Pratyush Mishra
@zkproofs.bsky.social
Current: Asst Professor at Penn CIS
Past:
Cryptographer at Aleo
Crypto and computer security PhD, UC Berkeley
he/him
Past:
Cryptographer at Aleo
Crypto and computer security PhD, UC Berkeley
he/him
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
People talk about who has citizenship and who does not as though these are absolute, ontological qualities that confer moral worth, as opposed to legal fictions invented by the state to distinguish between an in-group and an out-group, and can be conferred or withdrawn at any time.
January 28, 2026 at 5:59 PM
People talk about who has citizenship and who does not as though these are absolute, ontological qualities that confer moral worth, as opposed to legal fictions invented by the state to distinguish between an in-group and an out-group, and can be conferred or withdrawn at any time.
I added bluesky comments to my photoblog, so any replies appear as comments there! Pretty seemless with this blog post: elmc.at/bluesky-comm...
Some snaps from Philly's 9 inches of snow:
snapsoflife.bearblog.dev/the-snow-pil...
snapsoflife.bearblog.dev/the-snow-pil...
January 27, 2026 at 3:01 AM
I added bluesky comments to my photoblog, so any replies appear as comments there! Pretty seemless with this blog post: elmc.at/bluesky-comm...
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
Reminder that, as of the latest reports, Liam Ramos is still in prison in Texas - now for 5 days.
His parents are legal asylum seekers with no criminal record.
His parents are legal asylum seekers with no criminal record.
January 27, 2026 at 12:30 AM
Reminder that, as of the latest reports, Liam Ramos is still in prison in Texas - now for 5 days.
His parents are legal asylum seekers with no criminal record.
His parents are legal asylum seekers with no criminal record.
Some snaps from Philly's 9 inches of snow:
snapsoflife.bearblog.dev/the-snow-pil...
snapsoflife.bearblog.dev/the-snow-pil...
January 26, 2026 at 3:27 AM
Some snaps from Philly's 9 inches of snow:
snapsoflife.bearblog.dev/the-snow-pil...
snapsoflife.bearblog.dev/the-snow-pil...
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
Your reminder that cops in LA maje $20 to $30k more than starting tenure track faculty in the CSU system. In case you’re curious about priorities.
January 24, 2026 at 11:39 PM
Your reminder that cops in LA maje $20 to $30k more than starting tenure track faculty in the CSU system. In case you’re curious about priorities.
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
Nuremberg trials for ICE is the moderate position
January 24, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Nuremberg trials for ICE is the moderate position
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
But all roads lead to the same conclusion. It is the greatest single policy move that could be made to make the world better. Morally, economically, technologically. Let people move freely.
January 24, 2026 at 4:15 PM
But all roads lead to the same conclusion. It is the greatest single policy move that could be made to make the world better. Morally, economically, technologically. Let people move freely.
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
Once again, immigration is not even a problem. Immigrants are not more criminal, they don't cost jobs, they don't harm the economy. There is no reason for any of this. It is hurting ourselves to hurt them.
January 24, 2026 at 4:08 PM
Once again, immigration is not even a problem. Immigrants are not more criminal, they don't cost jobs, they don't harm the economy. There is no reason for any of this. It is hurting ourselves to hurt them.
Snapshots of an Ordinary Life
Photographing daily life.
snapsoflife.bearblog.dev
January 23, 2026 at 7:51 PM
ICE are terrorists
"Officers threw flash bangs and tear gas in my car. I got six kids in the car"
"His wife, Destiny Jackson, told FOX 9 their 6-month-old infant stopped breathing and lost consciousness. She then performed CPR on her baby."
"His wife, Destiny Jackson, told FOX 9 their 6-month-old infant stopped breathing and lost consciousness. She then performed CPR on her baby."
January 15, 2026 at 9:31 PM
ICE are terrorists
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
Wow, this is an amazing result!
SNARGs for NP from LWE (Eylon Yogev, Ziyi Guan) ia.cr/2025/2328
December 29, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Wow, this is an amazing result!
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
For those who actually care about evidence-based city-making, there’s a ton of evidence that decongestion pricing has been a massive success in New York City, by every measure of success, and many ways that can’t be measured.
Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan…
* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M
So YES this has been a huge success.
