In the digital age, information security is crucial. Zero knowledge proof, as an innovative cryptographic technique, can effectively prove the authenticity of information without revealing the information itself. This article delves into the application of zero knowledge proof methods in information security systems, analyzing their principles, advantages, challenges, and future development trends, providing theoretical support and practical references for research and practice in the field of information security.
Proof-of-Context (PoC) protocols aim to ensure fairness and integrity in smart contract execution by cryptographically binding on-chain transactions to verifiable off-chain contextual data. Traditional consensus mechanisms (e.g., Proof-of-Work, Proof-of-Stake) focus on ordering and validation of transactions but do not address whether the contextual conditions that should govern contract execution are satisfied. In this manuscript, we propose a novel PoC framework that leverages decentralized oracles, zero-knowledge proofs, and time-stamped Merkle commitments to provide verifiable evidence that all pre-specified preconditions and environmental parameters were met at execution time. We detail the design of the protocol, implement a prototype on an Ethereum testnet using Chainlink oracles and zk-SNARKs, and conduct a performance evaluation under varying network and workload conditions. Our results show that PoC incurs a modest overheadâon average 5% additional gas cost and 200 ms added latency per proof generationâwhile dramatically enhancing auditability and reducing the risk of context-based manipulation or dispute. We conclude that PoC protocols offer a practical mechanism for enforcing fairness in a wide range of decentralized applications, from DeFi loans conditioned on real-world data to NFT minting events gated by dynamic criteria. Finally, we discuss the scope, limitations, and future research directions for broader deployment.
S.E. Bootsma, F. Ter Ellen, D.P. Otto, T.J. Sijpesteijn
Can you prove something without revealing the data behind it? Your personal data, your contacts, your preferences and your (online) behaviour are incredibly valuable. With many services tracking our every move, maintaining privacy can feel like an impossible challenge. One might argue, âJust avoid services that collect personal data.â If you disagree with how a given platform handles your information, you could choose not to sign up. But in practice, the decision is rarely that straightforward. In many cases, individuals lack meaningful alternatives or face exclusion from essential services.
N Sherrin Sophia, Prisha Gupta, M Sharma, Mohona Ghosh · 5 authors
The transformation of fundraising through the use of crowdfunding platforms has come with obstacles such as fraud, verification and misuse of funds, and lack of transparency. The use of smart contracts in conjunction with Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) of er advanced privacy and security through the validation of identity concealment during participant contributions. This privacy enhances trustworthiness and motivates user engagement. The model provides adequate allocation of funds which improves overall transparency. The solution provides a better distribution of challenges that are posed in mainstream models of crowdfunding by integrating enhanced security, eficiency, and accountability while performing fundraising through the examined approach.
Zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs have been increasingly popular in privacy-preserving applications and blockchain systems.To facilitate handy and efficient ZK proof generation for normal users, the industry has designed domain-specific languages (DSLs) and ZK compilers.Given a program in ZK DSL, a ZK compiler compiles it into a circuit, which is then passed to the prover and verifier for ZK checking.However, the correctness of ZK compilers is not well studied, and recent works have shown that de facto ZK compilers are buggy, which can allow malicious users to generate invalid proofs that are accepted by the verifier, causing security breaches and financial losses in cryptocurrency.In this paper, we propose MTZK, a metamorphic testing framework to test ZK compilers and uncover incorrect compilations.Our approach leverages deliberately designed metamorphic relations (MRs) to mutate ZK compiler inputs.This way, ZK compilers can be automatically tested for compilation correctness using inputs and mutated variants without requiring manual intervention.We propose a set of design considerations and optimizations to deliver an efficient and effective testing framework.In the evaluation of four industrial ZK compilers, we successfully uncovered 21 bugs, out of which the developers have promptly patched 15.We also show possible exploitations of the uncovered bugs to demonstrate their severe security implications.
Introduction:The study examined blockchain technology as a pillar of Web3, highlighting its principles of immutability, transparency, and decentralization. It analyzed the paradox that these same virtues could become disadvantages when it was necessary to correct errors, delete data, or deal with malicious uses, generating legal and ethical tensions.Development:Cases and studies were reviewed that showed how immutability guaranteed integrity and resistance to censorship but was incompatible with rights such as the âright to be forgottenâ under the GDPR. Situations were also documented in which decentralization empowered both legitimate actors and criminals, eliminating consumer protection mechanisms. Faced with these dilemmas, solutions such as off-chain storage, updatable smart contracts, decentralized identity, and zero-knowledge proofs were evaluated. The proposal for double validation was highlighted, which incorporated a layer of smart contract verification to authenticate the origin and legitimacy of information before it was recorded. The validation of sensitive content by the people involved was also proposed as a strategy to prevent defamation, misinformation, or the dissemination of illegal material.Conclusion:The paper concluded that the potential of blockchain lay in its integration within an ethical, legal, and social framework. The implementation of mandatory verification and validation mechanisms strengthened accountability and individual protection, transforming blockchain into a tool that is not only secure and transparent, but also fair and socially responsible.
