Colin Roberts
4,054 posts
PhD mathematics; scientific software architect; mountain biker / runner. Opinions are my own and do not reflect any associated entity.
- On May 1st, I joined @plutolabs_ with the goal of helping them bring more and more applications of cryptography to the masses. Web Proofs will just be the start. I want to see proof-carrying EVERYTHING.
- My path has always been about building bridges between worldsโfrom mathematical proofs to production code. In 2022, I saw a game-changing idea that planted the seed for this entire journey. Now, I'm taking my biggest leap yet as Co-Founder & CTO of @MultifactorCOM. I wrote theColin Roberts, Co-Founder and CTO, shares his journey from pure mathematics to crypto-focused startups and now Multifactor, explaining why he's excited about the future of the company: multifactor.com/blog/colin-robโฆ
- I got tired of research paper management being a pain in the ass. There are apps like Zotero, Mendeley, and Paperpile but they always felt like they kinda suck and forced you into a weird ecosystem of sorts. So I built Learner. 1/7
- The replies to this made me realize Iโm in an X echo chamber. ZK was the number one answer here. Nothing about robotics, aerospace, theorem provers, medical devices, โฆ the list goes on. Thereโs a LOT more out there than cryptography. Donโt get me wrong, cryptography is alsoWhatโs the best combination of high level mathematics with systems engineering today?
- Today @0xjepsen and I presented to @SpearbitDAO about Arbiter. During the presentation, we demoed a simulation that tests a volatility targeting strategy. What we found yesterday is that with certain conditions, running this in parallel led to panics or missing data.
- Last week, we shared Edge -- an NIVC backend for @NoirLang. If you haven't already, give it a try and let us know what you think. Today, we strive to make it better with this bounty issue for @plutolabs_ github.com/pluto/edge/issโฆ ๐งต1/6
- Attending a zero knowledge workshop with next to zero knowledge about any of it
- I spent the last week or so writing up a self-contained piece that begins the dive into exposing the relationship between software and categorical diagrams. If you want more explanation, just let me know. There will be more... Wanna read it? Go here:
- Stoked to launch! The hardest part of this for me was nailing client side proving. It took a lot of work, but for this launch we got it in a great place. Let me tell you about this particular problem below...Pluto's Alpha SDK is live on testnet for developers! TL;DR - we give devs tools to easily integrate Web Proofs into apps - 3 different ways to generate Web Proofs - simple to integrate new data sources - code is open-source; we build in public; new features every Friday โ
- For the academics out there... some pretty good challenges from @Tim_Roughgarden from CESC2022 @UCBerkeley
- Replying to @littmathAre you joking? At some point something can become so filled with jargon that itโs cumbersome to go learn it all to proceed through the content. Thatโs why itโs annoying and itโs worth trying to reduce it. Jargon itself isnโt bad. Overuse of it is.
- Replying to @smjtyazdiYes. This is called the โFrechet distanceโ I think this was the first code I wrote on GitHub and I believe this has a counter example in it:







