Zero Knowledge Proofs — The Key To Bringing About True Blockchain Mass Adoption
The goal to bring about the mass adoption of decentralisation and blockchain technology has been discussed and touted worldwide for quite some time. But, the actual adoption has been limited to the DeFi area. Even then, it has been limited to the emergence of new participants rather than Web2 experts coming to the Web3 world.
This started changing when famous web2 giants like Meta, Reddit and Stripe opted to test the waters by adopting web3 infrastructure from Polygon. Be it for Decentralised Finance or social media or logistics/supply chain management, the concept of mass adoption had been a huge issue due to several concerns such as privacy, scalability and security. Furthermore, different proof mechanisms used by various blockchains also served as a barrier which resulted in a pretty fragmented market.
But, it has always been common practice for any Web2 giant to test the waters in Web3 via the Ethereum chain given its status as the second most famous crypto after Bitcoin and its ultra-large dApp ecosystem. It was then that they started looking at layer-2 alternatives focusing on EVM. Here comes Zero Knowledge Proof, a theory that was first discussed by experts from MIT in their paper — “The Knowledge Complexity of Interactive Proof Systems” back in 1989.
What is Zero Knowledge Proof?
Zero Knowledge proof is a method using which the first entity (The Prover) proves to the second entity (The Verifier) that a particular information(transaction record, identity, fact) is authentic/true without providing any additional information to validate its authenticity. This proof mechanism can be applied to a variety of scenarios such as identity management & verification, data validation, auditing and anonymous payment transactions.
How is Zero Knowledge Proof used in these areas?
Its simple, in essence, Zero Knowledge Proof, paves way for verifiable computation which serves to act as an authentication mechanism where a fact/information/transaction record is proved to be true/correct/authentic without having to reveal actual proof of said information.
To put this in perspective for users with non-tech backgrounds, let us consider simple examples from real-world use cases and how zero-knowledge proof could be used there.
Identity Verification — There are many places in the real world where a user has to prove his/her identity and is requested to share government-issued identification proofs. In some places, it is used to verify identity via a picture in the proof (entry to restricted areas) while in other places, the birth date information is used to confirm age proof (Pubs, Cinema Theaters etc).
But in both these scenarios, as the user provides his ID proof he shares additional information such as his name, address, date of birth and any other confidential information which may be present in the proof such as the unique id of the ID proof. In an alternative where Zero Knowledge Proof based solutions are used, it will act as proof similar to a certificate issued by a gazetted officer which acts as a signed authentication proof to prove one particular fact rather than sharing an ID proof with a lot of private and confidential information.
Payment Transaction — Instead of sharing the Bank slip with a seal or screenshot of the transaction which has details of the depositor, funds deposited and receiver account information etc., We can just share a screenshot with a logo that shows the status of the transaction (successful/unsuccessful) and a transaction ID which can be used to verify the claims of the payment transaction.
Data Validation & Auditing — The same example mentioned above can be used here as well. Zero Knowledge proofs in this particular use case can be primarily associated with Oracles. Oracle is a piece of tech that is used to feed data from an external source into a closed blockchain ecosystem. But, there is no proof that the data sourced from such external sources are authentic. ZKPs can serve as a validation mechanism to prove the authenticity of data here which will be of great help as Oracles and blockchain together can be associated with a variety of non-DeFi use-cases such as logistics, supply chain management, hospitality industry and medical sector (in-house patient records, hospital drug/pharma and warehouse management etc)
Security — ZKP can also help prevent vulnerability stemming from cyber attacks such as phishing and Sybil attacks that aims to steal data or take control of the network by pretending to be someone else using false IDs.
By ensuring that a user/entity is able to maintain the authenticity of his data while retaining his privacy, some of the core ideals behind decentralization, Zero Knowledge Proofs opens the door to many use cases resulting in the possibility for mass adoption of blockchain and web3 tech.
We believe that mass adoption of Web3 and blockchain tech can be easily achieved via ZKEVMs, but this has its own set of challenges involved. Given the fact that the Ethereum blockchain was not originally designed to be ZKP compatible, Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin has laid out challenges that project dealing in ZKEVM would face and trade-offs they would need to settle on.
He has even classified these EVMs into 4 types from Type 1 to Type 4 with Type 1 being the most compatible and Type 4 being the least compatible. Another issue is the challenge faced in terms of cost for the proof generation as the higher the compatibility, the costlier it is to generate proofs.
Polygon pioneered the implementation of ZK-proof mechanisms in the blockchain area with its debut of ZKEVM on July 20, 2022. It has managed to find the balance in terms of compatibility and cost management for proof generation. While it was still categorized as Type 3 when Mr Buterin announced his classification, it has since advanced to Type 2 ZKEVM. Some of the real-world adoption examples for the above-mentioned use case scenarios and Polygon ZKEVM ecosystem are — Polygon ID and Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart’s partnership with Polygon EVM as they explore entry possibilities into meta verse and web3 (Retail supply chain management and logistics use case). We hope this helps you gain some idea about ZKEVM and its use cases.
Kana Labs is a DeFi super app with multi-chain support and cross-chain capabilities. We aim to reduce entry barriers and simplify the onboarding process for both existing and new users making DeFi easily accessible. We achieve this by combining our DeFi product suite with a user-friendly cross-chain smart wallet. Our platform currently supports Solana, Aptos, Polygon and Neon EVM chains and work is in progress to add support for Ethereum, Shardeum and BNB chains. We also provide an SDK Middleware toolkit that allows existing and new dApps to deploy their platform across multiple chains almost instantly without having to learn in-depth about the infrastructure and coding languages of various blockchains. Do check us out at www.kanalabs.io
