhD from the University of Duisburg-Essen. Alp has extensively published in number theory, algebraic geometry and coding theory.

At Veridise, Alp works at the intersection of research and in-house tool development. He also participates in security audits, especially those requiring a deep understanding of mathematics and cryptography.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself: Who is Alp Bassa? How did you get interested in mathematics and computer science?

I was interested in mathematics and physics from a young age. I did programming in high school and participated in a national project competition with a project implementing symbolic differentiation. That is a long time ago now!

I’ve always had this basic interest in mathematics, particularly number theory. Number theory has a long history, it is well-established area of mathematics. It’s difficult to not be mesmerized and captivated by it. I also wanted to pursue this area later in university.

Being interested in number theory, I was aware of its applications, such as cryptography. That got me interested in computer science.

So, this led me to major in both computer science and mathematics in university. I focused a lot on number theory and algebraic geometry during my studies.

Throughout my research career, I’ve worked at the intersection of pure mathematics and applied topics. During my PhD I was at the Institute for Experimental Mathematics in Essen. Curve-based cryptography was quite a big thing there. The faculty was mainly number theorists and algebraic geometers, but they worked on research questions that are motivated by applications in coding theory and cryptography.

Later, at the CWI in Amsterdam, I was in the cryptology research group lead by Ronald Cramer. After that, in Singapore, as a postdoc, I was in the coding theory and cryptography group. It was always a mix of both application and theory, the intersection of these two.

2. Sounds like you’ve lived in many countries! Besides programming languages, how many human languages do you master?

I speak Turkish and German fluently, as I grew up bilingual with both as my native languages. Then there’s English, though I might have a bit of a German/Turkish accent. I also know intermediate French and basic Levantine Arabic.

3. At Veridise, you’ve moved more towards the application side of things from theoretical work. What has that been like?

I don’t necessarily feel I’m doing very applied things. It still feels very theoretical, in a good way.

I’m still thinking of the same questions that I would have as a researcher in number theory and algebraic geometry.

What is different is that the source of the questions is different. When you do pure research, the source of the questions is basically your own curiosity.

Now, at Veridise, the source of the questions is dictated by the application, which is also a really nice driving force. The resulting questions are equally interesting, fun and challenging. You can simply go and grab any tool or theory that you need to get results.

4. Are there any other differences between research work in academia and in the blockchain security industry?

One thing that pleasantly surprised me is how many different mathematical tools and theories people in the ZK domain use. People are courageous, diving into new areas and quickly applying new methods to solve problems. I’ve come to appreciate this while auditing various projects and seeing the various components they utilize.

In academia, things tend to be more conservative. People often stick to their areas of expertise and hesitate to explore new domains, preferring to stay where they feel secure.

In the projects I’ve audited, it’s refreshing to see people using the latest research discoveries to address their questions. For example, when I look at recent research papers like “Succinct Arguments over Towers of Binary Fields”, which focuses on hardware optimization using binary fields, it’s fascinating to see old finite field constructions from the 1980s naturally fitting into new applications. I thought these concepts were purely theoretical, but it’s great to see them reappearing in cutting-edge projects.

5. Can you highlight some of your recent research or projects you’ve contributed to?

At Veridise, we use our in-house tools for audits to help with bug detection. Our tool development incorporates the latest research results, thanks to many team members who come from academia and conduct research in formal verification. These insights flow directly into our tools.

In the ZK space, arithmetic circuits are becoming increasingly complex, and specialized tools are crucial alongside human effort. This is an area where I’ve been actively contributing. Let me explain in more detail.

Our most conceptually heavy tools use an SMT solver to tackle significant computation questions, like solving polynomial equations. Given the massive size of arithmetic circuits, these tools quickly reach their limits. One of our research projects at Veridise focuses on improving the efficiency of these tools.

