Alright, welcome to the full launch video of Precious Plastic version 4. It's a bit like one of those keynotes where they release a new product, except this one is going to be a bit rougher because we're in a rough building. And also it's going to be quite a lengthy video because, well, it's a lot of work that went in here. One year full development with 100 volunteers, so it's like 90,000 hours of work, compressed into like a half hour video, so it's not that long if you think about it like that. But I would recommend to get some popcorn and get comfortable. And I would also recommend to really watch the whole video because then you really understand where we are and what we're going to do. But you could also skip to specific chapters. So first I'm going to give a little bit of a recap on version 3, where we currently are at. Then I'm going to talk a bit about the problem, where we're actually doing all of this. Then a bit about the machines, so the developments we did there. About product design, seeing all the new products we developed. And then Joseph is going to talk a little bit about the business side and the bazaar. Then Kat is going to talk about the starter kits. Then Mattia is going to talk about our online community platform. Then I'll show you a few research projects we've also been working on. And finally I'll give you some insights on how we actually developed this whole thing with volunteers for one year. Yeah, so I would say have fun. Okay, so currently pressure plastic is set up around these four different machines. We released them three years ago and people all around the world started using them. So right now we have over 400 workspaces around the world of people that recycle the plastic. We also have over 70,000 people in the forums that talk about these machines and share their feedback and updates. So there's quite a big community developed around it. And most people that build these machines use them for educational reasons, to really show other people you throw in plastic waste and something valuable comes out. So that's been a very powerful tool. However, the recycling numbers are not necessarily that high. Also because it's difficult to do this on a daily basis to sustain yourselves because we never really provided the business models to do so. So a lot of people in the community now really have to figure it out themselves. And this is something we really wanted to improve for version 4 to increase the recycling rates. And actually around the world we have way more people that want to recycle plastic. So if you can see on our map over 12,000 people put their hands up saying they want to get started recycling. So there's a big demand of more people that want to do something about it and the world needs more recycling. So that's why we started building version 4 to really increase recycling all around the world. And first let me show you a little bit what is actually the problem again, why we're doing this. So it's 2020 now and we're all quite aware of our big plastic waste problem we have around the world. And I actually remember when I started this project a few years back that 2020 used to be this milestone for companies to reduce their amount of waste or not use any virgin plastic or be fully circular. But that didn't really happen. The line of plastic production still goes up every year. More and more plastic is being made and more and more plastic ends up in the landfill, the ocean or it gets burned. Anyway the upside is that we did became very aware of our big plastic problem. It became a global topic to talk about and we might not have the solutions yet but at least we start thinking about it. And stuff like this is also very complex these kind of problems because they're massive and they evolve many different parties. So you also need to have many different people working on many different solutions. So for instance on the one hand we need to reduce the amount of plastic we produce. Stop using disposable stuff. Plastic is not a disposable material. But we also need to clean up all the plastic that's already out there in the oceans making sure it's not there anymore. We need to recycle and reuse all the plastic that we already made. Meanwhile we need to reinvent new materials that can replace plastic in the future. So we need people and organizations to work on many different solutions. And as pressure plastic grows we get involved into more areas. But our main focus is still on recycling. To make sure that all the plastic that's out there gets recycled and reused in a proper way. So one of the main things we did for this version is making sure that people can focus. Because we noticed in our own community that the people focusing on one specific machine get a much better output. And it also avoids them having to build three different machines and knowing how to run them. So we really wanted to work towards that, having specialists in our community. And we also developed the machines for that. So the machines are more robust, have a higher output. And they're also a bit more complex to build but you only need to build one. So now I want to show you some prototypes that we made. So let's start with our shredder. And this is a crucial machine for recycling because it basically shreds your plastic waste into small flakes. And we already had a shredder but it was too small, we needed a bigger one. So first we started looking into a single-axe shredder where the blades are turning around. And meanwhile a piston that runs on air compression pushes the plastic into the blade so it shreds. It's a nice technique but it was a bit over complex and too expensive to actually replicate. So we started looking into a dual-axe shredder where you have two blades that pull in the plastic and meanwhile they shred it. And this is a nice mechanism, worked pretty well. But there's a lot to configure here and really fine tune. So for instance the configuration of the blades, like how many blades do you need, what's the thickness, how are they aligned. And also the blade itself, like what are the amount of teeth you have there and how big are the teeth. Because this really influences the way how you shred. So once we sort of sorted out the whole mechanism behind shredding, we looked into the machine as a whole. So what's the frame where it's on, what kind of motor do we need. But we also really spent quite some time on the box itself. Because we really wanted to make sure that you could easily take it apart and open it up. Because this makes it much easier to maintain and repair the machine in the future in case something goes wrong. So this is roughly the development of our shredder. Let's now have a look at our extruder. So for an extrusion machine you basically have a screw that moves around and transports the plastic from one side to the other and then meanwhile it heats up and it comes out molten. So we already had an extruder machine and it was a pretty good starting point for our new machine. But the output wasn't really high enough and also it wasn't really made to run all day long. It really needed to be more robust. So we took this as a starting point and built a new prototype which was basically a beef top version from that one. Bigger motor, more solid build and also really adding up some sensors to measure what's going on. For the temperature and the pressure to really make sure we fully understand this machine. But it still kind of had the same output but we knew exactly what was going on. And then in the end we increased the screw diameter. So this is the original one and this is the new one. So as you can see a much bigger screw so it has a much bigger output. So now let me show you our sheet press which was quite a challenge. And for the sheet press we really had to start from scratch which meant a bit more work. So basically we wanted to make a machine that can make a big sheet from recycled plastic. So we started off with the hot press where you have two hot surfaces that press together the plastic and compress a sheet. This worked okay but it was a bit of a slow process because the whole machine had to heat up and cool down. So we figured maybe we should separate these processes. So we got an old pizza oven and a cold press. And then you first heat it up externally and then you put it in somewhere else to press it together. This was a much quicker process than the hot press. So we kind of liked it but we wanted a bigger sheet.  So we had to build our own oven really from scratch also figuring out how do you even open doors and stuff like that. And with this we also needed a bigger press so we had to build this beast. It's really heavy. So this kind of worked okay but we were still like it's not really what we really want because it's a very bulky big system. So then actually we went back again to the drawing table and we finally had a final version of the machine which is kind of an efficient version of the hot press, a combination of all of these machines together. So building a machine is one thing but you also need to do a lot of material testings. So here's one of the first sheets for instance. It's kind of a sheet but also not really how we have it in mind. So then they got a little bit better over time but this one as you can see is still very warped so it's not a smooth flat sheet. Improved. Then they got better, smoother and more flat but the surfaces were still very rough. So we also needed to make sure they were smooth and managed. So here we have it, our final machines. We have a shredder, extruder and a sheet press and they're all semi industrial which means they're not hobby level but also not super industrial. They're sort of there in the middle and one thing we always keep in mind when we develop a machine is that they're friendly to use and not on super high speeds or a lot of noise. We really like to make plastic recycling a nice job so the machines are really designed for that and also they're made to be replicated. So all the parts are very logically documented but also where you can find the parts because in the end they're all shared open source in line for free. So you can all download the blueprints and build them anywhere in the world. So that's it for the machines. Now let me show you what you can actually make with them. So currently we already have members all around the world making