What are zero knowledge of knowledge?
Evidence of zero knowledge (ZKPS) is an innovative cryptographic method which allows a part (the prover) to validate one complaint to another (the verifier) without disclosing detailed information on the complaint itself.
When the subject of a contract or a transaction implies very sensitive or confidential data, the ZKPS guarantee safe and private transactions while securing the subject of the transaction throughout the validation process by taking advantage of rigorous mathematical frameworks.
Basically, ZKPS solves an important problem: how can someone prove possession of a declaration, without revealing it? Restling the substance of a transaction is the easy part, but what happens if the truth underlying the transaction could be saved while demonstrating the impossibility of deception?
The ZKPs are better explained with the proof of the red card: if James wants to prove to Vincent that he pulled a red card from a standard card game, all he has to do is take the remaining 51 cards of the game and to systematically show Vincent every 26 black cards, which allowed Vincent to conclude that James indeed has a red card, while doing no information hearts or three diameters!
The ZKPs offer a safe and secure support to conclude transactions, their versatile nature extending their relevance and their application to a range of identity verification to user access controls.
The versatility of ZKPS has extended their relevance beyond traditional cryptographic applications in fields such as identity verification, voting security and access control.
In these cases of use, evidence of zero knowledge eliminates the need to disclose private information while ensuring that only individuals or authorized entities access sensitive systems or data.
For example, an voter could authenticate his eligibility during an election without revealing personal details such as their address or his story. Likewise, companies can implement ZKP to rationalize compliance with regulatory executives, checking membership of requirements without exposing proprietary or confidential recordings.
Did you know? The first theoretical articulation of ZKPS was published in an academic article in 1985, when the Shafi Goldwasser academics, Silvio Micali and Charles Rackoff published their founding article, “the complexity of knowledge of interactive evidence systems”.
How ZKPs work in practice
In practical applications, ZKPS supports the scenarios involving the exchange of sensitive information, such as passwords or private keys.
Taking away from ZKP, sensitive information can be validated without being exposed to the risk of improper use in bad hands. For example, a user could prove his property of a digital asset without revealing the asset identifier or the details of the related transactions, and an voter could vote safely without revealing his identity.
ZKPs use advanced mathematical constructions, such as polynomial commitments, elliptical curve cryptography or hash functions to demonstrate the continuous validity of the three central properties which ration their existence:
- Completeness
- Solidity
- Zero knowledge
Two types of zkps perform the above in different ways:
- The interactive ZKPs achieve it through an exchange of back and forth between the prover and the verifier, involving several stages and challenges to show veracity and eliminate the possibility of deception.
- Non -interactive ZKPs simplify this process by allowing prover to present a single proof which can be verified independently without active interaction of the verifier.
Here is a post X that defines the difference between the two methods:
Why are ZKPs important for cryptocurrency and CBDC
The ZKP play a central role in cryptocurrency, given the fundamental nature of public books where all the details of the underlying transaction, such as the information from the sender and recipients or the transaction amounts, are visible and verifiable. Although this level of transparency shows confidence and responsibility, it does not rest the concerns about confidentiality and confidentiality, which the ZKPs provide.
ZKPS offers solutions to critical confidentiality and security challenges in cryptocurrencies and digital currencies of the Central Bank (CBDC). The insurance provided by ZKPS concerning the confidentiality, safety and reliability of a transaction carefully complete the confidence and responsibility of public registers such as Bitcoin, which can make all the difference for large -scale adoption.
For CBDCs, the adoption of ZKPS is particularly useful, since it establishes an optimal balance between regulatory monitoring and individual privacy. Governments can use zero knowledge of knowledge to guarantee compliance with financial regulations while protecting user data from unauthorized access or abusive use, creating a safer and more reliable monetary ecosystem.
Projects like ZCASH and Aztec Protocol sur Ethereum use ZKPS to allow private transactions, while Starknet advances evolving and improved intelligent contract platforms using ZK-Rollups.
