Thread by @pythontony

In my last thread, I explained basics of zK Proofs. The love and support you guys showed has been amazing ❤️

After this thread, I am sure you will build a good understanding of what zK-SNARKs are & why they trending nowadays?

LFG 🚀🚀🚀

#web3 #Blockchain #learning

We are very well aware about how the zK Proofs work. In case you haven’t already, please check out my Patrick-Virginia example from the below tweet.

I promise you it’s the most lucid explanation on Crypto Twitter 🤤

https://twitter.com/pythontony/status/1502895063730323456

So, what happens in traditional zero Knowledge Proofs?

Everytime Patrick has to Prove that he knows the spell, he has to interact with Virginia. She asks him to come from either of paths (A or B) and then only verification happens.

Now this process takes time. Calling Patrick again and again only to prove something he already knows everytime is a cumbersome process. Both for Prover and Verifier.

This causes extra computational overheads in Blockchain networks as well as unwanted interaction. What do we do?

Now comes the most revolutionary confluence of Mathematics and Cryptography. Buckle up your brain for a ride 🧠

I believe you all know that roots of a 2D curve or polynomial are the points on X-axis where its value equals to Zero.

Check this illustration:

That means if I tell you the exact root of an expression, I should probably be knowing the polynomial too

But I can also guess the roots if equation is of sufficiently small degree.

High efficiency computers can easily guess the roots by sending random numbers at scale. Agreed!

What if the polynomial used has a degree 10? With unimaginable coefficients? And unreal roots except few of them.

Cracking roots of such an expression is next to impossible. Its probability is very small but not zero

Still better than cracking hashes of bunch of transactions 👀

What are SNARKs?

🔸 Succinct means small proofs
🔸 Non-interactive means no interference of Verifier
🔸ARgument of Knowledge

Overall, this means that you possess info to some polynomial fn, that can help you prove your knowledge of the expression w/o revealing the expression.

What are its uses?

We know that blockchains are public ledgers. Anybody can go and check the details of each and every transaction. This proposes a major threat to data security & anonymity.

A short & non-interactive proving mechanism will form the privacy layer of Blockchains.

https://twitter.com/vitalikbuterin/status/1433228277263462401

Suppose you want to open up a bank account. They ask for your personal info.

With the invent of zK-SNARKs, you can verify your info through simple methods without revealing crucial details.

Privacy is absolute necessary to create a truly anonymous and decentralized internet 🔆

zK-SNARKs can be utilised to reduce block sizes on highly crowded networks like #BTC and #ETH

@MinaProtocol has succeeded in building a Layer-1 blockchain where block sizes are just 22kB

This paves path for carbon-neutral and highly efficient networks🍀

Kudos @evanashapiro 🔥

TLDR; zK SNARKs are basically privacy enhancement solutions on traditional Layer-1 blockchains. They are also used to optimize efficiency of the network.

I wonder if someone is out there building Bitcoin + zK-SNARK framework. Best of luck to you buddy 🚀

What lies ahead?

Privacy will soon become the mainstream concern for all L-1 chains and zK-SNARKs is arguably the best solution out there. Furthermore, efficiency of networks can be increased through SNARKs.

Decentralization + Scalability + Security + Anonymity = Future ❤️

Some useful resources:

consensys.net/blog/developer…

medium.com/coinmonks/why-…

arxiv.org/abs/1906.07221

If you enjoyed reading this thread, please retweet for better reach.
This will boost my confidence and motivate me to break-down more jargons of Crypto World.

You can also suggest some topics and I will surely explain them in Layman terms

In case you wanna chat, DMs are open ✉️