Abstract The aim of this study is to design and implement a system that allows centralized blockchain institutions to prove their solvency. This system ensures that institutions do not misappropriate user assets and enhances trust between users and institutions. The article introduces the Grothâ16 zeroâknowledge proof algorithm from ZKâSNARK (zeroâknowledge succinct nonâinteractive argument of knowledge). The R1CS arithmetic circuit in the Grothâ16 algorithm effectively guarantees the authenticity and tamperâresistance of the system's raw data sources. Additionally, it combines the use of Merkle Sum Trees and Sparse Merkle trees. The former enables users to perform distributed verification of solvency proofs, while the latter effectively hides the overall number of users. Finally, users verify the balances and the private key signatures of addresses in the institution's bulletin board. Together, these components form a comprehensive and distributed solvency proof solution. This solution is a pioneering solution in the field of blockchain solvency proofs and provides a secure, efficient, and privacyâpreserving method for centralized cryptocurrency service providers or Web3 enterprise custodians. It effectively addresses the challenge of proving an institution's possession of sufficient reserves to cover user assets without compromising user privacy or disclosing the institution's scale.
As generative AI (GenAI) technologies proliferate in urban governance, the challenge of building trustworthy AI systems becomes increasingly urgent. This chapter critically examines âtrustworthinessâ not as a purely technical attribute, but as a socio-political construct shaped by power, participation, and policy. Focusing on smart cities as testbeds of algorithmic governance, it explores how decentralized Web3 technologiesâsuch as blockchain, DAOs, and data cooperativesâcan offer structural alternatives to centralized, opaque systems. Drawing on action research from the Horizon Europe ENFIELD project and framed by EU policy developments like the AI Act and the Draghi Report, the chapter proposes a multi-layered governance model. It evaluates seven emerging techniques to strengthen GenAI accountability: (i) federated learning, (ii) blockchain provenance tracking, (iii) zero-knowledge proofs, (iv) DAO-based verification, (v) digital watermarking, (vi) explainable AI (XAI), and (vii) privacy-preserving machine learning (PPML). The chapter ultimately argues that trustworthy AI must be embedded in participatory governance, algorithmic transparency, and plural civic oversight. By reframing trust as a relational, institutional, and democratic issue, it contributes to reimagining smart cities not as technocratic projects, but as inclusive arenas for data justice and democratic renewal.
Ensuring the reproducibility of scientific simulations is a persistent challenge, despite current best practices like version control and containerization. Factors such as floating-point arithmetic variations, hardware differences, and concurrency issues often prevent bit-for-bit replication of results. This paper investigates the techniques that distributed ledger technologies employ to achieve deterministic computations and application of these techniques to enhance the reproducibility, trustworthiness and verifiability of scientific simulations. We explore two primary approaches: executing simulations directly âon-chainâ for complete transparency and deterministic replay, and performing computations âoff-chainâ while anchoring their integrity to a blockchain via cryptographic proofs, such as Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) and Merkle trees.
Zero-knowledge proofs allow verification of computations without revealing private information. However, existing systems require memory proportional to the computation size, which has historically limited use in large-scale applications and on mobile and edge devices. We solve this fundamental bottleneck by developing, to our knowledge, the first proof system with sublinear memory requirements for mainstream cryptographic constructions. Our approach processes computations in blocks using a space-efficient tree algorithm, reducing memory from linear scaling to square-root scaling--from $Î(T)$ to $O(\sqrt{T} + \log T \log\log T)$ for computation size $T$--while maintaining the same proof generation time through a constant number of streaming passes. For widely-used linear polynomial commitment schemes (KZG/IPA), our method produces identical proofs and verification when using the same parameters and hashing only aggregate commitments into the challenge generation, preserving proof size and security. Hash-based systems also achieve square-root memory scaling though with slightly different proof structures. This advance enables zero-knowledge proofs on everyday devices and makes previously infeasible large computations verifiable, fundamentally democratizing access to privacy-preserving computation. Space-efficient zero knowledge proof systems create opportunities to reshape how trust is established in digital systems--from enabling widespread participation in decentralized networks to making verifiable scientific computing practical at unprecedented scales.