So the problem reduces to one in computational commutative algebra / algorithmic number theory: we need to solve systems of polynomials over a finite field. But now these systems typically involve thousands of variables and equations, making it intractable using classical approaches. By leveraging the inherent structure of these equations — derived from ZK circuits and known for being sparse with low degrees — we’ve been able to eliminate bottlenecks in the verification process. We’ve used some less common tools, methods from graph theory, and other techniques to enhance efficiency. This has allowed us to solve circuits of sizes that were previously totally out of reach.

So, our research directly impacts the development of our in-house tools, and I usually contribute to the mathematical aspects.

Editor’s note: Alp has given presentations about ZK and SMT solvers at several conferences. See e.g. the video recording below.

6. How do you approach learning and handle the vast amount of new whitepapers?

First of all, it’s very normal to feel overwhelmed. The field is evolving so fast and expanding in so many areas that keeping up is challenging. If someone claims not to be overwhelmed, I wouldn’t trust them too much.

“The learning component is a complex, non-linear, and repetitive process. “

You can’t just read a new research paper and immediately understand it. You’ll need to revisit it multiple times. Each time you come back to the same paper, you grasp something new. This happens to me a lot. When I reread a paper, I sometimes gain a totally new perspective or realize I had misunderstood a part and finally get it right.

There’s no easy way around it. You can look for the perfect blog post or YouTube explainer, but to truly understand something, you need to read and comprehend the original paper yourself. It’s an iterative process that takes time and effort. You have to sweat.

Throughout the learning process, you’ll come up with questions and doubts, and find answers on your own. This is how real understanding develops.

7. What pieces of technology excite you recently?

Lately, I’ve been excited about recursive proofs, proof composition, incrementally verifiable computation, and their uses in ZK-VMs. There’s been a lot of new research in the domain of lookup arguments, with many innovative ideas emerging.

I mentioned earlier a paper on Binius (hardware-optimized STARKs) that uses binary fields. It was fascinating to see them utilize research results from the 1980s.

Looking ahead, I’m excited about developments in Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) and Multi-Party Computation (MPC) and how they will expand their presence in the zero-knowledge field.

With my background in number theory, I’m particularly interested in seeing advancements in lattice-based ZKPs.

At Veridise, I’m fortunate to work with the latest research findings and apply them to our auditing projects with clients like Succinct and O1JS. Many of our clients are pushing the boundaries with the latest ZK research discoveries, and we’re lucky to collaborate with them.

Editor’s note: Alp has extensively written about ZK and some of the topics above on Veridise’s blog, particularly in these two series: ZK Fundamentals and Accumulation and Folding.

8. Considering your decades-long research experience and being a professor earlier, do you have any advice for aspiring researchers?

I have some tips. The blockchain space, especially the ZK part, is both broad and deep, rooted in serious and beautiful mathematics. The underlying math is the foundation for everything.

Coming from a math background, one piece of advice I can give is that you can never know too much mathematics. A thorough understanding of the underlying math can set you apart from the crowd entering this space. Don’t be afraid of the math, and don’t treat it as a black box. While you might occasionally rely on black boxes, aim for a comprehensive understanding of everything. This will make a big difference.

I don’t completely agree with terms like “moon math,” which make this field seem unapproachable. Some of these mathematical ideas are from 100 years ago. If people could grasp them back then, with all the progress we’ve made since, we should be able to grasp them today.

I believe these concepts are very approachable, but they require a lot of work and time. It’s a long journey to understand all the components, but it’s a rewarding one, full of learning.

One poem that summarizes my approach to learning the underlying math is “Ithaka.” The key message is that the journey is long and difficult, but also full of discovery and adventure. And that it is in fact about the journey itself. Plus, it mentions Poseidon and Egyptian cities — a perfect “ZK poem.”

Ithaka

By C. P. Cavafy (translated by Edmund Keeley)

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon — don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;

…

and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

…

Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn’t have set out.

…

Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

Read the entire poem here:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51296/ithaka-56d22eef917ec

9. What’s one book you’ll never stop recommending to people?

If we’re talking about research and cryptography, I highly recommend Foundations of Cryptography by Oded Goldreich. It’s a great foundational book and comes in two volumes.