A Redditor asks: “Can’t zero knowledge proof solve the privacy concerns about the UK online safety law?” – my response…
https://alecmuffett.com/article/113892
#AgeVerification #MoralPanic #OnlineSafety #OnlineSafetyAct #ZeroKnowledgeProof #reddit #zkp

A Redditor asks: “Can’t zero knowledge proof solve the privacy concerns about the UK online safety law?” – my response…

Hi. I love your question. For disclosure I have been working on digital civil liberties around encryption since 1991 and I have been working on age verification since 2016.

The really short version of my answer is: it would only address the problematic issues from a technological perspective, but what we really have here is a political problem.

There is this thing called Ranum’s Law, named after Marcus Ranum, an early Innovator in the space of firewalls, and he wrote that “you can’t fix social problems with software”.

Age verification is one of those technological / software fixes which say that they are doing one thing (protecting kids) whilst actually they are achieving something else (enumerating everyone who uses the web) – if you immediately fix on attempting to reduce risks of “enumeration” you end up ignoring: disenfranchisment of people who cannot age verify, political pressure to permit privacy-invading systems as well “in the name of market competition” and a race to the bottom for people’s personal data.

So ZKP is a wonderful technology when deployed in a controlled infrastructure and under centralised patch management to protect discrete and well described taxonomies of data… but it’s never going to happen in the real world because that’s not what people in power actually want. (Edit: plus: the data is a mess and there is also no taxonomy)

What they actually want is: for their friends who have been lobbying them since 2016 or earlier to get a wad of money, and for the public to be placated enough about child safety that they get reelected.

This is not a technical problem and it does not have a technical solution. What we are seeing here is the long tail of a moral panic.

https://www.reddit.com/r/cryptography/comments/1mc2m08/comment/n5qqtyy/

Opening up ‘Zero-Knowledge Proof’ technology

https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/opening-up-zero-knowledge-proof-technology-to-promote-privacy-in-age-assurance/

Informativer #Talk ob/wie/wann #digitaleWahlen möglich sind:
Käpt'n-Wahl per Flaschenpost: #OnlineVoting und seine Grenzen https://media.ccc.de/v/2024-392-kpt-n-wahl-per-flaschenpost-online-voting-und-seine-grenzen

BOS Open-Sources Zero-Knowledge Protocol, Paving the Way for Advanced Cryptography on Bitcoin - BitcoinOS (BOS) has open-sourced its BitSNARK verification protocol, marking a sig... - https://news.bitcoin.com/bos-open-sources-zero-knowledge-protocol-paving-the-way-for-advanced-cryptography-on-bitcoin/ #decentralizeddevelopment #zeroknowledgeproof #bitcoinmainnet #layer-2rollups #zeroknowledge #newsbytes-5 #scalability #opensource #newsbytes #bitcoinl2 #bitcoinos #bitsnark #bos #btc #zkp

Case study for using the Icicle library from Ingonyama to enable acceleration of zero knowledge proof over both GPU and CPU: #ZeroKnowledgeProof

ICICLE Case Study: Accelerating ZK Proofs with Kroma Network https://medium.com/@ingonyama/icicle-case-study-accelerating-zk-proofs-with-kroma-network-eae1fa4c09cc

Bitcoin Rollup Protocol BOS Verifies Zero-Knowledge Proof on Mainnet - BitcoinOS (BOS) has successfully verified a zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) on the Bitc... - https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-rollup-protocol-bos-verifies-zero-knowledge-proof-on-mainnet/ #decentralizeddevelopment #zeroknowledgeproof #bitcoinmainnet #layer-2rollups #scalability #technology #bitcoinl2 #bitcoinos #bitsnark #bitcoin #bos #btc #zkp

Zero knowledge proof (zkp) technologies are quickly maturing, and zkp protocols are driving applications such as blockchain scaling, verifiable AI, and new game mechanics with cryptographic "fog of war".

Here is a blog post that explains a key element of the zkp stack, R1CS.

https://freeenergy.blog/2022/r1cs.html

Space and Time Unveils Sub-Second ZK Prover, Now Open-Sourced - With goals set on advancing blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) integratio... - https://news.bitcoin.com/space-and-time-unveils-sub-second-zk-prover-now-open-sourced/ #zeroknowledgeproof #smartcontracts #dataintegrity #spaceandtime #blockchain #opensource #proofofsql #defi

Community Backlash Forces Matter Labs to Drop ‘ZK’ Trademark Bid - The developer of the Zksync Ethereum Layer 2 network, Matter Labs, abandoned its b... - https://news.bitcoin.com/community-backlash-forces-matter-labs-to-drop-zk-trademark-bid/ #zeroknowledgeproof #ethereumlayer2 #zktechnology #zksync #legal

Early Crypto Adopter: Unmatched Privacy of ZK Proofs Outweighs the Technology’s Perceived Disadvantages - Although zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs are often considered complex to set up, Iva Wi... - https://news.bitcoin.com/early-crypto-adopter-unmatched-privacy-of-zk-proofs-outweighs-the-technologys-perceived-disadvantages/ #zeroknowledgeproof #zktechnology #tornadocash #blockchain #interview #privacy #web3

‘Garbled Circuits’ Enable Transactional Confidentiality, Encourage Enterprise Web3 Adoption — COTI Co-Founder - According to Shahaf Bar-Geffen, CEO of the privacy-centric Layer 2 network COTI, e... - https://news.bitcoin.com/garbled-circuits-enable-transactional-confidentiality-encourage-enterprise-web3-adoption-coti-co-founder/ #zeroknowledgeproof #blockchainprivacy #tornadocashmixer #privacysolution #interview #dapps #web3

Want to keep your digital secrets under wraps? Zero-Knowledge Proofs are your new best friend in cybersecurity! Learn how this tech keeps your data locked away, yet fully credible. #ZeroKnowledgeProof #CyberSecurity #PrivacyFirst Dive into our blog to unlock the future of privacy!
https://wp.me/peSvjo-p9

Future AI Models Will ‘Know Users Better Than They Know Themselves’ – Calanthia Mei - The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) models in recent years is ... - https://news.bitcoin.com/future-ai-models-will-know-users-better-than-they-know-themselves-calanthia-mei/ #zeroknowledgeproof #cryptostaking #cryptoassets #personaldata #interview #aimodels #privacy

To improve confidentiality, trust, and scalability via decentralized compute, hardware and software acceleration technologies for zkp (zero knowledge proof) are essential. The initial use cases are in blockchain, and the future use cases include AI and gaming.

https://www.ingonyama.com/blog/ingonyama-seed-funding-announcement

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/walden-catalyst-ventures_how-ingonyama-is-accelerating-the-future-activity-7155856323417444352-XcDe?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Making Privacy Solutions EVM-Compatible Is Key to Integrating Them With Blockchains and Dapps — Guy Itzhaki - While proponents of fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) have sometimes touted it as... - https://news.bitcoin.com/making-privacy-solutions-evm-compatible-is-key-to-integrating-them-with-blockchains-and-dapps-guy-itzhaki/ #ethereumvirtualmachine(evm) #artificialintelligence(ai) #zeroknowledgeproof #userprivacy #blockchain #interview #dapps

Here is a post that dives into how the R1CS protocol is used in a zksnark (a zero knowledge proof protocol). I had some fun with math animation using Manim.

https://freeenergy.blog/2022/r1cs.html