beautiful objects from recycled plastic and we really love them but they're often very small and very much household products where we think there's much more possible with recycled plastic than we wanted to see for version 4 like pushing really the boundaries of it. So one of the main things we did is say maybe you shouldn't have to have products as an output but it could also be raw material like just making the sheets or making beams and really use this as a material to make other things with. So for instance with beams you could also make different kind of profiles which is much more versatile to use to construct other things with. So the things you could make with that is furniture like a shelving system or as tools and chairs to sit on and what we like to do here as well is on the one hand make it fully from recycled plastic to just see how far we can push it like this one or the pink one but also combine it with other materials to really get a more diverse look into it. So furniture is a nice category to explore more. Another product we made is more for the community that does a lot of events. So pressure plastic members around the world often do this to educate other people and they always need to make a product. So we designed a carbine with a nice mold that you can just inject at once and you have the product. So it's really nice for people to give away and it also says you can put your website on there so it's a nice tool for people to just take home and use. Another product I really like is the socket and mainly because it's just such a boring product but it's very functional and they're everywhere around us and they're always made out of virgin material so we figured maybe we should try to see if we can make them from plastic, from recycled plastic but this product is like this sort of resembles this whole category of products that are just very functional and boring but very much part of our daily lives and I think we should just start using recycled plastic for that and I can also just look and feel way more precious and valuable than the original ones. Another product we wanted to make is to see if we can make something big but not necessarily fully out of recycled plastic but trying to combine it as well. So here we have a mold which is a connector piece for modular structure so you can make geodesic domes and here we really use the plastic as being the connector part because that's sort of the most complex part with a lot of weird angles which is perfect for plastic to use with because you can mold it in the shape and you really use wood for the structural parts so it's really a combination of using the best of those two materials. And another product we've often been requested by the community actually is they asked us can you make a brick so something to just build something with. So we've been out to explore that to just see what kind of bricks do we need, what's the size so made a lot of prototypes. In the end we made a brick that you can use to really build something so here we made a wall but obviously there's much more possible with this brick. And that's also how we kind of see these products as a starting point to spark inspiration but also really to start diving into other categories and we share all the blueprints open source online so you can all use it, download it, replicate it but also improve it so really see what you can make with this brick so we're very much looking forward to that. So that's it for the products we developed, you can find them all on the website and now we're going to talk a little bit more about the business part of version 4 and how you can actually sustain yourself by making all these machines and products and Joseph is going to talk more about that. Hi there, so precious plastic has always encouraged people to make businesses using our machines and methodology but we never really provided people the tools, resources or any examples for how to do that but the truth is we like when people make businesses from precious plastic that means they're doing recycling full time, they can hire some people and they're really pushing the amount of plastic that's out there being turned into something new. So with precious plastic version 4 which has some bigger machinery that requires a little bit more investment we put a lot of time and effort into thinking about, okay how do we help people make a successful business using precious plastic? So our approach was because we couldn't just make one business plan that was going to apply to all the machines and all these different situations around the world was to focus on making three business tools the action plan, the workspace calculator and the business plan template. The action plan is like a quick and dirty business modeling tool where you fill out your mission, your products and services, your target groups all those different components that are important for really making a successful business. Seems kind of simple at first but really it's one of those most important parts about doing your business planning. The workspace calculator is a spreadsheet financial forecasting tool where you input your products that you're going to make, how much it's going to cost you your investment costs like a machine or your monthly costs like your rents, utilities, all that good stuff and then you can look at on a monthly basis, okay I'm going to need to sell this many products and price them at this price point in order to be financially sustainable. You can also see on a monthly basis how much profit I'm going to take home and some nice graphs to help you understand that. The business plan template is a tool, it's kind of like an outline to help you take the information that you created in the first two tools and roll that into a full long form business plan. And a business plan is kind of important for going out there and getting the financial help that you need to start your workspace. So whether that's from a financial institution like a bank or a funding organization that gives out grants, most often they're going to want to see a business plan. So this is an outline tool that you can use. There's some other tools out there on the internet you can use as well. The point is this is going to help you get that financial funding that's going to help you start your new workspace. The other thing we did was create five different business models where we applied these three tools to the precious plastic version for machines. So you can see some examples about, okay, how can I guide my business model towards what has worked currently and what we think is going to work in the future with precious plastic. Okay, that's it for the business planning section. And now we're going on to talk about the precious plastic bizarre. So the bizarre is an online marketplace for buying and selling precious plastic machines, parts, raw materials, and products. It was created during precious plastic version three, but we didn't put that much emphasis on it. We just put a link on our website, but it's now become a really, really important tool as part of our digital infrastructure. And the reason is, on one hand, it can help people get started with precious plastic by buying machine if they can't make it themselves. And on the other hand, once they get started and they have their workspace, they can sell their products through the bizarre. So here's a graph showing our transaction volume over time. You can see that in 2017, we started off a little bit slow, but picked up speed in 2018. And by 2019, we were doing 15,000 euros in transaction volume on average per month. And by the end of 2019, we did about 200,000 euros in total transaction volume. And that's great. I think that shows that there's some people out there that are really making some significant income from the bizarre as well as some people who are really getting the parts, products and machines that they need. So here's a breakdown of the sales by category. You can see the machines and machine parts is the biggest category, which kind of makes sense based on the fact that this is one of the only places you can find precious plastic machines. So in 2020, we're going to be putting a lot more investment in time and effort into improving the bizarre. So stay tuned for those updates and let us know what you think. And for now, Kat is going to tell you a little bit more about the starter kits. So currently, we have several hundreds of precious plastic work spaces all over the world, which seems like a lot, but on a global scale, it's really not that much. It basically means that the people who run the spaces are globally connected, but locally, they're mostly on their own. They need to take care of everything, of collecting, building the machines, shredding all the plastic and making new products. That's a lot to take care of and requires many different skills. Now we want to help people to focus on what they can do best. So here's the plan. It's not about having individuals recycling around the world. Locally, we need more people to work together and build up a strong and resilient ecosystem. This is what we're launching now with version 4 and we called it the precious plastic universe. And this is how it works. There are many different roles in this universe. Collection points, machine shops, work spaces and community points. Each role focuses on one part and together with the other parts it forms the complete ecosystem. Let me show you an example. The collection point focuses on getting the local community to bring their plastic and has the space and people to sort it out into different types. The shredder workspace now gets the plastic from the collection point and just focuses on shredding the plastic into plastic flakes. And then the sheet press workspace gets the shredded plastic and can focus on making high quality sheets. To run a local network, you will need a good bunch of dedicated people who master their role and collaborate with each other to make everything run. To make this easier for everyone, we created this. Starter kits. We put together packages of everything you need to know to get started with one of these roles like a collection point or a sheet press workspace. These include blueprints for the machines, floor plans for the whole space, videos on how to set it up and run it, business plans, graphic materials