Secrecy-Preserving Proofs with Solid Foundations

Introduction

The traditional notion of a proof offers no secrecy. Proving the validity of a blockchain transaction would reveal its details, proving qualification for a loan would reveal private financial information, and proving that a system has been hacked could reveal sensitive details about the system. Remarkably, using cryptography, this problem can be solved.

Secrecy-Preserving Proofs

Secrecy-preserving proofs are a class of protocols that allow proving assertions about secret information without actually revealing the information. The most prominent notion of such a proof is that of zero-knowledge proofs, which reveal no information at all.

Recent Developments

Recent years have seen zero-knowledge proofs transition from theory to practice. With major investment from industry and governments, they are now being deployed and standardized. Driven by large-scale applications such as blockchains, deployment efforts have put special stress on efficiency, often compromising on the core principle of rigorous security analysis based on solid hardness assumptions.

Security Challenges

At the same time, the nearing possibility of new threats such as quantum attacks requires stronger security.

Project Goals

The goal of the project is to develop secrecy-preserving proofs that meet present-day challenges without compromising on the gold standard of cryptographic security.

Vision

We envision a world where secrecy-preserving proofs are reliable enough to be used in high-stakes applications and efficient enough to be used in large-scale applications. The project will apply foundational theoretical research to overcome existing barriers and challenges toward achieving this goal.