ZKPass: Making Authentication Invisible: A ZeroKnowledge Proof Approach

Abstract

This work proposes ZKPass, an emerging authentication platform making use of Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) and blockchain to provide passwordless, decentralized digital ID proofing. ZKPass does away with conventional passwords and crypto key storage by tying authentication to a human-intelligible user identifier (UID) and locally generating zk-SNARK proof on the user device. The platform comprises an off-chain deterministic mnemonic recovery phrase from the UID and device-specific secrets allowing for self-sovereign offline account recovery independent of centralized entities. ZKPass stores only hashed UIDs and device metadata on the blockchain, minimizing costs, maintaining privacy, and allowing multi-device management. On-device proof generation coupled with on-chain smart-contract-based verification provides rigorous security, preserves privacy, and makes the solution practically usable. Performance comparisons indicate better proof sizes, verification times, gas usage, and recovery success over prevailing ZKP-based ID solutions. ZKPass overcomes key drawbacks of prevailing decentralized ID solutions by fusing powerful crypto security with user-friendly design to bring reality closer to adoption potential in healthcare, financial services and government sectors.