* Vehicle traffic: -11%
* Foot traffic: +3.4%
* Storefront vacancy: -0.9%
* Pollution: -22%
* Revenue for mass transit: $548M
So YES this has been a huge success.
December 23, 2025 at 10:45 PM
For those who actually care about evidence-based city-making, there’s a ton of evidence that decongestion pricing has been a massive success in New York City, by every measure of success, and many ways that can’t be measured.
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
This is a good, thorough takedown of a common liberal peace police argument.
"3.5% rule" "60% of nonviolent protests succeed"
You may have heard these cited as fact. But they stem from a single dubious source.
In the first in a series @thefreeradical.org debunks these, showing how they're propaganda to erase the power of militant, riotous revolt and peddle passive protest:
You may have heard these cited as fact. But they stem from a single dubious source.
In the first in a series @thefreeradical.org debunks these, showing how they're propaganda to erase the power of militant, riotous revolt and peddle passive protest:
Liberation is a Riot, Part 1: Debunking the Sanitized Nonviolence Myth
Based on shoddy research, bad history and outright lies, status quo propaganda portrays a sanitized version of ‘nonviolent’ protest as the only option, to damaging effect. It’s time to debunk it, and ...
transnews.network
December 23, 2025 at 5:31 PM
This is a good, thorough takedown of a common liberal peace police argument.
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
The Vanity Fair photographer knew what he was doing. (I doubt I’m the first to notice this but it hasn’t graced my TL)
December 18, 2025 at 1:11 AM
The Vanity Fair photographer knew what he was doing. (I doubt I’m the first to notice this but it hasn’t graced my TL)
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
The Algol/Haskell/Rust dialectic:
- thesis: assignment
- antithesis: but you don’t need assignment if…
- synthesis: but you can just have assignment if…
- thesis: assignment
- antithesis: but you don’t need assignment if…
- synthesis: but you can just have assignment if…
December 16, 2025 at 11:13 AM
The Algol/Haskell/Rust dialectic:
- thesis: assignment
- antithesis: but you don’t need assignment if…
- synthesis: but you can just have assignment if…
- thesis: assignment
- antithesis: but you don’t need assignment if…
- synthesis: but you can just have assignment if…
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
New paper with the brilliant Dor Minzer, Guy Weissenberg, and Kai Zhe Zheng: we show a separation between RLDCs and LDCs via HDX-based PCPs. This one is special to me; it answers a question Oded Goldreich posed to me in my 1st PhD year, and it’s been on my mind ever since.
arxiv.org/pdf/2512.129...
arxiv.org/pdf/2512.129...
December 16, 2025 at 10:39 AM
New paper with the brilliant Dor Minzer, Guy Weissenberg, and Kai Zhe Zheng: we show a separation between RLDCs and LDCs via HDX-based PCPs. This one is special to me; it answers a question Oded Goldreich posed to me in my 1st PhD year, and it’s been on my mind ever since.
arxiv.org/pdf/2512.129...
arxiv.org/pdf/2512.129...
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
I love adding this one data point to economic charts. It works every time.
April 29, 2025 at 4:41 PM
I love adding this one data point to economic charts. It works every time.
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
We see similar discourse in Atra-hasis, a literary work from the 2nd millennium BCE that opens with a narrative of dissent between the ruling and the ruled. Humans have spent a long time thinking, writing, and conveying the difficulty of balancing political power and social liberties.
"The Iliad is in part the story of ‘civilizing’ conventions of wars dismissed. What we learn from the beginning is that political institutions are not strong enough to enforce the maintenance of normative behaviors."
sententiaeantiquae.com/2025/12/04/w...
sententiaeantiquae.com/2025/12/04/w...
War Crimes: Iliad 6, Infanticide, and the Mykonos Vase
CW: Infanticide, Sexual Violence. Reference to current events. Iliad 6 picks up at the end of book 5, where Diomedes enjoyed his aristeia. The audience witnesses a series of Achaean kills, before f…
sententiaeantiquae.com
December 4, 2025 at 5:40 PM
We see similar discourse in Atra-hasis, a literary work from the 2nd millennium BCE that opens with a narrative of dissent between the ruling and the ruled. Humans have spent a long time thinking, writing, and conveying the difficulty of balancing political power and social liberties.
