Fan Zhang

About Me

I’m an Assistant Professor at Yale CS. I’m broadly interested in computer security and applied cryptography, especially problems in blockchains and smart contracts, user authentication, anonymity, and hardware-assisted trusted execution environments. I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell University, advised by Prof. Ari Juels, and my bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University.

I run the Decentralized Systems Group at Yale CS. Our vision is to build the technical foundation for Secure Decentralized Systems (SDS)—a new generation of computer systems with strong security guarantees codified in the design and verifiable by end users. Go to group page

I’m also affiliated with IC3, Center for Distributed Confidential Computing (CDCC) and Center for Algorithms, Data, and Market Design at Yale (CADMY).

At Yale, I teach Intro to Blockchain and Real-World Cryptography.

Updates

• 📌

  📣 DECO, the first zkTLS protocol we devised in 2019, is now in Chainlink’s Platform Privacy Suite.
• Apr

  23

  📣 New paper Insecurity Through Obscurity: Veiled Vulnerabilities in Closed-Source Contracts is online. Also check out the nice highlight by EigenPhi.
• Mar

  10

  🎉 “Decentralization of Ethereum’s Builder Market” is accepted to IEEE S&P 2025. Congrats, Sen!
• Feb

  10

  📣 “AUCIL: An Inclusion List Design for Rational Parties” is online.
• Jan

  20

  🎉 Qelect is accepted to USENIX Security 2025.
• Jan

  8

  🎉 Prooφ is accepted to FC 2025.
• Oct

  25

  📣 RediSwap is online. RediSwap is a novel AMM that captures MEV at the application level and refunds it fairly among users and liquidity providers.
• Oct

  15

  📣 The texbook I co-authored, titled “Blockchain, the New Economy, and the Self-Sovereign Internet”, is now available for pre-order through Cambridge University Press.
• Sep

  16

  🎉 ZIPNet is accepted to PoPETS 2025! We use TEEs to make DC nets faster while i) not trusting TEE for priavcy, ii) making TEE breaches detectable.

Interested in working with me?

• For Yale undergrads: we enjoy having undergrad researchers in our lab to help them gain research experience. Feel free to get in touch.
• We have openings for Postdocs, visiting scholars, and summer interns for strong candidates.