Wenhao Wang

I am a CS PhD student at Yale University, advised by Prof. Fan Zhang. Before that, I earned my bachelor's degree from the Yao Class at Tsinghua University in 2023, where I was advised by Prof. Yifan Song.

My research interests lie in applied cryptography, blockchain security, and mechanism design. I am currently working on privacy, verifiability, and secure delegation for AI systems.

wenhao dot wang at yale dot edu  /  Google Scholar  /  LinkedIn

profile photo

Publications

Spam MEV publication thumbnail
In Submission

Blockspace Under Pressure: An Analysis of Spam MEV on High-Throughput Blockchains

Wenhao Wang, Aditya Saraf, Lioba Heimbach, Kushal Babel, and Fan Zhang.

Currently in submission.

arXiv Blog post
UltraFold publication thumbnail
In Submission

UltraFold: Efficient Distributed BaseFold from Packed Interleaved Merkle Trees

Wenhao Wang and Fan Zhang.

Currently in submission.

ePrint
Crypto x AI and AI x Crypto survey illustration
Survey

Crypto x AI, AI x Crypto: A Survey

Sarah Allen, Pranay Anchuri, James Austgen, Maryam Bahrani, Samuel Breckenridge, Aaron Buchwald, Christian Cachin, Andrés Fábrega, Jared Fernandez, James Hsin-yu Chiang, Marwa Mouallem, Roi Bar-Zur, Neil DeSilva, Ittay Eyal, Giulia Fanti, Ari Juels, Andrew Miller, Christian Sillaber, Dani Vilardell, Pramod Viswanath, Wenhao Wang, Matt Weinberg, Sen Yang, Jianzhu Yao, and Fan Zhang.

arXiv preprint, 2026.

arXiv
VAR publication thumbnail
In Submission

Verifiable Aggregate Receipts with Applications to User Engagement Auditing

Ioannis Kaklamanis, Wenhao Wang, Harjasleen Malvai, and Fan Zhang.

Currently in submission.

ePrint Demo site
Cirrus publication thumbnail
NDSS 2026

Cirrus: Performant and Accountable Distributed SNARK

Wenhao Wang, Fangyan Shi, Dani Vilardell, and Fan Zhang.

In NDSS Symposium 2026, San Diego, CA, USA.

ePrint Talk recording: NDSS 2026 Talk: IC3 Winter Retreat 2026
ProoPhi publication thumbnail
FC 2025

Prooφ: A ZKP Market Mechanism

Wenhao Wang, Lulu Zhou, Aviv Yaish, Fan Zhang, Ben Fisch, and Benjamin Livshits.

In Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2025.

arXiv Talk: IC3 Blockchain Camp 2025 Talk: TLDR Conference 2025 Talk: FC 2025 Talk: Tokenomics 2024 Talk recording: ZK Summit 11
MPC publication thumbnail
Asiacrypt 2024

Perfectly-Secure Multiparty Computation with Linear Communication Complexity over Any Modulus

Daniel Escudero, Yifan Song, and Wenhao Wang.

In Asiacrypt 2024.

ePrint Talk recording: Asiacrypt 2024

Selected Talks

Blockspace Under Pressure: An Analysis of Spam MEV on High-Throughput Blockchains

  • The Science of Blockchain Conference 2026 (SBC'26), Palo Alto, CA, USAJul. 2026
  • IC3 Blockchain Camp 2026, Princeton, NJ, USAJune 2026
  • Research talk at Circle Technology Services, LLC (online)Apr. 2026

Cirrus: Performant and Accountable Distributed SNARK

  • NDSS Symposium 2026, San Diego, CA, USA Feb. 2026
  • IC3 Winter Retreat 2026, Engelberg, SwitzerlandJan. 2026

Prooφ: A ZKP Market Mechanism

  • IC3 Blockchain Camp 2025, New York, NY, USAJune 2025
  • TLDR Conference 2025, New York, NY, USAMay 2025
  • FC 2025, Miyakojima, JapanApr. 2025
  • Tokenomics 2024, Hong KongDec. 2024
  • ZK Summit 11, Athens, Greece Apr. 2024

Perfectly-Secure Multiparty Computation with Linear Communication Complexity over Any Modulus

  • Asiacrypt 2024, Kolkata, India Dec. 2024

Blogs

Essay March 16, 2026

Frontier AI Is Already Changing Security and Systems Research

AI first felt useful to me as a writing assistant. Over the last two years, that changed: it started helping with proof ideas, pseudocode-to-code translation, implementation audits, and research iteration itself.

AI, Research Read essay

Awards & Grants

Nathan Hale Associates Fellowship
Yale University • 2025
ZK Grant
Ethereum Foundation • 2024
For "Cirrus: Performant and Robust Distributed SNARK Generation via Computation Delegation"
ZK Fellowship
Matter Labs • 2023

Professional Services

Reviewer
  • USENIX Security (2026)
  • EUROCRYPT (2026)
  • CRYPTO (2026)
  • ASIACRYPT (2026)
Program Committee Member
  • ACM CCS DeFi (2026)

Experience

Summer Research Intern
Category Labs, Inc. May 2025 - Aug. 2025

Teaching

Teaching Assistant, CPSC 466/566: Web3, Blockchains, and Cryptocurrencies, Yale University • Spring 2026

Teaching Assistant, CPSC 441/541: Verifiable, Private, Decentralized Computing in the Age of AI, Yale University • Fall 2025

Teaching Assistant, CPSC 466/566: Web3, Blockchains, and Cryptocurrencies, Yale University • Spring 2025
© 2025-2026 Wenhao Wang  |  wenhao dot wang at yale dot edu  |  CV  |  Back to Top