and more. You can go on preciousplastic.com and see what kind of starter kits we have and see what fits you most. If you are more technical, you can be a machine builder or if you want to design, you can be a workspace where people gather in a community point. Go on the website, check it out and as always you can download it for free and get started. So these are all more the practical and offline tools but what really makes precious plastic unique is its community. People coming together from all around the world to share knowledge and information. And by now we have people almost in every country around the world. And these people most likely will never meet in real life, however they are connected through our digital tools. That's very much why these digital tools are so crucial to the project. Up until now people would meet on our online forums and this place has always been a bit chaos. We like all sorts of information and day-to-day chatting as well as like more long-term documentation projects. And right at the beginning of the year we very much decided to split the two so that we would focus more on creating platforms and tools for long-lasting information that will be useful in like 10, 20 years time from now. And whereas for the more short-term information and chats we are going to be using external tools that are simply faster, better and more supported. So let me show you what we've been working on for the last 12 months. So now with the help of our high-tech screen I'm going to show you the new precious plastic digital ecosystem and its tools. So first we have of course the preciousplastic.com website which very much serves as a showcase of the project so that people can see who we are, what we do, what we stand for. Second we have the Bazaar and as Joseph explained we're going to be releasing a much stronger, more powerful marketplace that will enable way more people to sustain themselves financially while recycling. Third is our community platform and this is very much a tool for our community to come together, create knowledge and share it between each other to tackle the plastic problem. And this time we went full-on to really develop it from scratch with our own team, with our own developers in-house right here and let me show you a few features of this new platform. So feature one is the how-tos and this is a game-changer tool for precious plastic very much because up until now the generation of knowledge was pretty much confined to us here in the headquarter whereas with this tool now we're going to enable people all around the world to share how they do things and how they find solutions to the plastic problem. The how-tos are very simple step-by-step guides filtered by tags and you can easily see the exponential potential of this tool when it's used by thousands of people all around the world. Second is our map. We already had a map in version 3 but we basically revisited and made sure that we aligned it with the precious plastic universe. It is now a much more powerful and granular map that has different categories for all the different pins and all the workspaces, all the collection points, community points and machine shops. We used to have the want-to-get-started pins on the map and we decided to remove that as we envisioned the community points to be the central place where everyone that wants to get started will come together. Third is the academy, a central place for all precious plastic knowledge and from now on we're going to go much more in detail and in depth with our information. This is the place where you can learn how to bid machines, how to make products, how to collect plastic and so on. And this is the place to go if you want to learn about recycling. Fourth is profiles. And the profiles are very much aligned with the precious plastic universe and you will be able to create profiles for workspaces, for machine shops, for collection points, for community points and so on. Last is the event, a place where people that make presentations, precious plastic meet-up or beach clean-ups can create an event and share with our community what they're doing so that we can have a list of events happening at any given time around the world. So these are all the core functionalities of the new precious plastic community platform. We're releasing in beta and in the beginning it will be quite buggy, so please bear with us or help us fix those bugs on GitHub. But we believe that this is going to be a crucial tool for precious plastic as well as other projects around the world. And that's very much why we share all the code open source online for free so that more people around the world can use it to create their own communities. So all of these tools, machines, people, infrastructure is part of what we call the precious plastic universe. It's a master plan for an alternative recycling system around the world. So machines are a crucial part for the universe to work because they actually allow people to turn their plastic waste into a new plastic product. And with this new version we made bigger, better, more efficient machines so they really allow people to recycle more plastic on a daily basis. The starter kits are like the kickstarter of the precious plastic universe. A compressed package of information and tools for people to download online and start. And for version 4 we created a set of business tools to help people in the universe be successful with their recycling projects. So people can start to make money and recycle plastic full-time as their job. And our digital tools and platforms will help to connect thousands of recycling entrepreneurs around the world, collaborating and helping each other to fight plastic waste from many multiple angles. Alright, so that's basically everything we developed for the precious plastic universe during version 4. However, during that period we also had a few site projects going on. So let me show you. So our first research project is sorting. Because this is a big problem in the plastic industry, there's a lot of different types of plastic, but it's hard to identify which type of plastic it is, which makes it difficult to recycle. So we were looking into ways on the one-hand scan the type of plastic to see what it is using advanced scanners. And then also once you know to really sort it out, so that's why we have this robot arm, to really sort out the different types of plastic. And this is really like an experimental research project, but it's the first step to see how can we optimize our recycling process. So like I mentioned in the beginning, we also really need to look into alternatives for plastic, like how can we replace it with less harmful material. So in this area we really look into finding alternatives for that with more natural materials. For instance, orange peels, coffee grinds or wheat bran. And here we made a bowl out of it. So you can use this more for festivals. So instead of using a disposable plastic thing, you can use a disposable wheat bran bowl. And in this way, if you throw it away, it can just easily be composted. So we really developed the whole process, but also the machine and the molds. So people can start making this to slowly get more alternatives going. And for board projects, we have much more information on the website with some videos to dive more into it. So I would say have a look there if you're interested to explore more and keep on developing it. All right, so that was all the development we did for version 4. Now there's one last thing I want to talk about. And it's actually the way how we developed this version, because that in itself feels quite unique. So a little over a year ago, we won an award of €300,000. And the local municipality said you can have this empty warehouse for free for one year. So we were like, OK, it would be cool if we can invite web designers, machine builders, product designers, vegan chefs all together to make this new version come to life and giving them a place to sleep, food and buying materials so they can all develop. But everyone came as a volunteer. So we did that in the last year. Joseph is going to actually share a few funny facts about that. OK, in total we spent over €290,000 to develop precious plastic version 4. The biggest spending category was the workspace where we spent over €100,000 to do all the research and development into the new machines. The next biggest category was the kitchen where we spent €45,000 to feed everyone some delicious vegan meals. And the last category was the living expenses which we spent on giving some houses for people to come and volunteer here. So that might seem like a lot of money but if you think about it, if we were to pay everyone just the minimum wage that would account to over €1.5 million. So we really benefited from all the people donating their time to work on this project over the year. And people did come from all around the world to come work on this project. The biggest contributor was France with 11 volunteers followed by the Netherlands and then the United States. We lived in 10 houses with six bands as well and we had two dogs stay with us. Yeah, so that's been quite a fun ride. So massive thanks for FAME for actually giving us this award. It gave us a lot of freedom to try this out and to really develop in a different way. So big thanks. Thanks for everyone in the pressure plastic community so far and especially the early adopters that really dared to pioneer and figure a lot of stuff out themselves. So thank you Zelenu, Bob, Shanghai, Ukraine. You guys have really been pushing it. And also all the people that just support us and they give us positive feedback and also the negative ones. So thank you Gunter.  I mean, it was really amazing getting to know all of you guys and seeing all your energy. It's really good. Gave an enormous boost to the project. So awesome. And finally, all the people that have been supporting on Patreon and the internet that make sure we can financially sustain ourselves over time. So yeah, that's been very awesome. So if you guys want to support you can go to support.pressureplastic.com and see how you can help us out. For now, thanks for watching and I think I'm going to clean up all this mess in here. Oh, and make sure to actually watch our promo video and share it around. This is very powerful for the project. So, yeah.


