Post · bonfire.cafe

I said previously: "No tech from blockchain dates later than 2001. Crypto added nothing." https://circumstances.run/@davidgerard/115810916143765604

Both here and on bsky, I got crypto fans saying "ah ah ah zero knowledge proofs!" These are indeed used in Monero (money laundering coin) and assorted failed money laundering coins!

However, claiming *credit* to cryptocurrency for ZKPs seems implausible.

I'm actually looking into this and I can find shit that isn't proposals for other failed money laundering coins.

Closest a proponent got was, well, cryptocurrency *funded* it. (No examples, just the blank statment.)

So I'm asking those claiming cryptocurrency drove ZK proof research and uses: which papers with which effects and which resulting products are you thinking of? With checkable details. Thanks.

Matt Nordhoff

@mnordhoff@infosec.exchange · 4 months ago

@davidgerard Tangent: I had the impression that cryptocurrency provided something of a jobs program for cryptographers that wasn't university research, industrial conglomerates or international espionage.

In the same way that, say, Theranos provided jobs for a dozen or two biochemists or whoever.

The results are something else.

David Gerard

@davidgerard@circumstances.run · 4 months ago

@mnordhoff it also caused said cryptographers to decay into coiners

there really isn't a lot of cryptographic meat on the non-privacy coins, and Monero has enough to get by to the point where all your actual problems are (b) side-channel attacks (the low volume means Monero users have been caught via volumes moved to get/sell the Monero) but mostly (a) screwing up, because crypto users near universally have the opsec of a rock. A dumb rock.

buherator

@buherator@infosec.place · 4 months ago

@davidgerard this is a good intro with historical background: https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2014/11/27/zero-knowledge-proofs-illustrated-primer/

You can also ping @matthewdgreen on bsky

David Gerard

@davidgerard@circumstances.run · 4 months ago

@buherator yes i know what they are. I'm asking about the cryptocurrency claim.

Juha Autero

@jautero@indieweb.social · 4 months ago

@davidgerard Zero knowledge proofs are in Chapter 5 of Applied Cryptography, which was published in 1996.

David Gerard

@davidgerard@circumstances.run · 4 months ago

@jautero yes, I'm asking about the cryptocurrency claim.