A zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) is a method by which one party (the prover) can prove to another party (the verifier) that they know a value, without having to reveal that value. It’s an interesting idea with huge privacy and security consequences.
How Does ZKP Work?
Suppose you want to convince someone of your knowledge of the password to a secret door, without revealing the password. Which a ZKP protocol would permit, proving knowledge in a fashion that does not reveal the password.
Here’s a simplified example:
The Puzzle — The puzzle is given to the prover by the verifier.
The Prover: The entity that receives the Proof in the form of a riddle – a challenge that only an entity that knows the secret can solve.
Verification: The prover does not learn the secret. The verifier receives the solution
The essence of ZKP is that a prover is able to prove their knowledge of the secret multiple times without disclosing any further information. This way, it guarantees privacy and security.
Practical Uses for ZKP
ZKP has many use-cases including:
Auth: Verifying who they are without compromising identity information.
Private Democracy — Securing elections without giving away individual ballots.
Blockchain Tech → Blockchain for Improvement of Privacy and Scaling
Secure Communication: Ensuring privacy of the messages we send.
Advantages of ZKP
Data privacy: the minimum information is revealed with ZKP
Security — ZKP helps you confirm information without exposing secrets.
Efficiency: ZKP protocols can be implemented in a computationally efficient way.
Outlook and challenges
ZKP is a weapon of great power but ZKP also comes with challenges including,
Complexity: ZKP protocols could be quite complicated to implement and also to realise.
Limited Scalability: The scalability issues with some ZKP protocols also limits use to large-scale applications.
At the same time, researchers have been trying to find incentive-friendly methods to create ZKP protocol with less stringent assumptions.