Thank you very much. And first of all, thank you very much also to the organizers to invite us here, not only me, but also my colleagues from AFD and from JICA. First of all, because I think the issue of investment in Africa is crucial. It's crucial for the development of Africa, but it's also crucial for Europe and maybe also crucial for the world. So congratulations to put this issue so high on the agenda and to invite us, maybe representing also a little bit different approaches to the issue, but complementary if you want. And I would like to stress this point afterwards at the end. Why is it so important to refocus development cooperation on investment and on the business sector? I think if you have a look on what did we have achieved regarding the millennium development goals, we can see that we had been quite successful in approaching the social dimension of development. So we have a very good performance, jointly with our African and other partners worldwide in education and health. So a lot of the basic indicators, the human development indicators, have been improved. But if we have a look on job creation and on economic development, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, we have to admit that we have to rethink, have we been jointly sufficiently successful? And I have the feeling, no, we haven't. So it's really time to rethink our approaches and to rethink what we are doing there. And why is it so important? Because it's just only a few numbers again. By 2050, we know that the population of Africa will have been doubled. So we are then confronted with 2.6 billion people in Africa. And we are then in need of maybe 20 million new jobs created every year in Africa. And these jobs, decent jobs, can only be created if there is a totally refocus on investments. And that's why investments are so important. Public investors will not create these jobs. Private investors, the private sector has to. And public sector has to be really the one who's enabling private investment. And there, I think we heard already. I do not have to repeat what Madame said already, because I think we agree that the frame conditions, for example, are a major bottleneck for investment. So creating conducive environment for investment is key, being the legal environment, being red-taped, corruption, uncertainty, policy changes, everything which you said. Also the gap of public infrastructure, also vocational training. And I would say also the environmental framework for entrepreneurship, a clever SME policy to support investments, not only foreign direct investments. I think foreign direct investments are needed. But we need also national investments, regional investments. We need investments from all sides. But if I reflect on our own experiences, and we are working a lot in the field of improving the business environment, we work very closely together with our partners in Africa. And yes, we are sometimes also successful. But this is not enough. And it takes too long. It takes too long in order to cope with this dynamic of the population development and other issues which are needed. So I think what we have jointly to reconsider is do we have to refocus a little bit our activities on investment opportunities? Because according to my observation, especially in more and more, let's say, more difficult environments, like fragile context and other contexts, where do the projects where investors could invest in are coming from? So there is a need to build up a proper pipeline for bankable or investable projects. And at least we would like, in reconsidering our own activities, we would like to go a little bit downstream on our activities, not only concentrating any more on the environment, the conducive environment conditions, but also being more directly involved in investments by preparing bankable projects, by building up a project pipeline which should then be matched with my colleague from IFT or other investors. We are starting to cooperate more closely with the IFT, with the AEB, with the African Development, with African Pension Funds, and others to match their investment interests with bankable projects. But this is a hard way to go. It's not so easy. There's a lot of capacity development needed in order to come up with proper investment opportunities. So this is the one thing we would like to change. The other thing I still see very important is, and we discussed this in the framework of different Africa related initiatives, like the Compact for Africa or Marshall Plan with Africa or whatever, is how do we do huge public investments in infrastructure? Our experience is that if we work more closely together, and we did this, for example, in Ethiopia, when we helped the Ethiopian government in building up 10 universities in the whole country. So the basic idea was not only to invest in educational infrastructure, which was such a good idea if you want to take off, but also by building 10 universities all over the country to supporting small-scale industry and to build up the whole construction sector, starting with the vocational training and starting with small-scale industries of Ethiopia to become real entrepreneurs and then being able to serve the needs of the country and maybe also of the region. So I think we have to better connect our activities and strengthen a certain sector with huge public investments. And for that, I think we jointly should more selectively identify where are the sectors, where huge employment opportunities are. And there are a lot of opportunities, as you said. And then jointly try to connect better public infrastructure investment with our activities of strengthening small-scale industry, vocational training, and so on and so forth. This would be the second point. And the third point, I still believe, and there are a lot of efforts at the moment in the German government as well, to better link also the support for foreign direct investment with development cooperation. So to link better our instruments in order to be more cohesive at this point. And I still believe with our, you know, with Hermes and with other instruments, we can foster foreign direct investment. And then maybe if we know where in which sector those investments are most probably leading to employment, attach our own activities in the development sectors to those investments. And I think then we could learn a lot from our colleagues from Japan, as this was a long history of foreign policy and development policy of Japan, to better connect foreign direct investment from Japanese enterprises with development cooperation. So I think we are at the stage, and that's why it's good that we are here, to rethink and re-evaluate also our joint experiences and then to come up with a more coherent, more comprehensive, more selective and more promising development approach. Thank you very much.


