# Jeff Burdges ![](Jeff.jpg){: width="150px" align="right" alt="Jeff Burdges"} jeff@web3.foundation Jeff Burdges is an applied cryptography researcher working with the [Web3 foundation](../index.html), where he works on cryptography for decentralized and/or privacy preserving protocols. Jeff's work often involves collaborative randomness, specialized signature schemes like verifiable random functions (VRFs) or anonymous credentials, and increasingly both zero-knowledge proofs and incentives or mechanism design using VRFs. He is also researching a peer-to-peer private messaging service that will use mix networks. Jeff has ocasionally finds vulnerabilities, most recently the BIP32-Ed25519 proposal, but previously in blind signature deployments, and mix network designs, including broad limitations on the post-quantum kety exchanges suitable for mix networks. **Short Bio**. Jeff previously worked on [Taler](https://taler.net/en/) and [GNUNet](https://gnunet.org/en/) as a postdoc for Christian Grothoff at Inria, Rennes, where he worked on anonymity protocols primarily mix networks, blind signatures, security proofs, distributed authentication, forward-secure ratchets, and pairing-based protocols. Jeff holds a PhD degree in Mathematics from Rutgers University in New Jersey.