# Markos Georghiades

> Markos Georghiades is an Engineering Partner at Andreessen Horowitz's crypto division (a16z crypto), where he focuses on cryptography and core development of Jolt - a16z's open-source zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM). An undergraduate studying Computer Science and Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, he has co-authored multiple research breakthroughs: helping Jolt achieve a 6x throughput speedup (over 1 million RISC-V cycles/sec), enabling true zero-knowledge proofs via the NovaBlindFold technique, and implementing 64-bit proving without performance slowdown. His GitHub bio - 'sumcheck is love sumcheck is life' - says everything you need to know about where his obsessions lie.

- **Role:** Engineering Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z crypto)
- **Organizations:** Andreessen Horowitz (a16z crypto), University of Waterloo
- **Nationality:** Canadian
- **Education:** Undergraduate, Computer Science and Mathematics, University of Waterloo
- **Known for:** Co-developed Jolt zkVM achieving 6x throughput improvement to over 1 million RISC-V cycles per second on 32-core CPU, Co-implemented NovaBlindFold technique enabling true zero-knowledge in Jolt with only 3KB proof size increase, Co-authored 64-bit proving for Jolt without performance slowdown

## Career timeline

- **2024-2026** — Engineering Partner (intern) at a16z crypto, working on Jolt zkVM and cryptographic research
- **2025** — Co-authored 'The key ingredient for builders: Jolt Inside' and '64-bit proving for Jolt, without a slowdown'
- **2025** — Co-authored 'Jolt gets a 6x speedup' - achieving over 1M RISC-V cycles/sec throughput and ~50KB proof sizes
- **2025** — Delivered keynote 'Jolt: A Simpler Path to High-Performance zkVMs' at major crypto conference
- **2026-03** — Co-authored 'Putting the zk in zkVM: Jolt now supports zero knowledge' - enabling NovaBlindFold technique

## Achievements

- Co-developed Jolt zkVM achieving 6x throughput improvement to over 1 million RISC-V cycles per second on 32-core CPU
- Co-implemented NovaBlindFold technique enabling true zero-knowledge in Jolt with only 3KB proof size increase
- Co-authored 64-bit proving for Jolt without performance slowdown
- Delivered keynote at major cryptography conference on Jolt zkVM
- Contributed to reducing Jolt proof sizes to ~50KB - an order of magnitude smaller than competing zkVMs
- Core contributor to a16z/jolt GitHub repository (989+ stars)

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Co-authored research enabling Jolt to support true zero-knowledge proofs using the NovaBlindFold technique, achieving only 3KB proof size increase and essentially no additional prover time
- **2025-12** — Delivered keynote 'Jolt: A Simpler Path to High-Performance zkVMs' at a major cryptography conference
- **2025** — Co-authored research achieving 6x speedup in Jolt, enabling 1M+ RISC-V cycles/sec throughput and ~50KB proof sizes

## Links

- Website: https://a16zcrypto.com/team/markos-georghiades/
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markos-georghiades-137682385
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/georghiades_
- GitHub: https://github.com/markosg04
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markos.georghiades

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/markos-georghiades
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-09