Sheldon Anthony IO

A zero-knowledge proof consists of proving something's validity without revealing what it is. It has been several years since zero-knowledge proofs were introduced, and they have now been applied to a wide range of real-world situations. The ability to share proofs without sharing data is what makes zero-knowledge proofs unique. Proofs can be shared and verified publicly while data remains privately owned and controlled by its owner.

In the process of gaining insights and improving products and services, businesses today are collecting vast amounts of customer data, making them vulnerable to cyber threats and data breaches. There is an upward trend in the cost of data breaches every year. Gartner reports that the average cost of a U.S. data breach increased from $8.19 million in 2019 to $8.64 million in 2020.^[1] Growing concern about these breaches has led to calls for more privacy-protecting means of sharing sensitive information.

A zero-knowledge proof solves this problem by eliminating the need to reveal information to demonstrate validity. There are two parties involved: the prover and the verifier. The prover is responsible for proving a claim, while the verifier is responsible for validating it. For example, say Organization X wants to verify someone's identity. Government Y has access to your identity details and wants Organization X to use their services for that knowledge. Using a zero-knowledge proof Government Y can verify someone's identity with Organization X without revealing the identity specifics with Organization X. The only evidence Organization X needs to verify their claim is a zero-knowledge proof. To be convinced that the underlying statement is true, Organization X simply needs to check certain properties of the proof.

Zero-knowledge proofs play a vital role, especially in how it deals with anonymous verifiable voting. In the future, we will no longer need a trusted third party to verify the results of votes recorded on a public blockchain. There will be an increase in demand for secure and anonymous voting solutions as nations become more digital and security tokens become more prevalent. Voting is anonymous because eligible voters do not have to reveal their identities. Voters who request zero-knowledge proofs can verify that their vote was included in the final tally. Even if the votes themselves are not visible on a public blockchain, the results can still be audited by the electoral body. It also eliminates the possibility of censorship.  A key component of society today is mutual decision-making. It is essential to have a consensus when making decisions. Many members of a group must agree on a decision for a consensus to be reached. Anonymous voting is only one example of how zero-knowledge proofs can aid in validating things without revealing them.  

Zero-knowledge proofs will find more interesting and unexpected applications across a wide range of industries and services, providing a perfect balance between technological convenience, privacy, and digital security as they become easier to implement and more efficient computationally. Organizations constantly need to verify things with one another but that does not mean that they necessarily need to share personal information with other organizations. There is an ever-increasing need for organizations to collaborate with one another but not at the expense of exposing personal information. Zero-knowledge proofs are one way of eliminating the risk of that happening.