So everyone is going crazy about Zero Knowledge Proofs or ZKPs as we lovably call them! Here’s a post to get you started 👇
Ever attended a music concert or any conference/fest? Different coloured wrist bands are given at the entry and the colour of the band conveys which places you are allowed to attend the event from and what additional privileges you have as an attendee.
That system of colour code wrist bands, right there, is an example of a Zero Knowledge Proof. It verifies your membership/privileges without revealing any other information like whats your name, where you got the ticket from, how much you paid for the ticket.
But what is a ZKP technically? Let us simplify it!
A ZKP is an algorithm which generates a prover key and verifier key on a piece of data in a given context or use case. Later, the prover key can be used by data owner to prove that they have the data without revealing it to a verifier, who has the verifier key.
But how does ZKPs improve a blockchain? Here are 3 applications :
ZKPs can prove the transaction validity quicker and hence increase the scale or number of transactions per second. ZK-Rollups like dydx, zksync and loopring are some examples.
2. ZKPs can add privacy to blockchain. Mixers like TornadoCash use ZKPs to enable a user to deposit funds from Account A to secret accounts B, C, D such that no one can track where the funds were deposited after withdrawing from TornadoCash.
3. ZKPs can be used to create range proving systems called Semaphores. Location Semaphores can be used to prove that I am in India without revealing my exact location. Income Semaphores can be used to prove that my income lies in a certain range without revealing my exact income.
ZKP space is evolving everyday and enabling newer use cases.
*Need help implementing ZKP for your use or deploy on one of the zk-rollups? Reach out to us at *msgvalue.com