Hello friends and welcome back to another VGC 2020 battle series My name is Lee also known as Osiris and in today's episode We're gonna be finishing up with our preparation or at least on the casual ladder anyway before we get into series 6 starting in a couple of days time Like I said what I wanted to do this past week on the channel was kind of gave give you and get you all Prepared as best I can with some rental teams to hop straight on to the ranked ladder as soon as series 6 comes around on the 1st of September and So we're gonna be like I say finishing up with the rental teams today Tomorrow on the channel do make sure you check out the episode because I've got about 14 poker pastes To to give you guys as well. Obviously with the rental teams I'm kind of locked to how many I can put out at one time I have just today moved over to my second switch So we're going to be able to throw a few more out there and keep a few more of them up live for a lot longer And so if there is teams that have got live at the minute that you'd like to have sticking around for A longer period of time. Let me know and I'll make sure to move them across and we can keep them across there For this foreseeable future, but today we're going to be featuring a Duraludon grim snarl team And a lot of fun. I think it's going to be good We've got the urshifu in there the primarina the rotom heat and the moonga So moonga's been on a lot of my teams and I know a few of you have mentioned this But it's probably the premier kind of grass type user in the format with what it can offer teams with the redirection The sleep status The trick room kind of answer if you needed to be that pokemon So that's why we're seeing it on a lot of the teams at the minute Obviously you've got pokemon like ferrathorn like serena and we've got plenty of time in series six To cover a lot of these different grass types. It was just to give you guys Probably what I feel is one of the better pokemon to use at the start of the format And what will give you a little bit of a better idea of going in and helping Learning things like that. So what we're going to do in today's episode is always play a couple of games with the team Just to showcase a little bit talk through some of the mods in the team And then I'll give you the rental code at the end. There is a poker paste down in the description below as well So if you want to grab that jump on showdown try it out Be my guest. Hopefully you'll have a lot of fun with it And as always if you do try it out, let me know down in the comment section What your thoughts are on the team what you think about the build and if it's going to inspire anything if you're on I'd love to hear and um as always if you enjoy this sort of content Do drop a like on the video. It does really help the channel out. Um Let's me know that you're enjoying this content as well And if you're new to the channel welcome and make sure you hit that subscribe button and the notification bell So you don't miss any content like this on the channel Going forward. So I've got a first opponent corner. Have they got a series 16? That definitely qualifies this series 16. It's an interesting build. We've got uh, dusklops alexa in teleon miltank Hitmonchan and snorlax just posing after the uh, the miltank. I still get nightmares from From golden silver whitney's miltank. My god. I like they're literally the hardest gym leader ever ever to face She'd do a playthrough of that one day. That would be quite fun on the channel. Okay. What are we looking at? I mean dusklops is going to set the trick room up for something like snorlax. I have no idea what the miltank's doing Hitmonchan not really to show What it's doing in teleon alexa obviously a really fast speedy mode So we need to be careful around that I think grim snarls really solid here to get our screens up give us a little bit of room Um around things that are going to be setting up is deraladon All right here. I think it is like what really threatens deraladon. Maybe the hitmonchan And we're not the strongest on the special side, but I mean with screens and assault vests. We're doing all right Aren't we I think we do bring a shifu gives a bit of a helping hand against things like snorlax Um, and we probably won't I mean the moongus isn't bad here as well If they do set the trick room up at least we've got a way to kind of disrupt their trick room mode If they do go for it, but I mean It's also like, you know primarina would make sense here as well So I think between the two of them we could go with either Obviously we're opting for the a moongus. Um, just because the trick room looks like it's going to be more prevalent on my opponent's side of the field So we'll see what they throw out at us Sato and nurse Still failing with the nicknames aren't I we'll do it. We'll do it in future. Okay. We're going to see miltank I really I like and snorlax. I mean snorlax probably going to try and set up by the margin Probably primarily going to be more physical attackers on my opponent's end. At least that's what they're kind of known for Doing max and go for draco or doing max and go for a flash cannon I mean the defense boost probably going to be more useful. The other thing is the max darkness could be could be good I think we'll go into the snorlax. Uh, it's a more threatening thing in my mind here from my opponent's side of the field Uh, it could be pleasantly surprised or Unpleasantly surprised by the miltank. We'll see I do love miltank as a pokemon. It's such a goofy pokemon, you know Um, it just never really sees competitive play. It's um, I like and obviously I was big into singles when gold silver and crystal were around back in the day when I was like knee-high and Obviously miltank back in the day wasn't a bad pokemon especially in singles use that heal bell um to get rid of status conditions and things like that so Okay, we'll get the steel spike. There's a nice chunk of damage into that snorlax We've obviously got a screen up as well with grim snow. So that's useful. Um High horsepower. Okay, well, that's fine. I mean behind the reflect. It's like doing very little Um, and there's the belly drum. Okay, so that makes things a little bit tricky but We're not we're not in a bad place at all We're literally not in a bad place because I mean even if they max now This is one of the reasons why I got file play like you can argue about spirit break on grim snow And like I'm not going to say it's not a bad option. I think it's a very solid option 100% Um, but the file plate does give you a little bit more options against stuff like this So we'll go for the steel spike into nurse into that miltank and we'll go for the file plate into the snorlax here Um Surprise you don't see a berry on the the snorlax. We do get another steel spike Big damage into the miltank this time. So I'm taking it as well as that Um, snorlax did and prokken a berry. What are we going to see here? What are we going to see? Citrus just the citrus. There's the high horsepower again And literally just tickling Darrell and Darrell are done at the minute and there's the file player there I mean spirit break in the same regard probably does enough to snorlax You just got to worry there if my opponent did max In that case, we'd probably just attack it with Doraladon. So, you know, there's it's a kind of a non-argument really I just like file play that and you may wonder why I've got it on there over spirit break And so this time we'll go for the file play into the miltank and we'll go for Go for the max wormwind. I think into the chan Just a lot of the attack a little bit more You know when I'm making plays like this with Doraladon as well And I'm kind of continuously going for the steel spike There's always the the little Niggle in the back of my mind that I want to play body press on Doraladon and it's definitely an option I think If you're constantly seeing yourself more and more going for Um the steel spikes more often than not in battles then You know, it's something worth considering for sure. So we do get the uh The attack drop here, which is going to be helpful, especially when we are already plus two defense And we know we're faster than the um the chan as well with Doraladon, which is nice We don't need to consider T wave. They do get the attack boost But I mean behind reflect at this point like not a lot has really taken us down And there's another tickle oh, I hold power from the the miltank here as we'll get the file play And with the attack boost now really useful. They're not enough to take it down But we'll be able to get at the next turn for sure. Um I think a drako will probably get Uh The chan and another file play will get the nurse So we will just go for the drako and the file play and it should remove both from the field here. Um Yeah, and I don't really it's the first time i'm seeing a A max hitmon chan other than in uh red then okay, so alexa i'm gonna hit the field We'll get the drako it does pick up the knockout It's fine even with the miltank coming in like a dog pulse is going to be enough to get it probably our flash can in I would imagine even though we are minus two Uh file play into zam here going to do decent chunk of damage Of course we are star boosted Actually enough I didn't think it would take it down, but there alone. Behold we uh, we do managed to get the zam which is good.  