Cryptographic Consulting & Engineering

Astarisc provides high-assurance cryptographic engineering, bridging the gap between complexity-theoretic research and production-grade implementations. Our services are designed for enterprises, blockchain protocols, and government entities that require high-assurance security.

1. Post-Quantum Engineering & Migration

As a specialist in both Lattice-based and Multivariate Quadratic (MQ) cryptography, Dr. Szepieniec provides deep-tier expertise for organizations where standard NIST-selected algorithms fail to meet specific performance or architectural constraints.

• Custom Primitive Design & Optimization: When rigid standards (such as ML-KEM or SLH-DSA) exceed resource budgets, we design and analyze custom, high-performance schemes tailored to specific computational or networking limitations.

• Concrete Security Analysis: We evaluate security margins against both state-of-the-art algebraic and combinatorial attack algorithms, moving beyond asymptotic estimates to provide precise bounds for your specific parameter sets.

• Provable Security Audits: We perform rigorous reviews of security proofs to identify gaps between theoretical models and real-world deployment. We quantify the security loss—if any—induced by non-standard environments or when underlying assumptions are modified.

• Zero-Impact Migration: We specialize in designing migration paths that introduce quantum resistance without breaking backward compatibility. This includes engineering hybrid "dual-key" systems and graceful protocol upgrades that maintain service continuity for legacy infrastructure.

2. Proof System Engineering

We provide end-to-end expertise in the architectural design, audit, and high-performance implementation of modern cryptographic proof systems. We specialize in building "bespoke" stacks—selecting and composing the most efficient components for your specific data model and performance requirements.

• Holistic Protocol Composition: We design bespoke proof systems by selecting and composing optimal subprotocols—such as PLONK, FRI, STIR, DEEP-ALI, etc.—tailored to specific fields and performance constraints.

• Arithmetization Design & Audit: We bridge the gap between high-level business logic and low-level arithmetic constraints. This includes:

  • Constraint Optimization: Minimizing the degree and number of constraints without compromising soundness.

  • Circuit Audits: Verifying that the algebraic constraints accurately and exhaustively bind the intended logic. We identify "under-constrained" systems where the witness space exceeds the space of traces of valid computations.

• Full-Stack Implementation: We develop any stage of the proof generation pipeline (or the entirety of it) to the highest industry standards, ensuring theoretical efficiency translates to concrete performance on specific hardware targets.

• Recursive Proof Infrastructure: Engineering the logic for IVC/PCD to enable proof aggregation and horizontal scalability. We address the unique engineering challenges of concrete PCD designs—which often deviate from generalized academic models—while precisely quantifying the accumulating loss of provable soundness inherent in recursive compositions.

3. Arithmetization-Oriented Symmetric Cryptography

As pioneers of the Marvellous design strategy, we specialize in symmetric primitives engineered for native performance within algebraic proof systems.

• Custom ZK-Friendly Primitives: Design and analysis of hash functions (e.g., Rescue-Prime, Tip5) and ciphers optimized for constraint efficiency in STARK, SNARK, and MPC contexts. This involves balancing arithmetization cost with concrete security margins across diverse finite fields.

• Algebraic Cryptanalysis: Evaluation of primitives against specialized attacks targeting low-degree or sparse algebraic structures. We perform rigorous assessment using Gröbner basis attacks, interpolation attacks, as well as other algebraic tools.

• Standardization & Specification: Delivering high-assurance specifications and reference implementations to enable cross-platform interoperability and reliable deployment in decentralized networks.

4. Protocol Design & Cryptographic Audits

We design and verify complex multi-party protocols, ensuring that distributed systems maintain formal security properties under adversarial conditions.

• Custom Protocol Design: We architect cryptographic protocols for decentralized state management, client-side PCD, and threshold schemes for signature generation or anything that involves secret keys.

• Formal Security Modeling: We provide rigorous formalization of protocols using frameworks such as Dolev-Yao symbolic analysis or Universal Composability (UC).

• Implementation-to-Spec Audits: We verify the integrity of the cryptographic pipeline from the theoretical whitepaper down to the git commit. Our audits focus on ensuring the software implementation is bijective with the formal specification, catching vulnerabilities that emerge from "broken translations" of the underlying math.

5. Security Architecture & Research

We provide "Researcher-on-Call" services for organizations building next-generation infrastructure, offering strategic guidance and high-fidelity technical communication.

• Protocol Specification: Authoring formal technical white papers and rigorous specifications that serve as the single source of truth for engineering teams and auditors.

• Expert Witness & IP Analysis: Providing technical counsel for litigation involving cryptographic patent validity, infringement mapping, and forensic root-cause analysis of complex protocol failures.

• Education & Specialized Training: Delivering bespoke workshops and high-level lectures for engineering teams on modern primitives. We translate cutting-edge research into actionable intuition for developers and engineers.

Engagement Models

We prioritize high-impact collaborations where our deep-tier cryptographic expertise can provide the most leverage.

• Research & Design Retainers: Long-term, high-touch partnerships for protocol foundations and "Researcher-on-Call" advisory. This model ensures priority availability for ongoing R&D and strategic architectural guidance.

• Fixed-Scope Projects: Targeted engagements (typically 2–8 weeks) for specific outcomes: primitive design, implementation-to-spec audits, or arithmetization optimization.

• Technical Due Diligence & Sprints: Rapid-response evaluations (3–7 days) for investors or foundations to verify the cryptographic soundness of a target project’s whitepaper and implementation.

• Workshops & Lectures: Bespoke educational sessions designed to level up engineering teams on specific modern primitives or security paradigms.

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