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A signature is a zkp. So your example is also a good example :)
A signature is a PoK, but not ZK.
Another demonstration of Zero-Knowledge Proofs: A paper-tech protocol for validating Sudoku solutions without revealing the solution: https://zudoku.xyz/
So with ZK-proofs we may never be 100% sure something is true or not? Is it possible that this may be too computational expensive to have certainty at given (or above) level?
Thus you can get very fast to a probability smaller than you quantum tunnelling through a wall
If you wanna do it in a flexible way that is very easy to use and essentially the future of ZK, use Powdr [1]. Just write your code in rust nostd and be done with it. It's a compiler, basically. Once you use it, you'll never go back to hand-massaging polynomials. It'd be like writing assembly. Sure, some can do it, and it can be fun, but why do it if there are compilers out there to do the heavy lifting for you? :) […
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I can see applications in multiplayer gamedev - imagine being able to run the whole game simulation on a clients machine and have them assert back to you that they killed 7 goblins, looted a rare sword from a chest, and died 3 times - and you could just trust them. Your server costs would only need to be for the metaprogression/persistence related stuff that could be done relatively infrequently based on updates from…
I agree. Exploring this in game worlds came up in a job interview a few years ago :) ZK proofs are potentially a transformative tool for real-tine distributed systems in general, not just games. They potentially improve laency ("ping"), by changing the communication patterns in a distributed consensus system. That's great for games and other real-time systems.
As someone with zero knowledge regarding Zero Knowledge Proofs in a programming context, can someone give me a basic explanation regarding the utility? I do understand the basic principle of ZKP’s, but as yet I’m failing to understand how this would be applied in industry.
A toy example: suppose we have some sudoku. You want to show publicly (maybe in a HN comment) that you know the solution, without revealing the solution itself, because then anybody would know it and be able to post that they know it. A zero-knowledge proof enables this. You could also post a hash of the solution, but then you need to know the solution already to verify a submission. (It would also enable others to c…
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> Or if the big computer says "this entire Debian distribution of binary files was indeed compiled with this version of GCC", you can quickly verify that all the binaries are exactly what they should be - without having to trust anyone. > So amazed and intrigued that I had to learn how it's done Any chance you could just illustrate this somehow with a basic example? I just don't see how you could possibly verify that…
As far as I understand, you can't just use any gcc binary as it exists today. The program needs to be represented as a specific, mathematical expression that is suitable for zero-knowledge proofs.
What does everyone think about the 'trusted' setup part of zero-knowledge proofs? Is this a deal breaker for some use-cases or can this phase be done without worrying that the entire process has been hijacked... As has been a core goal of many ah... 'security' councils in the past.
Only some kinds of ZKPs have that drawback; others don’t. There are many examples of such systems with transparent setup that are used in practice. Even for some ZKP scheme that do require trusted setup, you can perform the setup in a multi-party way that allows anybody to contribute randomness, and as long as even one person is honest, the whole thing is private.
There are zero-knowledge proofs that don’t require a trusted setup phase. A plain old logarithmic equality proof is a very powerful tool, making it possible to ensure correct reencryption shuffle, decryption or encoding. They don’t get the same appeal as generic ZKP systems that get all the hype, which deters practically-minded people from getting familiar with the mechanisms and opportunities. At least, that was my experience when getting into ZKP.