I feel kind of bad now But it's all it's all in good fun. Isn't it? It's all in good fun And we got to see a miltank. So that is the main thing Um, but I mean we haven't even had to switch here, which is good So it shows like how good this lead is and I know from like you'll know Playing previous formats in the sword and shield series you're going to know this this pairing is very strong Um, but I think Duraladon something a lot players should look at at least going into series six I think it's a very good pick. Um, very strong, especially with the stalwart Get around ally switch get around redirection. Um, and it makes it A big big threat really so we'll jump into our next one We jump into our next one It's going to be weird throwing up the rental team at the end because it's like I had to pre-record it Because it's on a different switch. So I can't actually do it on this. So it's going to just be voice of us Anyway, we've got our next opponent series six team. Very nice. Okay. We got comfy. We got urshafoo, riperia Another Duraladon Toxterity and gastrodon. Okay Well, well, well, well, well, what are we going to do here? I think grim snarl again, it's going to be very good just for the screen support alone. I don't know Duraladon's I mean Duraladon's not bad here. We do Have to worry a little bit about the opposing urshafoo for sure. Um Maybe we got on urshafoo Like they've got a good way to set trick room up as well, which is like a little bit worrying We've got to be worried about that for sure. I think we do bring Mungus here and then maybe Duraladon in the back um Or primarina Even if the trick rooms up now, I think we go. I think we'll go Duraladon Yeah, we'll go with that. Um Yeah, so I think if they lead comfy like riperia, I think we've got to make Like a play to get a mungus onto the field as soon as possible so we can shut down that riperia Because if you look at the face value of this, they're gonna try and get The right period in trick room Like they've got then the priority giga drain to proc the weakness policy on right period and get it set up So that's definitely a mode there Um other modes of the team. I think you've probably got snarl toxicity. It could be spec So we have to be a little bit careful for that Urshafoo's probably sashed I think um, but other than the trick room not got too many um modes of speed control So we don't need to be too worried about it too worried Now let's see what my opponent brings Nice turtle neck there. Okay, Urshafoo and toxicity We'll go Urshafoo and Grim snarl Okay So the thing is like we can throw up a screen but it's not really going to help us against the opposing urshafoo And what is that urshafoo? Is that the dark one? I think it is. Let's have a quick gander It is okay. We're getting them right. We're getting it right this time. So we can thunder wave And go for maybe a u turns better honestly Uh, just so our sash doesn't get broken right now. Um, that would like I kind of prefer that We'll get some good damage onto it. We could close combat, but it probably is sashed. Uh, that's my only that's my only worry Um, yeah, we'll go for the u turn into it Worst case scenario here is okay Oh, it's actually dark, isn't it? So we can't we can't do that. We can't do that. What are we doing? What are we doing? Okay We're being fools. We're being actually fools. I had to get a moongus in now. I can't believe I've just done that Okay Protip protip for you or protip fam. Um, don't don't prankster into darker urshafoo Remember remember don't do what I've been doing Oh my gosh iron head not good overdrive. We're gonna lose grim snow straight away. We're getting absolutely bodied from just being Not so smart. That's so smart. Um, okay. Well, we'll bring urshafoo back in I'm really sad that we've lost we've lost that That urshafoo already. I think we can probably get away with going for less. It was a speed tie We'll go for a close combat there. We know the sash is potentially broken. We'll go for a spoil into good old toxicity here um Because we can't range part of the overdrive Just got to hope that we either win the speed tie or it's not a speed tie and we get the close combat into urshafoo They probably suspect us to be scoffed here. Maybe Isn't ideal. Uh, they've got to worry about yeah, then withdrawing Yeah, that's what I'm I mean, I don't mind this too. Okay Okay Okay, well well well well depending on how much we do with the close combat. We can maybe go a wicked blow into Ah, they're gonna well they can't set up the terrain really unless no, it's not g max So they can set the terrain up. That's probably what they're going for here. That's that angle. I think Huh Get a close combat. It's gonna do that. Wow. Okay.  Yeah, and that'll take us down to our sash It's fine stops us putting stuff to sleep, which is a little bit Which isn't ideal, but they have to go for that with a moonga sat on the field, which is fine. Um Yeah, we just waste a turn there Okay But we can go for a wicked blow. Um, actually no, we'll go for a u-turn into gastrodon The worry here is if it if it protects, um, and I think what we'll do is The only problem is right now Is that they're going to probably go sludge bomb boost special attack, I think Which we could then potentially switch into doraladon and predict the sludge bomb into a moonga And hope that's what they go for It makes sense to right Yeah, there's a protect. Okay, unless they're going into urshifu here then Maybe it'll be bad But of course, yeah, we've got the ability to go through protect Of course for getting urshifu's ability over and over again And everything to do with urshifu, but we'll get the moongas back on the field. We've got uh, our health back with the regenerator and Uh, like I say kind of hoping for the sludge bomb or the max ooze into doraladon That's what we kind of want to see here Max strike, huh? Yeah, wow that there's so much damage Man, we're so best Okay critical hit Not ideal But I mean we're still not in the worst position because even when the the urshifu comes back onto the field, right? We've got doraladon We've got rage proud of support next to it. So we're kind of okay The other doraladon coming in and it's not the worst thing in the world. We'll rage powder And I think we've got max Probably We could got max lightning. I think it might be better to go darkness though in all honesty um just to get the The special defense drop so we can get like something like toxicity the next turn potentially Um, yeah, we'll go into doraladon See what they're going to chuck out here if it's going to be something like uh Draco meteor Yeah, I think like we're definitely going to see the max ooze I would imagine They may go max strike again, but max ooze makes more sense to boost the doraladon oof Yeah, and we can't get around the stalwart. That's the one issue Max darkness. Okay We really need to be taking this doraladon down this next turn. That's the thing I don't know if the darkness will be enough Maybe maybe I don't know Maybe not Still think we could probably do this with urshifu to be honest Because we haven't seen them kind of boosting their attack. So let's go gear drain into this one Uh, hmm Okay, I it's likely we're gonna lose it's likely we're gonna lose doraladon here. Um in all honesty Because they just got overdrive We have to go gear drain. I think And just go worm went as well. Uh, let's go into toxicity The online is too of course, but Okay, they're gonna steal beam Huh, okay. Yeah, that pretty much ends the game for us here They do lose doraladon unless we can take an overdrive here. I don't know if we'll be able to Um It's gonna be tough No, not with the terrain up not with the terrain up. Hmm I think we've just been absolutely bodied by toxicity But it's that turn one, isn't it the turn one really let us down a little bit like losing our uh the ability to uh To make any use out of grim snow We would have been better going for a screen at that point and then losing it from there, but I mean We're kind of done now They're probably gonna suck a punch I don't think a sucker punch from us is going to be enough to get the toxicity if it is Ideal if it's not going to be