Jon Stephens

CEO at @VeridiseInc and PhD student at UT Austin. I specialize in building practical tools to discover security vulnerabilities in code using formal methods.

[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

@VeridiseInc It should also probably be mentioned that Kostas and Ben were among the selections as well…

[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

This is a great initiative and I'm happy to be a part of it. There are a lot of great names on this list so it'll be interesting to see where this go from here

[thedao.fund @thedaofund]

The next 60 ETHSecurity Badge holders have been selected using a new rubric updated by the applicants themselves!

Thank you to the people who chatted with the bot, your refinement of the rubric is the first DAO experiment we have tested.

And thank you to @bonfiresai for making amazing DAO tooling!

[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

When we first started auditing Aleo, records were one of the language constructs that required the most time to learn. Mark does a great job here explaining how records work and soon will explain how their use can go wrong

[Veridise @VeridiseInc]

🔐 How does private state actually work in @AleoHQ? In our latest blog, @VeridiseInc security analyst Mark Anthony @epizeuxius breaks down records in Leo — the core primitive behind Aleo’s privacy & scalability.

Link to the full blog post below 🧵

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[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

Congrats! This looks very interesting

[Cubist @cubistdev]

And we're LIVE! 🚀 We're thrilled to announce the general availability of Cubist Confidential Cloud Functions (C2F), the first Web3 confidential compute platform that brings smart contract guarantees to private off-chain code.

Not only is C2F GA. It’s already being leveraged by leading Web3 teams, including by @squidrouter in the latest version of their Cross-Chain Order Routing and Auction Layer (CORAL).

With Cubist C2F, you can:
✅ run compute-heavy logic
✅ execute sensitive logic privately
✅ scale across chains without rewriting everything
✅ apply strong governance and safe upgrade paths to critical code
✅ produce evidence that security and compliance controls are real

Run your sensitive, compute-heavy, and cross-chain logic verifiably with Cubist C2F.

[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

We’re just getting started and would love your feedback!

If you want to help shape the next evolution of @AuditHubDev, please get in touch!

[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

We started @VeridiseInc to bring actual guarantees to a space that needed them. But as audit volume exploded, one thing became clear: guarantees don’t matter if you can’t deliver them on time

[AuditHub @AuditHubDev]

Today we're launching AuditHub for Professional Audit Firms, the comprehensive platform!

Four integrated formal methods tools that handle routine vulnerability detection automatically, enabling audit firms to deliver mathematical guarantees that competitors cannot match.

[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

Yesterday’s @AuditHubDev launch is a big step toward fixing that. Built from years of pain as an audit firm, AuditHub has already given us faster turnarounds, higher-quality findings, and far more transparency

[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

We’re launching the beta today.
If you’re building in Web3 and want security that scales with your codebase, we’d love your feedback.

[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

Today we're launching the @AuditHubDev beta - a new platform for blockchain security.

[Veridise @VeridiseInc]

🚀 Introducing AuditHub: The next-generation blockchain security platform for Web3 developer teams.

Built by Veridise — now available to the entire dev community. Follow @AuditHubDev for updates.

Thread 🧵

[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

Huge props to @KFerles and @nikos_chondros for leading the effort, @ShankaraPailoo2, Ben Mariano, Bryan Tan and Ian Neal for leading the tool teams, @bensepanski for providing invaluable feedback and @IsilDillig for her instrumental guidance and leadership.

[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

LLZK is live! This is all thanks to our amazing LLZK team @ShankaraPailoo2, @iangneal, Tim and Daniel. Also thanks to @ethereumfndn for their support

[Veridise @VeridiseInc]

We’re excited to launch LLZK, an open-source intermediate representation (IR) for zero-knowledge circuits. Think LLVM, but for ZK.

Built by @VeridiseInc and supported with a grant from the @ethereumfndn, LLZK is now live on GitHub.

Thread 🧵

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[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

@Amber_hcq @shafu0x @VeridiseInc @IsilDillig We have audited a lot of ZK related projects. Happy to provide more details

[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

Thanks for having me @HouseofZK. This was a nice way to end a very busy EthDenver

[House of ZK @HouseofZK]

House of ZK Radio #49: Jon Stephens, CEO of Veridise - out now on Spotify & YouTube 🔲🔳

In this episode we sit down with @FormallyJon, Co-founder & CEO of @VeridiseInc, to explore the state of security in zero-knowledge systems.

From smart contract audits to formal verification of ZK circuits and ZKVMs, Jon breaks down where things go wrong, how Veridise builds internal tools like Vanguard and Picasso, and what developers should know when building verifiable applications.

Essential listening for anyone serious about ZK security 🤝

Spotify: https://t.co/PPUMHyf4sj

YouTube: https://t.co/FbkbRCLq7L

[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

Had an interesting chat about @aztecnetwork's Noir programming language with @mjdklein. We discussed a wide range of topics including how Noir differs from other ZK languages, security features built into Noir and formal methods tools. Definitely worth a watch

[Veridise @VeridiseInc]

Join us for an insightful fireside chat with @mjdklein, a software engineer at @aztecnetwork, as we dive deep into the @NoirLang programming language—a key component of the Aztec Network.

Hosted by @FormallyJon from @VeridiseInc.

Timestamps:
0:00 – Introduction: Aztec & Noir language
0:57 – Why Aztec built its own ZK language
2:22 – Overview of Noir and its developer experience
3:20 – How Noir compares to other ZK DSLs
4:33 – Unconstrained functions
6:19 – What Noir offers that other zk DSLs don’t
7:00 – Tools that are currently missing in Noir
8:24 – How the Noir ecosystem might evolve & new tools
9:19 – Metaprogramming in Noir and what it enables
11:28 – Improved succinctness & metaprogramming
13:56 – Who can use Noir and whether it’s tied to Aztec
15:17 – The types of vulnerabilities that are top of mind
17:15 – Work done to ensure optimization passes are valid
18:20 – Formal verification (SMT solvers) considerations
19:18 – Types of bugs devs may unintentionally introduce
21:18 – How entropy could lead to privacy leaks
23:35 – Guardrails built into Noir to prevent such issues
24:50 – How common such vulnerabilities might be
26:13 – Noir circuits vs zkVMs in terms of privacy
28:16 – Local proving systems vs. proving networks
29:36 – How devs can evaluate if SMT solvers are right for them

[RISC Zero @RiscZero]

RISC Zero is building the first formally verified RISC-V zkVM.

Using @VeridiseInc's Picus tool, we're mathematically proving determinism in our circuits.

Our goal: A zkVM that’s both incredibly fast and provably secure, so developers never have to compromise.

[Jon Stephens @FormallyJon]

There always seems to be a new ZK language but this article provides a few thoughts on our experience looking at a few of them from a language perspective

[Veridise @VeridiseInc]

We set out to implement the Mastermind game in 5 different ZK languages/frameworks: Circom, Gnark, Noir, Halo2, and Arkworks.

The aim was to evaluate the capabilities and characteristics of these various ZK languages.

Check out @iangneal's full blog post below 🧵

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