Engineer and tester is a director at Aleo Foundation

Zack Xuereb, a leading figure in blockchain innovation, serves as Director of Engineering and Validation at Aleo Foundation. With a wealth of experience and a deep commitment to advancing privacy in blockchain technology, Zack shares his thoughts on zero-knowledge authentication, Aleo's developer-friendly environment, and blockchain's evolving role in creating scalable, secure applications. In this interview, we explore Zack's journey, his contributions to the Aleo ecosystem, and his vision for the future of privacy-focused blockchain solutions.

C1. Since you have incredible experience in the blockchain sector, leading to your key position at Aleo, what made you join Aleo Network?

What initially attracted me to Aleo was its unique approach to addressing a critical gap in blockchain technology: lack of privacy. While blockchains offer transparency, they often expose sensitive data, making them less viable for applications in areas such as finance and identity. Aleo's use of zero-knowledge authentication to allow privacy-preserving applications and full programmability stood out as the next logical step for blockchain technology.

This vision inspired me to build a self-hosted wallet on Aleo, Avail, to give people full ownership of their money and data while preserving their privacy. Over 1 year, my team and I developed and launched the wallet on the Aleo testnet, supported by grants from the Aleo Network Foundation and the Maltese government. This experience solidified my understanding of the Aleo ecosystem and the potential of the technology.

After stepping away from Avail, the wallet, I joined Aleo Network Foundation as its first engineer to contribute directly to the development of the protocol. This position gave me the opportunity to work on the enhancement of the network, managing validators, and advancing initiatives such as privacy preservation and compliance stablecoins and decentralized identity solutions. My journey with Aleo has been driven by a shared passion for solving real-world problems.

Q2. Aleo uses the latest Zero-Knowledge technology for security. How will zero-knowledge authentication and encryption improve network security and privacy?

Zero-knowledge proofs are used to verify that a user ran some arithmetic, a smart contract function, correctly on their device. Encryption is used to hide the input and output of the operation the user was running, for example from their wallet when they were transferring a stable. The ZKP and encrypted inputs and outputs are then broadcast to the Aleo network where the proof is verified by the verifiers among other checks of the inputs and outputs, and the book goes -distributed accounts updated with the transaction. This makes Aleo more secure as it does not reveal any sensitive information.

Q3. In your opinion, what are the main challenges facing Aleo in implementing the zero information framework to address the latest market requirements?

Slow client-side validation times on a mobile device, but this is being continuously improved by efforts like Zprize and engineering efforts within the Aleo ecosystem and around the world.

Q4. With an important position as an engineer and director of verification at the Aleo Network Foundation, what is your contribution to advancing the network's goals?

I work on many aspects of operations at the foundation, I am responsible for managing the authentication operation and seeing that we expand the authentication set to increase decentralization and network security. I also oversee engineering-focused efforts and what needs to be improved at the network level for applications to succeed, along with technical partnerships and integrations.

Q5. By using Leo to reduce complexity, how does Aleo increase developer capability?

Leo is a special language used to write programs that run on the Aleo network, similar to smart contracts on other networks. This removes all the complexity of zero-knowledge encryption and allows the developer to focus on their application logic. It looks like typescript and rust.

Q6. Aleo reduces snarkVM for off-chain computation to increase scalability. Based on this, what are the technical advantages compared to the standard models on a chain?

The cost of the technical advantages of off-chain calculation over on-chain calculation is that instead of all validators executing the same code, it only needs to run once on the user's machine or on a server and then the user can verify that this has been executed. correctly and only requires a chain of verification of these declarations which is much more efficient than re-execution.

Q7. What are your personal goals and vision for advancing privacy through Aleo in the coming years?

My personal goal is to see Aleo achieve its full potential in advancing privacy to address real-world challenges, particularly in the financial sector. I plan to use Aleo's privacy protection capabilities to enable more efficient and secure money transfer, whether for individual funds, business transactions or merchant payments. Cross-border and merchant payments, in particular, are plagued by high costs and inefficiencies, and I see Aleo as a key player in changing this space.

An important part of this vision includes reducing the financial burden on buyers, especially those operating with low margins. Today, merchants face unnecessary fees from intermediaries, and I believe that Aleo's privacy protection and scalable technology can support the development of payment systems that reduce these costs while they protect sensitive transaction data.

Beyond financial applications, my broader vision is to drive technological advances that empower individuals and businesses, and move humanity forward. I see Aleo as a cornerstone for creating systems that respect user autonomy, focusing on innovations such as privacy-preserving and compliant stablecoins, decentralized identity solutions, and other influential technologies.

Q8. What is your advice to aspiring developers and engineers dealing with privacy-focused blockchain development?

My advice for developers and advanced engineers in blockchain development with a focus on privacy is to focus on understanding the basics of cryptography, especially zero-knowledge proofs, encryption, and other techniques for a private shared state because they are as the backbone of privacy protection systems. Dive deeply into how these technologies work and think critically about their real-world applications.

Equally important is adopting a problem-solving mindset. Start by identifying gaps in existing systems and consider how privacy can address them. Privacy is not just a technical feature; it is a tool to empower users and solve meaningful challenges.

Finally, be prepared for a steep learning curve. Privacy-focused development is a complex but rewarding field that requires continuous learning and adaptation. Collaborate with others in the space, contribute to open source projects, and stay curious. The work you do today has the potential to shape a more secure and equitable future.