is it? I don't think sucker punch will get it Because we have to get the faster sucker punch. Yeah, and they've got it So we speed tied this whole time and we just won early on very good game to my opponent Very sad very sad that we've messed that up but It happens sometimes can't just have these We can't win all the time even though we should be And I could just drop this and not put it up on the channel, but I'm not gonna do that I'm not gonna do that. Um, we're gonna Just stick with it because I think It's a good lesson to make sure you're being mindful of these potential pokemon that are Amused to prank so you should know this by now, but obviously I'm being a good citizen and being an example for you And that's the whole reason why it was in this video purposely purposefully It's not really I'm only joking But now okay guys, thanks so much for tuning in We're gonna hop over to the rental team now that that we're gonna put up for the doralea on team So um, you'll see it on the screen right now There is the code So I hope you have a little bit of fun with it. I hope it's I like it. It's just it's a team there to try out. I think for going into series six An interesting one you can chop and change things around with it You can maybe drop arcanine in for the rotom heat. That's a nice option And the rotom heat just gives you that nice ground immunity that you don't otherwise have So there's lots of modes within the team Um, and obviously all based around grim snow doralea don is your main course So hopefully you enjoy it guys. Thank you so much for tuning in now I hope you've enjoyed today's episode. It's been a fun one Do stick around for tomorrow's episode with all those poker pastes in and I'll enjoy Waiting for that if that makes sense if that makes sense But thanks again friends do drop a like on the video and I'll see you all for the next one So until then take care of yourselves and bye. Bye


Hi, this talk is about Laconic Private Set Intersection and Applications. I'm Pedro, and this is joint work with Navida Lamati, Niko Dottling, Sanjam Garg, Mohamed Ajabadi and Siang Pu. In this work, we study the framework of Laconic cryptography, which is a special case of two-party secure computation. Here, the first party, or the receiver, has a long input x. It first hashes the input into a small hash h. Then the sender computes a message m, depending on his input y and the hash h. Finally, given x and m, the receiver can compute f of x, y. In terms of efficiency, we require that the communication complexity of the protocol doesn't depend on the size of the receiver's input x. The Laconic cryptography framework allows for secure reverse delegation of computation, as opposed to fully homomorphic encryption, and allows for communication-efficient secure protocols. The Laconic cryptography framework was presented in the work of Sho et al., where a Laconic Oblivious Transfer Protocol is presented. This protocol can be based on several hardness assumptions, such as DDH, LWE or QR. Later, a Laconic protocol to compute any function was presented in a work of Quack et al. This protocol is based on the hardness of the LWE, with super polynomial modulus to noise ratio. Both of these works use non-blackbox techniques, which makes both schemes impratical for real-world applications. This raises two questions. The first one is whether we can build Laconic protocols for other functionalities from assumptions other than LWE. The second one is whether we can build efficient Laconic protocols. In this work, we focus on Laconic protocols for a specific functionality, namely private set intersection. Here, the receiver has a large input set X and the sender has a small input set Y. In the end of the protocol, the receiver should learn the intersection of both sets and nothing else. So what do we know about Laconic private set intersection? We know that Laconic function evaluation implies Laconic PSI, but at the cost of super polynomial modulus to noise ratio LWE and non-blackbox techniques. Hence, we ask two questions in this work. The first one is whether Laconic PSI can be based on assumptions other than LWE. The second one is whether we can build efficient Laconic PSI protocols. Our results are two-fold. We start by presenting a feasibility result. Namely, we construct the LPSI from anonymous hash encryption, which can be based on CDH or LWE, and garbled circuits. This construction builds on the Merkle Tree garbled circuit-based approach of dotting et al. showing how to use garbled circuits to perform binary search on a set of sorted values. The construction uses non-blackbox techniques. So, as our second contribution, we present a Laconic PSI protocol from PHY-HIDING, which uses only blackbox techniques. Then, we show how to extend the PHY-HIDING construction into a reusable LPSI, where the first message of the receiver can be reused across several executions of the protocol and which is secured against malicious senders. We do this by relying on the Decisional Composite Residuosity Assumption, the PHY-HIDING Assumption, and the Subgroup Decisional Assumption on pairings. As an additional result, we construct blackbox-designated verifier NISICs for range proofs for Damgard-Euric ciphertexts. This allows us to prove that the plaintext of a DJ ciphertext is within a certain range. For the rest of this talk, I'm going to focus on the blackbox LPSI from PHY-HIDING. For a detailed description and analysis of our feasibility result, please check the full version of the paper. We now describe our construction based on the PHY-HIDING Assumption. Our starting point is the construction of Goyal et al. for one-way functions with encryptions from PHY-HIDING. Recall that in a one-way function with encryption, given age, which is the result of a one-way function applied to a string of bits x, the encryptor can encrypt a message with respect to a position i and the bit b. The decryptor can recover m if and only if xi is equal to b. Otherwise, the message m remains hidden. In the one-way function with encryption by Goyal et al, the CRS is composed by an RSA modulus n and by two uniformly chosen prime numbers. To compute the one-way function on an input string x, we first choose a random element R and compute G to the R times the product of the prime's PI xi modulo n. Given age, a position i star and the bit b, the encryptor first chooses a random element rho and computes a ciphertext which is G to the rho times PI star b. Then it uses as a shared key the value h to the rho modulo n. Finally, the decryptor computes a key k prime, which is the ciphertext to the product of the prime's PI xi for i different than i star. It is easy to see that if xi prime is equal to b, then k prime is equal to k. Our first observation is that this scheme almost yields a laconic PSI scheme, as we'll see in the next slide. Let's see how we can build a laconic PSI protocol using the ideas from the previous slide. Let's assume for now that we have a universe of polynomial size. We will later explain how we can remove this condition. The CRS is composed by an RSA modulus, an element G in the multiplicative group Zn star, and prime's P1pl, each one encoding an element in the universe. Let's assume that the receiver has a set SR and that the sender has a set SS with only one element. The receiver starts by computing a hash value h, which is computed as G to the R times the product's PI for each i in SR. Then the sender computes an element f, which is G to the rho times Pw, which is a prime encoding the element w, and a value r, which is a randomness extractor applied to the hash value h to the rho. It sends the randomness extractor CDS, the value f, and the value r to the receiver. Now, for each element in the receiver set, the receiver computes a value ri, which is the extractor applied to f to the r times the product of the primes encoding the receiver set element except for the is position. If there is an element i such that the value ri is equal to r, then the receiver outputs the set element i. It is easy to see that the protocol is correct and laconic in the sense that the communication complexity of the protocol doesn't depend on the size of the receiver set. However, there is a drawback in this protocol. Namely, it only works for polynomial size universes and is only secure against a semi-honest sender. Now, let's see how we can prove semi-honest security against a semi-honest sender is trivial since the value h is indistinguishable from a uniform value. For security against a semi-honest receiver, we first replace the RSA modules in the CRS by a value n such that Pw divides phi of n. This change goes unnoticed under the phi-hiding assumption. Now we can argue that the value f, which is g to the rho times Pw, loses information