Blockchain technology has produced effective solutions and provides security by using cryptographic tools for various applications, attracting attention from the academic community. Therefore, researchers have taken advantage of the features of blockchain technology to increase the security of the ecosystem. Recently, as the existence of quantum computers has been felt, researchers have started to benefit from post-quantum cryptography to increase privacy and security. There has been an increase in data and asset protection in post-quantum blockchain-based solutions. To the best of our knowledge, there is no comprehensive review or taxonomy that provides a complete picture of post-quantum secure structures with privacy-preserving techniques that have the potential to be used in blockchain. This paper aims to close this gap by systematically examining these approaches and revealing the deficiencies in the existing literature and the development potential in these areas. The taxonomy examines the role of blockchain technology in post-quantum cryptography and emphasizes the potential of technologies such as zero-knowledge proof to ensure privacy in post-quantum blockchain-based systems. We also review the existing literature on addressing the performance overhead, interoperability, scalability, and security challenges in implementing post-quantum cryptography in zero-knowledge proof-enabled blockchain architectures that protect against quantum computing threats. The studies are collected from journal papers in widely used academic databases between 2018 and 2024. The studies are subjected to certain elimination criteria, and 13 studies are reviewed in detail. Our approach will facilitate discussions on future research directions by proposing the accessibility of post-quantum cryptography against quantum threats to blockchain systems and solutions to the challenges that arise in the integration phase.
This research introduced a new novel âUnified Quantum-Resilient Blockchain-Zero-Knowledge Proofs Privacy Authentication Framework (QBC-ZKPAF)â to upgrade the IoT environments with greater security. To enable privacy-preserving authentication, access control, and secure communication, the framework integrates blockchain technology with Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) and post-quantum cryptography. A hybrid Reinforcement-Lattice Blockchain KeyGen for quantum-resilient key generation, Deep Q-Network Multi-Factor Secure Key (DQN-MFSK) for dynamic selection of keys, and Zero-Knowledge Proof for privacy-preserving signatures are employed to achieve secure IoT settings. This architecture entails data privacy and confidentiality, auditability and traceability, and withstanding evolving threats, including potential threats in terms of quantum attacks. It then uses blockchain technology for recording unalterable data of identity and access management while Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) ensures authentication and verification without revealing sensitive information. By decentralizing identity management and enabling multi-factor authentication, QBC-ZKPAF provides robust security and privacy solutions for IoT networks. The experimental results demonstrate the modelâs effectiveness with 98% privacy preservation, 700 TPS throughput, 0.7 J energy consumption, 0.98 quantum resilience, and 96% access control effectiveness, making it highly suitable for modern IoT and blockchain applications.
Consensus protocols used today in blockchains often rely on computational power or financial stakes - scarce resources. We propose a novel protocol using social capital - trust and influence from social interactions - as a non-transferable staking mechanism to ensure fairness and decentralization. The methodology integrates zero-knowledge proofs, verifiable credentials, a Whisk-like leader election, and an incentive scheme to prevent Sybil attacks and encourage engagement. The theoretical framework would enhance privacy and equity, though unresolved issues like off-chain bribery require further research. This work offers a new model aligned with modern social media behavior and lifestyle, with applications in finance, providing a practical insight for decentralized system development.
Aleksandra Szczegielniak-Rekiel, Krzysztof Kanciak, Jan M. Kelner
This study explored the diverse applications of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) in next-generation network technologies, particularly in fifth-generation (5G) and emerging sixth-generation (6G) systems. ZKPs are cryptographic methods that enable one party to prove the validity of a statement without revealing the statement itself, thereby offering significant advantages in privacy-preserving authentication and authorization. Given these properties, ZKPs have garnered increasing research attention in contexts such as the Internet of Things (IoT), vehicular communications, and telecommunication protocols. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to provide a comprehensive, taxonomy-driven analysis of ZKP applications specifically designed for 5G and beyond. We categorize existing solutions according to the type of application, the underlying cryptographic technology, maturity level, and relevance to 6G. Furthermore, this paper examines how ZKPs can help mitigate various cybersecurity threats, such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, and location tracking. We also assess recent advancements in ZKP acceleration techniques and highlight the key implementation challenges. Finally, this study outlines promising directions for future research in this rapidly evolving field.
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Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) and Hardware Security