About me

I am currently a PostDoc (Part-time) at COSIC, KU Leuven working with Prof. Bart Preneel. Link to my Thesis.

During my PhD, I have been mainly working on privacy-enhancing techniques in distributed systems, with a focus on their applications on Blockchain space. I have collaborated on multiple research papers and gained valuable experience working with global teams and leading companies. In summer 2023, I was a research intern at Mysten Labs, cryptography team.

These days, I am primarily focused on Accountable Threshold Signatures, Traceable Secret Sharing and more efficient decentralized zk proofs verification layers. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or for collaboration opportunities.

News

• 2024-08-21 zkLogin paper got accepted to ACM CCS’24, Salt Lake City, USA.
• 2024-08-08 Gave a funny talk on the human food chain and the cryptography chain analogy as a lightning talk at SBC’24. Link
• 2024-07-18 Presented the ul-PCS paper at PETS’24. Link to my presentation.
• 2024-07-09 Defended my PhD thesis. Link to slides.

Upcoming Events

Past Events

• 2024-11-14 Cybersecurity Industry Day, Mechelen, Belgium. To give a talk in “Blockchain for all: beyond the currencies” breakout, Link to my slides.
• 2024-10-[7-9] Attended zkSummit 12 in Lisbon.
• 2024-09-[2-6] Attended Foundations and Applications of Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Edinburgh, UK.
• 2024-08-[5-9] Attended SBC’24, New York, US. Affiliated events: Starkware Summit and Bass.
• 2024-07-[15-20] Attended PETS’24 in Bristol.
• 2024-07-[8-11] Attended EthCC’24 in Brussels.
• 2024-07-[1-4] Attended COSIC Course in Leuven.
• 2024-06-[03-07] Visited ETH Zurich, hosted by Dennis Hofheinz.
• 2024-05-[24:30] Eurocrypt 2024 in Zurich.
• 2024-05-15 Successfully passed my private Defense.
• 2024-06-[03:07] Financial Crypto 2024 in Curacao.
• 2023-12-[12:16] Visited CUHK, hosted by Sherman S. M. Chow in Hong Kong.
• 2023-12-[04:08] Asiacrypt 2023 in Guangzhou.
• 2023-10-[01:06] Mysten offsite in Paris.
• 2023-04-[23:27] Eurocrypt 2023 in Lyon.
• 2023-[02-26:04-01] Visited ZK Labs in Edinburgh, hosted by Markulf Kohlweiss.
• 2022-09-[12-16] Crypt@b-it 2022, Bonn, Germany.
• 2022-[05-30:06-03] Eurocrypt 2022, Trondheim, Norway.
• 2022-04-[13:15] RWC 2022, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
• 2021-10-[17:21] Eurocrypt 2021 in Zagreb.

Extra

How to pronounce my name: First name: MAH-dee (with the emphasis on the first syllable; “MAH” as in “ma” from “mama” and “dee” as in the letter “D”). Last name: Seh-dah-GHAHT (with the emphasis on the third syllable; “Seh” as in “set”, “dah” as in “dah” from “duh”, and “GHAHT” with a hard “G” like in “go” and “hat” but with a slightly more open “a” sound)