Get live statistics and analysis of Vanishree Rao's profile on X / Twitter

Founder @fermah_xyz | 15 years and counting in designing and building ZK | PhD in Cryptography at UCLA | mama bear mode

486 following5k followers

The Innovator

Vanishree Rao is a pioneering force in zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography, blending deep academic expertise with entrepreneurial drive. As the founder of Fermah, she’s on a mission to revolutionize proof generation infrastructure, making groundbreaking tech more accessible and scalable. A mama bear with a vision, she channels decades of passion into creating solutions that will make her daughter proud.

Impressions
56.7k-21.4k
$10.62
Likes
724-212
77%
Retweets
61-35
6%
Replies
124-60
13%
Bookmarks
37-15
4%

For someone who’s spent decades staring at ceilings trying to prove theorems, Vanishree probably knows more about zero-knowledge proofs than she does about how many followers she has—guess crypto proofs aren’t the only thing that needs decentralizing!

Successfully founding Fermah and securing backing from top crypto investors like a16zcrypto and assembling a powerhouse team to tackle one of zero-knowledge proofs’ toughest bottlenecks—proof generation infrastructure.

To advance and democratize zero-knowledge proof technology by building scalable, efficient, and decentralized infrastructures that empower a new wave of secure computing applications worldwide.

Vanishree believes in the power of perseverance, deep technical mastery, and collaborative innovation. She values creating impactful, real-world solutions that challenge the status quo and enable others to build with trust and privacy at the core. Her Indian upbringing instilled a survivalist creativity and a relentless drive to add meaningful value.

Vanishree’s biggest strengths lie in her unparalleled domain expertise, visionary mindset, and ability to unite a passionate, low-ego team dedicated to executing bold ideas. Her deep academic grounding combined with entrepreneurial savvy makes her a rare leader who can both invent and deliver.

Her intense focus on deep technical innovation and perfection might sometimes overshadow broader community engagement or marketing, potentially limiting early mass adoption beyond niche crypto circles.

To grow her audience on X, Vanishree should blend her expert insights with more storytelling around how ZK tech impacts everyday life, share behind-the-scenes moments from Fermah, and actively engage in conversations by answering questions and debunking myths. Regular, bite-sized educational threads could boost reach and establish her as the go-to ZK innovator.

Fun fact: She started obsessing over zero-knowledge proofs as a young student, even trying to prove Fermat’s Little Theorem by staring at the ceiling—talk about dedication to math and cryptography!

Top tweets of Vanishree Rao

This is the beginning of something I’ve wanted for decades. To make a real dent. One deep enough that I can pour everything I’ve got into it. Deep enough for my daughter to be proud. Today, we’re unveiling Fermah. Fermah itself might be less than a year old, but my journey toward it started 20 years ago when I first learned about zero-knowledge proofs. Their seemingly implausible nature, yet groundbreaking potential, hooked me. I spent a summer reading Neal Koblitz’s book on “A Course in Number Theory and Cryptography”, and I remember staring at the ceiling, trying to prove Fermat’s Little Theorem with whatever little I had learned by then. After my undergrad in India, I had the incredible fortune to do my PhD in cryptography under the guidance of Prof. Amit Sahai. His foundational work in zero-knowledge proofs made me a fan before I even met him. When we first met, I called him “Sir” (like we’re taught in India to address our teachers), and it took him a whole week to convince me to stop! During that time, I worked on various projects that pushed the boundaries of zero-knowledge proofs, multiparty computation protocols, and more. You know, growing up in India gives you this drive to survive and create value. I had that mindset too—always on the lookout for problems to turn into impactful products. Prof. Dan Boneh can attest to that! Over the years, I’ve taken many weak ideas to him, and he was kind enough to break each one down for me. Thankfully, he steered me away from all of them—except for the idea of a universal proof generation layer. That one had him excited, and he supported me in countless ways to start Fermah. I’m forever grateful for that. So, why Fermah? There’s one persistent headache for anyone trying to adopt ZK tech: spinning up cheap, performant, and reliable proving infrastructure. It's a massive challenge. So much so that L2s, for example, are stuck with either half-baked, unincentivized networks of provers or, at best, centralized networks. The complexity of managing proving infrastructure, paired with its “contextual” nature in contrast to the “core” goals of their business, has made it a weak link in any ZK project’s stack. Specifically, sourcing prover machines, designing incentives that work, keeping those incentives balanced, maintaining liveness (without over-incentivizing), and keeping costs low (without under-incentivizing) is tough. It’s a whole project in itself. That’s where a universal proof generation layer comes in. It can aggregate demand from multiple sources, ensuring high utilization of the hardware, which drives down the cost of proof generation. It was clear to me this had to be built. No better set of backers than @a16zcrypto CSX Fund & @lemniscap! Also, truly humbled to be backed by our follow on investors@BanklessVC, @LongHashVC, @POpsTeam1, @publicworksfm, @zkv_xyz, @class_lambda, @daedalus_angels, @zero__dao, and @TheVelocityDAO - and others. The angels we have — @balajis, @musalbas, @nickwh8te, @sandeepnailwal, @jdkanani, @zac_aztec, @clairekart, @dlubarov, @sergey_nog, @gregoireljda -- these are people I have high admiration for. I mean… what a backing! The core of it all is the team. I have managed to put together some crazy passionate low ego team that only cares to ship. This is exactly what you will see us do. Ship. And make a dent. Deep, significant dent. Let's go!

