If you're normal crypto follower then you have herd about the 'Proof Of Work' and if you love to research or you followed my articles then youight herd 'Proof Of Stake' term, But if you're not into development field or a developer then I think you haven't herd the term called 'Zero Knowledge Proofs', it sounds odd, right ? I know it is, but today we'll go through this term and understand what it is ? The origin of Zero Knowledge Proofs and how they're being deployed in blockchain.
So let's dive in...
What Are Zero Knowledge Proofs ?
A Zero Knowledge Proof is a method used in cryptography to prove that some secrets are known without revealing the secret. That sounds odd right ? Yes, it is, Zero Knowledge Proofs are the indirect proofs to prove that you know the secret and you still keep that secret to yourself.
Concept Of Provers and Verifiers
In this proofs, the very basic roles are Provers and Verifiers, Provers are the people who claim that they knew the secret information and the verifiers are who verifies that the prover actually knows the secret.
It works as, verifiers ask providers to do few things, which can be only done if the Prover definitely knows the secret. If the Prover tries to guess then he or she will be proven wrong eventually, as no one can guess things 100% correctly and continuously. And if the Prover is the actual owner of information & know the secrets then he/she will pass the Verifiers test successfully and regularly.
Let's understand it with the following example :
It's like bank or any institution asking you a pass-codes to verify your identity, here you're not telling bank what's inside your locker but you're proving that you actually own that locker.
Origin Of Zero Knowledge Proofs
At first the Zero Knowledge Proofs was mentioned in 1985 by the Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali, and Charles Rackoff in their released paper called "The Knowledge Complexity Of Interactive Proof-System".
Then after a long time, in 2012 a team of researchers lead by Alessandro Chiesa coins the term zk-SNARKs. And in 2016 ZCash was released, which is the most used privacy focused cryptocurrency to use ZK-SNARKs (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge)
Who's Using Zero Knowledge Proofs & How ?
The group of engineers and researchers are working on a project called Aztech, they're seeking to collaborate existing Ethereum network and Zero Knowledge Proofs with the help of stack of smart contracts. These completely private smart contracts can be used to create private Ethereum tokens as well as Decentralised Organisations (DAOs)
Along with Ethereum blockchain other blockchains are also taking privacy seriously. The TRON blockchain deployed a moderate version of zk-SNARKs as all the transactions are still not private.
Future
All the monopolies like Facebook, Google, Amazon are selling our data for their profits in order to manipulate our online behaviour for the advertising purpose. But blockchain technology is penetrating them by creating completely transparent system. And the Zero Knowledge Proofs offers a public and transparent network to prevent individuals or institutions from snoopers, peepers and creepers in this digital world.
Hey, friends that's it from my side, hope you enjoyed and find this article helpful. If you're into blockchain and love to explore the new innovative technologies then subscribe me to get notified for my future articles.
Thanks for your time and appreciation...!!
After publishing just a while ago, I tried searching for zero knowledge proof here at read.cash and this comes out. Haha. It is related to what I just wrote and I wanted to read some more in light of the articles of those who are users here. CyptoSearcher here trying very hard to understand crypto.