In the CBDC space, projects such as the E-Krona of Sweden and the digital euro of the European Central Bank have explored the theoretical use of ZKP to balance private life with regulatory compliance. Although promising, no CBDC in the real world has yet implemented ZKP on a large scale, and their use remains largely experimental.
How ZCASH uses ZKP to hide the details of the transaction
ZCASH, a cryptocurrency focused on privacy, uses a ZKP variant called ZK-Snarks (arguments of briefly interactive knowledge of zero knowledge).
ZK-Snarks represents cryptographic evidence that allows ZCASH users to check the validity of transactions on the blockchain without disclosing sensitive details such as the sender, the recipient or the amount of transactions, guaranteeing complete confidentiality while simultaneously maintaining the integrity of the blockchain network.
In the ZCASH ecosystem, users can choose between two types of transactions: transparent and armored. Transparent transactions operate as Bitcoin (BTC), all associated transaction information being accessible to the public.
On the other hand, armored transactions use ZK-Snarks to obscure the details of the transaction, offering improved confidentiality and security. By prioritizing the choice and confidentiality of users, ZCASH has established itself as a leader in cryptocurrency solutions centered on confidentiality, demonstrating the real potential of zero knowledge of knowledge.
Did you know? ZCASH has been built on the basis of original Bitcoin code, which means that it shares many similarities with the largest cryptocurrency in the world, including the fact that it has a full fixed offer of 21 million parts worldwide.
Benefits of zkps
The ZKPs offer a diversified range of advantages, with an applicability extent and implications in several areas and industries.
Some of the main advantages of ZKP are:
- Protection of privacy: ZKPS allows users to check the truths without revealing them, guaranteeing robust confidentiality measures between digital systems.
- Regulatory conformity: The ZKPs allow organizations to achieve regulatory compliance while maintaining the confidentiality of their data, concluding an ambitious balance between transparency and privacy.
- Improved security: By minimizing the exposure of data sensitive to the outside world, the ZKPs reduce the vulnerabilities of data violations and hacking.
- Evolution: Non -interactive ZKPs are effective on the calculation, which makes them well suited to large -scale systems such as CBDCs and overall blockchain networks.
- Confidence and transparency: ZKPS leads to confidence in digital interactions by cryptographically checking truths, eliminating the need for blind confidence in intermediaries or third parties.
ZKPS limits
Although considerably advantageous, the ZKPs face certain challenges and limits which hamper their adoption and their generalized implementation.
The main drawbacks of zkps include:
- Complexity of the implementation: The design and deployment of ZKP protocols require exceptional technical expertise in cryptography and mathematics, which is currently the reserve of a limited set of highly specialized individuals, which makes adoption a challenge for small organizations.
- General calculation costs: ZKP interactive implementations can be at high intensity of resources, requiring significant calculation power for validation and treatment.
- Configuration of confidence: The non -interactive ZKP often rests on configurations of trust or reference chains, which, if compromised, can undermine the safety of the entire network.
The future of zKPs in digital finance
ZKPS uses a new era of confidentiality and security in digital interactions, offering transformative capacities that fall under critical challenges in cryptocurrencies, CBDC and digital finance which require solutions preserving confidentiality.
Research in cryptographic optimizations and zero-frust configurations aims to meet existing challenges, reduce calculation costs and improve safety. This progress will probably stimulate the wider adoption of ZKPs in sectors such as health care, voting systems, identity management and, above all, blockchain and digital finance.
Emerging development is the implementation of ZK-Rollups, which bring together several transactions in a single batch and check them using ZKPS. This innovation considerably improves the scalability of blockchain networks by reducing transaction costs and increasing flow.
In this scalable landscape, ZKPs are a privacy lighthouse, allowing secure and transparent systems that prioritize confidence and confidentiality. As ZKP technology matures, its applications will extend far beyond cryptocurrencies and digital finance, transforming how we approach confidence, confidentiality and security in the digital age. The continuous evolution of ZKPs is the promise of a future where improved confidentiality solutions are an integral part of secure and reliable systems between the sectors.