76k

This is huge! @zksync is an industry-leading ZK-rollup ecosystem and @fermah is working with the ZKsync team in helping decentralize the proof generation, adding robustness, while keeping cost and time of proof generation super low. I have been a fan of the team at Matter Labs and this is a beginning of a long-term partnership. We align not only in ZK, but in our visions - we are here for the long term!

13k

It's official! Matter Labs and Fermah are partnering -- to take ZK to a much bigger mass. @zksync is a project I have been a fan of for years and it's a dream-come-true to work closely with @anthonykrose , Emil, @robik , @portport255, @TziokasV, @gluk64! This is a demonstration of some deep work we have done with the phenomenal Matter Labs team in the past few months. I am so proud of our team! We've gone from answering "why proof market?" to proving its inevitability -- and we're doing it with one of the biggest possible players. This is just the beginning. Onward.

25k

Most engaged tweets of Vanishree Rao

This is the beginning of something I’ve wanted for decades. To make a real dent. One deep enough that I can pour everything I’ve got into it. Deep enough for my daughter to be proud. Today, we’re unveiling Fermah. Fermah itself might be less than a year old, but my journey toward it started 20 years ago when I first learned about zero-knowledge proofs. Their seemingly implausible nature, yet groundbreaking potential, hooked me. I spent a summer reading Neal Koblitz’s book on “A Course in Number Theory and Cryptography”, and I remember staring at the ceiling, trying to prove Fermat’s Little Theorem with whatever little I had learned by then. After my undergrad in India, I had the incredible fortune to do my PhD in cryptography under the guidance of Prof. Amit Sahai. His foundational work in zero-knowledge proofs made me a fan before I even met him. When we first met, I called him “Sir” (like we’re taught in India to address our teachers), and it took him a whole week to convince me to stop! During that time, I worked on various projects that pushed the boundaries of zero-knowledge proofs, multiparty computation protocols, and more. You know, growing up in India gives you this drive to survive and create value. I had that mindset too—always on the lookout for problems to turn into impactful products. Prof. Dan Boneh can attest to that! Over the years, I’ve taken many weak ideas to him, and he was kind enough to break each one down for me. Thankfully, he steered me away from all of them—except for the idea of a universal proof generation layer. That one had him excited, and he supported me in countless ways to start Fermah. I’m forever grateful for that. So, why Fermah? There’s one persistent headache for anyone trying to adopt ZK tech: spinning up cheap, performant, and reliable proving infrastructure. It's a massive challenge. So much so that L2s, for example, are stuck with either half-baked, unincentivized networks of provers or, at best, centralized networks. The complexity of managing proving infrastructure, paired with its “contextual” nature in contrast to the “core” goals of their business, has made it a weak link in any ZK project’s stack. Specifically, sourcing prover machines, designing incentives that work, keeping those incentives balanced, maintaining liveness (without over-incentivizing), and keeping costs low (without under-incentivizing) is tough. It’s a whole project in itself. That’s where a universal proof generation layer comes in. It can aggregate demand from multiple sources, ensuring high utilization of the hardware, which drives down the cost of proof generation. It was clear to me this had to be built. No better set of backers than @a16zcrypto CSX Fund & @lemniscap! Also, truly humbled to be backed by our follow on investors@BanklessVC, @LongHashVC, @POpsTeam1, @publicworksfm, @zkv_xyz, @class_lambda, @daedalus_angels, @zero__dao, and @TheVelocityDAO - and others. The angels we have — @balajis, @musalbas, @nickwh8te, @sandeepnailwal, @jdkanani, @zac_aztec, @clairekart, @dlubarov, @sergey_nog, @gregoireljda -- these are people I have high admiration for. I mean… what a backing! The core of it all is the team. I have managed to put together some crazy passionate low ego team that only cares to ship. This is exactly what you will see us do. Ship. And make a dent. Deep, significant dent. Let's go!