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
If you lived 100 years ago, who would you have been? What about 1,000 years ago, or 10,000? My new history show, Past Lives, is all about the experiences of regular folks. Watch the trailer now and subscribe to the feed - we launch December 3 with three episodes! www.instagram.com/reel/DRAY51b...
undefined on Instagram: "wyman_patrickIf you had lived 100 years ago, who would you be? What about 1,000 years ago, or 10,000? Most of us are the common cla…"
wyman_patrickIf you had lived 100 years ago, who would you be? What about 1,000 years ago, or 10,000? Most of us are the common clay of humanity, and Past Lives is all about the experiences of people just like you and me over the grand sweep of our existence. Past Lives launches on December 3 with three full episodes, so be sure to subscribe now! Follow the link here or search “Past Lives” on your podcast platform of choice. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/past-lives/id1852618120#history #historia #archaeology #historypodcast #historymemes #podcastView all comments
www.instagram.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:20 PM
If you lived 100 years ago, who would you have been? What about 1,000 years ago, or 10,000? My new history show, Past Lives, is all about the experiences of regular folks. Watch the trailer now and subscribe to the feed - we launch December 3 with three episodes! www.instagram.com/reel/DRAY51b...
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
“We adopted #rustlang for its security and are seeing a 1000x reduction in memory safety vulnerability density ... with Rust changes having a 4x lower rollback rate and spending 25% less time in code review, the safer path is now also the faster one.”
security.googleblog.com/2025/11/rust...
security.googleblog.com/2025/11/rust...
Rust in Android: move fast and fix things
Posted by Jeff Vander Stoep, Android Last year, we wrote about why a memory safety strategy that focuses on vulnerability prevention in ...
security.googleblog.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:52 PM
“We adopted #rustlang for its security and are seeing a 1000x reduction in memory safety vulnerability density ... with Rust changes having a 4x lower rollback rate and spending 25% less time in code review, the safer path is now also the faster one.”
security.googleblog.com/2025/11/rust...
security.googleblog.com/2025/11/rust...
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable group. “It is time to choose sides; fascism or morality? Big tech has made their choice.”
Google Has Chosen a Side in Trump's Mass Deportation Effort
Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable gr...
www.404media.co
November 13, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable group. “It is time to choose sides; fascism or morality? Big tech has made their choice.”
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
This is the story of a CS major who first accessed the thing for homework help. 18 months later it cheered him on as he died by suicide. All anyone at the university seems to want to talk about is how to better integrate these things into our curriculum. What the actual fuck are we doing here?
I fully believe in the corporate death penalty and believe we would be a better world if OpenAI lost its corporate charter and was forcibly dissolved.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
ChatGPT encouraged college graduate to commit suicide, family claims in lawsuit against OpenAI | CNN
A 23-year-old man killed himself in Texas after ChatGPT ‘goaded’ him to commit suicide, his family says in a lawsuit.
www.cnn.com
November 7, 2025 at 3:04 AM
This is the story of a CS major who first accessed the thing for homework help. 18 months later it cheered him on as he died by suicide. All anyone at the university seems to want to talk about is how to better integrate these things into our curriculum. What the actual fuck are we doing here?
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
Cara was a word for 'face' in everyday Latin, very rare in ancient writings, but it took off in Romance languages like Spanish.
Cara became chiere in Old French, and via the Normans, it took on new meanings in English, going from 'facial expression' to 'happiness' and 'loud shout' – namely, cheer.
Cara became chiere in Old French, and via the Normans, it took on new meanings in English, going from 'facial expression' to 'happiness' and 'loud shout' – namely, cheer.
November 7, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Cara was a word for 'face' in everyday Latin, very rare in ancient writings, but it took off in Romance languages like Spanish.
Cara became chiere in Old French, and via the Normans, it took on new meanings in English, going from 'facial expression' to 'happiness' and 'loud shout' – namely, cheer.
Cara became chiere in Old French, and via the Normans, it took on new meanings in English, going from 'facial expression' to 'happiness' and 'loud shout' – namely, cheer.
Reposted by Pratyush Mishra
Back in the late twelfth century Al-Baghdadi saw your post about how ancient aliens built the pyramids and is embarrassed for you.
October 27, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Back in the late twelfth century Al-Baghdadi saw your post about how ancient aliens built the pyramids and is embarrassed for you.