Exploring Privacy-Preserving Techniques in Blockchain

Abstract

The transparency of the blockchain technology makes privacy issues acutely challenging in certain highly sensitive applications such as IP protection and contractual arguments. This chapter is an overview of privacy preserving methods and in particular Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) and confidential evidence handling mechanisms. ZKPs are set to transform notarization by allowing parties to prove that information or statements are true without disclosing the information that they have associated with them. The study covers the concept of use of blockchain and how they can be used to combine with smart contracts for privacy-preserving IP access rights governance and dispute resolution. It also covers confidential computing, homomorphic encryption, and secure multi-party computation for processing privacy sensitive evidence on the blockchain. In regulated industries, these technologies hold the promise of increasing prevalence, but encounter challenges relating to regulations and trusted setup, as well as computational overhead issues.