A Brief Introduction on Zero-Knowledge Proofs
In this article, I’m going to talk about a cybersecurity idea in blockchain known as “Zero-Knowledge Proofs”
What are Zero-knowledge proofs?
Zero-Knowledge Proofs are exactly what the name implies — they allow me to prove to another party that I have a certain piece of knowledge without revealing what that knowledge is.
In short, it is a cryptographic method by which one party, called “the prover”, can prove to another party, called “the verifier”, that certain statements are true without revealing any other information
Zero-Knowledge Proofs are often referred to as zk-SNARKs, which stand for “Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge”, or zk-SNARKs for short, or, if you want to be simple, we can just call them Zero-Knowledge Proofs.
A great example of a Zero-Knowledge Proof is what we call the cave door analogy.
Pretend that there’s a circular cave, with only one entrance or exit and at the back of this circular cave there’s a door that can be unlocked using a secret code entered onto a keypad. If I want to prove to you that I know the unlock code without revealing that unlock code to you, all I need to show is that I can walk into one end of the cave, open the door, and come out the other end.
If I’ve successfully demonstrated that, then you know without a doubt I’ve been able to unlock that door, but yet I haven’t revealed that unlock code to you. This simple cave door analogy is a Zero-Knowledge proof, and if you can remember this cave door analogy, then you’ll understand why Zero-Knowledge Proofs are so important in the blockchain.
For example, a user may make a request to send another user some money. The blockchain naturally wants to make sure, before it commits this transaction, that the user sending the money has enough to send. However, the blockchain doesn’t really need to know or care who is spending the money, or how much total money they have. Being able to answer a question of “Does a user have enough money to send to another user” without knowing who the user is, or exactly how much they have, is one of the primary use cases for Zero-Knowledge Proofs in the blockchain.
So, when you hear about zk-SNARKs, don’t get intimidated. It’s not a complex idea. Just think of Zero-Knowledge Proofs and the cave door, think about how important it is in blockchain to be able to prove a claim without actually revealing the information behind that claim, and you’ll understand Zero-Knowledge Proofs.
Thanks for joining me for this quick overview of Zero-knowledge proofs.
We really only scratched the surface, so if you want to see more articles like this be sure to Connect me.
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Shubham Dusane
DeFi — Blockchain Developer
sdusane4@gmail.com
