Zero Knowledge Proof
Zero knowledge proof is a concept of cryptography, most commonly used to prove that a particular statement is true without revealing the facts or veracity of the statement.
The notion of ‘zero knowledge’ was first proposed in the 1980s by MIT researchers Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali and Charles Rackoff. These researchers were working on problems related to interactive proof systems, theoretical systems where a first party (called a ‘Prover’) exchanges messages with a second party (‘Verifier’) to convince the Verifier that some mathematical statement is true.
While blockchain offers incredible advantages in decentralization, transparency, and immutability, there are some privacy concerns with blockchain. That is where zero-knowledge proof can play a major role as it can be used as an encryption scheme where the prover can prove a cryptocurrency transaction statement to the verifier without revealing any additional information.
Zero knowledge proofs offer flexibility to blockchain users to have control over their information as it can be used to encrypt data, for private transactions, blockchain messaging applications, and the secure sharing of complex documentation.