The loss of Internet data leakage is gradually increasing, and data privacy will be the key development focus of the industry. According to BM Security assessment, the average cost of global data leakage in 2018 was $3.86 million, which was 6.4% higher than that in 2017. In addition to that, the assessment also shows that large-scale data leakage is costly, with millions of records leakage possibly causing $40 million in losses, and 50 million records leakage may cause $350 million in losses. In this context, developing privacy encryption technology has become the focus of industry and market.
Zero-knowledge proof is an advanced privacy protection technology. Zero-knowledge proof is a cryptographic technology proposed by MIT researchers in the 1980s. As the name implies, zero-knowledge proof implies that you are the legal owner of a certain right without leaking relevant information, that is, to give zero information to the outsiders. Therefore, trusted computing uses cryptography such as zero-knowledge proof to complete data calculation while ensuring data privacy. Privacy protection technology based on cryptography provides a trusted environment for data calculation. Whether it is personal information, enterprise business data or unique data resources, there are hidden dangers of data leakage in the process of data exchange, storage and calculation. Cryptographic algorithms represented by zero-knowledge proof provide a solution for data security and privacy.
Zero-Knowledge Proof Provides A New Direction For The
Development Of Blockchain
The development of blockchain can not be distinguished from privacy protection technology, and cryptography is just needed for distribution of books. In a conventional blockchain transaction, when assets are sent from one party to the other, the details of the transaction are visible to each party within the network. On the contrary, in a transaction with zero knowledge proof, others only know that a valid transaction has occurred, but do not know the sender, receiver, asset class and quantity. The identity and amount involved in the transaction can be hidden, and problems such as “jump the gun” can be avoided. Zero-knowledge proof protocol supports the transfer of assets on distributed blockchain network, and has complete privacy.
ZCash is the most prominent zero-knowledge proof in blockchain-based systems, which is also the first cryptocurrency to realize zk-Snarks. Since then, other blockchain systems have also added zero-knowledge proof to verify while protecting user/transaction privacy. Perhaps, the most famous is Ethereum which realized zk-Snarks as part of the Byzantine upgrade.
Lumino Ceremony – The Starting Point Of The Application Of Zero-Knowledge Proof In Blockchain Industry
Zero-knowledge proof can realize flexible data calculation interaction and cross-validation, though it is still difficult to realize. Since it needs repeated examples to prove that the answer is true, which requires highly to hashrate. Currently the efficiency of generating proof is about 7 seconds, which requires a lot of hashrate to improve the computing speed.
At present, the biggest challenge faced by privacy computing lies in how to improve the efficiency of privacy protection and realize large-scale commercial landing. Zero-knowledge proof depends on hardware facilities, and the research and development and production of special computing hardware require huge upfront costs, so this is why the concept of privacy computing has appeared since 2014 but so far there has not been a real project.
In 2021, PlatON, a private computing AI network, announced the official launch of Lumino, a secure multi-party computing ceremony, inviting global community participants to help the development of private computing technology.
Lumino is a large-scale activity that uses secure multi-party computing protocols to generate zero knowledge proof system public reference string (CRS) in a de-trust manner, and it is a prerequisite and an important step for deploying and using privacy-related applications in a decentralized ecosystem.
Lumino means luminous and illuminated in Chinese. In Platon/Alaya’s world, Lumino is a multi-party collaborative computing ceremony that creates the necessary security parameters for one of Platon/Alaya’s cryptographic infrastructures, the Zero-knowledge Proof Protocol.
The emergence of Lumino is a milestone, which means that the formal commercialization and large-scale promotion of zero knowledge are becoming possible.
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Emerald Journal journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.