76k

This is huge! @zksync is an industry-leading ZK-rollup ecosystem and @fermah is working with the ZKsync team in helping decentralize the proof generation, adding robustness, while keeping cost and time of proof generation super low. I have been a fan of the team at Matter Labs and this is a beginning of a long-term partnership. We align not only in ZK, but in our visions - we are here for the long term!

13k

Thank you again, @alignedlayer ! Congrats to some of the big believers in Fermah!

4k

I second @jonwu_ . Kids can complete you. Here is an insight into what's it's like working your bum off while raising tiny humans: 1. 5 hours of sleep, co-sleeping, frequent open-eyes. 2. working so hard to get a deal done, going to bed anxious about it and kid sleeps on your shoulder after a peck on your forehead - world around you melts into nothingness and all that matters is you and your kid 3. kids have low immunity and they get sick often. holding kid on your lap and working on your laptop, cooking while taking calls. 4. kid wants to make you proud. Makes it their life mission. The deep connection! Something I live for. 5. Everyone is doing stuff. Building stuff. Making money. Creating impact. And mainly focused on their own stuff. Kids give you something beyond "own stuff". 6. Siblings fighting and when you try to tighten one up the other one comes in defense of the sibling. 7. One kid goes to prayer room by herself to pray when the other kid is sick. On and on. To me this is life. Everything else is actions and effects. This and this alone is life. Kids are pure chaos and pure life fulfilling at the same time. I wouldn't change a thing in my life.

11k

Huge news! @reclaimprotocol 🤝@fermah_xyz! Blockchains will reach a good pmf only if we manage to get web2 data reliably onchain. This is why I am super bullish on zkTLS as a category. A leading protocol in this category is @reclaimprotocol with real, amazing customers such as @3janexyz . One of most technically sound teams in crypto. We are thrilled to bring CPD to Reclaim Protocol, whereby Reclaim's customers can let go of any pains of proving on the client side and simply delegate proof generation to Fermah while preserving privacy! Do we even sleep?!

2k

People with Innovator archetype

The Innovator

Software Engineer | LLMs loooooove @shedboxai

682 following240 followers
The Innovator

Founder and CEO of lichtfeld.io | Your guide to radiance fields | Host of the podcast @ViewDependent | FTP: 279 | discord: discord.gg/NqwTqVYVmj

530 following15k followers
The Innovator

Web2 dropout → Web3 dreamer | @shefiorg 15 | vibing on-chain

199 following615 followers
The Innovator

Cooperative network for verifiable compute @novanet_zkp (DeSCI) I work where AI meets cryptography: @kinic_app . “What do you do for others? #runawayZK

226 following1k followers
The Innovator

loading... ex @Delphi_Digital @nil_foundation

1k following4k followers
The Innovator

trooper @cantinaxyz @spearbit | fellow @wh_india @wormhole | dropout @nyuniversity

1k following1k followers
The Innovator

The Blockchain for gaming and entertainment, offering 1M+ TPS, sub-second finality and sub-cent fees. Follow @SomniaEco and @somniaGames_ for ecosystem updates!

190 following534k followers
The Innovator

making mental health support accessible through AI.

97 following120 followers
The Innovator

Machine Learning engineer

1k following2k followers
The Innovator

ai research, software engineering, infra & hardware, on a mission to build a DGX B300 GPU cluster, i moderate GPUs on r/LocalLLaMA

308 following29k followers
The Innovator

The backend for AI coding 🌐 insforge.dev ⭐️ github.com/InsForge/InsFo… 💬 discord.com/invite/DvBtaEc…

46 following121 followers
The Innovator

Artificial Intelligence. Quantum. Distributed Learning. Cybernetics. Kung Fu. Blockchain. Networks. Sensor Perception and Robotics.

6k following843 followers

Explore Related Archetypes

If you enjoy the innovator profiles, you might also like these personality types:

Supercharge your 𝕏 game,
Grow with SuperX!

Get Started for Free