about rho. This means that the value h to the rho has high mean entropy and thus we can replace r by a uniform value. Now we can change the RSA modules back to the normal mode and we can replace f by a uniform value. We now show the main ideas to extend this protocol into a protocol that supports exponential universes. The main idea is to describe the universe implicitly via a PRF key. This PRF should map into the prime numbers, but recall that in the security proof for a semi-honest receiver we need to program one of the primes to use the phi-hiding assumption. For that, we'll use a programmable PRF in which we can program one of the outputs of the PRF. We now show the main ideas on how to extend the protocol to allow for malicious sender. Recall that to prove security against a malicious sender, we need to extract the sender's input. For this, we can use general purpose NISIX to guarantee that the receiver's message is well formed, but this uses non-black box techniques. So observe that the sender's message is composed by the value f, which is g to the row times pw, and the value r, which is the extractor applied to h to the row. To prove malicious sender security, we need to extract both the values w and row. The high-level idea to extract both w and row is the following. We first perform a re-encryption step, which allows the simulator to extract the sender's input w. Then we switch to a DOM-guardiouric group, and this allows to extract both the value row pw and check that r is indeed well formed. Finally, we show how to construct range proof systems for a DOM-guardiouric ciphertext, and this guarantees that the simulator can extract the value with overwhelming probability. Let's first look at the re-encryption step. Here the observation is that the value r, computed by the sender, is uniform when the element is not in the receiver set. In the original protocol, the sender computes the value f and the value r and sends both of them to the receiver. The receiver then checks if there's an i, such that r i is equal to r, and outputs the element i if this happens for some element. We now modify the protocol in the following way. We add a public key of an inCPA public key encryption to the CRS, for which the simulator has a secret key. Then the sender sends the value f as before, but now it sends a ciphertext which encrypts his input element w with the randomness r. The receiver computes r i as before for all elements in his set, and it checks if the encryption of the set element i with randomness r i corresponds to the same as the ciphertext sent by the sender. In the security proof, the simulator now has the secret key for the public key, and can decrypt the ciphertext sent by the sender and recover the sender's input w. As a bonus, we get perfect correctness for our new protocol, and security against the receiver, since r is uniform, we can simply replace the ciphertext by encryptions of zero. Now to prove security against a malicious sender, the simulator, since it has the secret key of the public key, can extract w from the ciphertext as I mentioned before. But there's still an issue, which is the following. The simulator does not detect false positives. For example, consider the case where a malicious sender encrypts using a uniform value r, instead of computing it honestly. In this case, the simulator will extract the sender's input, but the honest receiver will fail with high probability. So to fix this, we need a way to extract the randomness rho from the value f. Our solution for this is simple. We simply replace the multiplicative group of the n by a Damgardeutic group. Recall that Damgardeutic groups have a very nice property, which is the following. Given phi of n, we can efficiently compute discrete logarithms. Let's see how we can use this fact about DJ groups to prove security against malicious senders. Assume for now that we have a reusable designated verifier Nizik, which given f, which is g to the a, allows us to show that the exponent a is within some range. For a complete description of such a scheme, please see the full version of our paper. Let's see how the final version of our protocol looks like. Now all parties compute their values in the DJ group. The sender now sends f and the ciphertext ct as before, but additionally proves that the exponent in g to the rho pw is within some range. For security against a malicious sender, we can replace the element g by an element g2, for which the simulator can compute delox. The simulator can now recover a rho times pw and perform the re-encryption step as before. To show the usefulness of laconic private set intersection, we show that we can use laconic psi to construct a new primitive that we call self-detecting encryption. Self-detecting encryption is essentially a polykey encryption, such that we can detect if a ciphertext is encrypting a special message. Let's see how we can build self-detecting encryption from laconic psi. First, an authority such as a government publishes a hash of the special database, which can be, for example, composed by illegal videos. Then ciphertexts are encrypted with respect to this hash. That is, ciphertexts correspond to the sender's message in the LPSI. Finally, anyone knowing the database can perform a private set intersection between the database and the ciphertext. If the ciphertext is encrypting a message, which is in the database, then we learn the message. Otherwise, we learn nothing about the encrypted message. That's all. Thanks!


Miku Metallurgis is a series of artworks which includes mythological stories, biotechnological installations, entitled raptures and patterning, an on and off-line performative workshop, storytelling circle, and a video essay called Infrastructure. In my work, I researched and experimented with the idea of how multi-species symbiotic super-connective organisms such as fungi actually teach us about connectivity, networks, inclusivity, and caring practices across species. I worked in art and science field, and the past two years before the pandemic, I have been part of the Artists in Residential Programs at two institutions, at Mathias Relic Laboratory, at Institute for Biology in Berlin, and Tobikiers Laboratory at Free University in Amsterdam. While I was there, I was exploring and experimenting with fungal networks, and I noticed that scientific facts get their social dimensions and understanding through various stories and also metaphors as a wood-wide web, as some of you have maybe heard of, and these stories and metaphors usually serve a particular social and political and also economical agendas. They are never really neutral. Because of that, I decided to write a mythology for and as much as possible with fungi. The preparations for the exhibition at Prago Gallery are going pretty well because two most complicated artworks, the biotechnological installations, rapture and patterning, have actually been already exhibited three times in the past year in Slovenia, in Croatia and in the Netherlands. So at the moment, I'm mostly finalizing a video essay called Infrastructure, together with fellow Michael Phil and artist Katelyn Bryson. Mycometologists in the form of biotechnological installations unfortunately will not be presented at Prago Gallery. The series will be presented as a large-scale video documentation due to exhibitions I need to attend at Center for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona and Nova Tritite Co Gallery in Moscow. Mycometologists challenge at the moment is translating three-dimensional immersive installations into two-dimensional space by trying to preserve ambiental qualities of installations which are an important part of the artistic language that mycometologists use. Fortunately, mycometologists will be realized in Prague in July and at the time I imagine it as this vast biotechnological landscape of networks of electric circuits, whispering voices, contaminated petri dishes, AI controlled microscopes and of course mycelial threads and murmurings of nutrient flows in those mycelial threads and pixel bleeding mycometological screens, biomes of blood, sweat and tears, nurtured mushrooms and all these connected in some sort of entanglement where it will be possible to actually think about what kind of networks we are part of. So please come to Prague Aca Gallery to see the exhibition of our class and take time and immerse yourself in the thought processes that created them. I'm sure you will have an exciting and meaningful experience. And if by any chance you're in Prague in summer, I invite you to the immersive biotechnological landscape of mycometologists which will hopefully bring you a bit closer to this alien world of fungi that actually support and sustain a very big part of our ecosystem.