Support for zero-knowledge proofs in Web3 Growing — Redmondmag.com
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Probing: Support for zero-knowledge proofs in Web3
Cryptography’s practice of proving and validating information without revealing the underlying data — known as zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) — is key to securing and growing Web3 and the Metaverse, according to a recent survey .
The results of the survey were presented in the “State of zero knowledge 2022report from the Mina Foundation, creator of the Mina Protocol, which the organization claims is the “lightest blockchain protocol in the world.”
The report found that 46% of respondents said privacy and scalability were the top benefits of implementing ZKP in apps, while 30.7% chose privacy alone as their top benefit, and 18 .2% indicating only scalability as the main benefit. “This slight preference for privacy over scalability may reflect the cryptocurrency industry’s growing focus on privacy, potentially driven by growing concerns about centralized corporate involvement in the metaverse.” , reads the report.
When asked which industries could benefit the most from implementing ZKP, 40.6% of respondents indicated that finance could benefit from smart validation technology. Next, 11.7% chose healthcare, 5.0% said social media, and 2.9% said e-commerce.
“Many participants also expressed the importance of keeping all personally identifiable information private, but the focus was more on financial data, which could include a user’s social security number, crypto balance, net worth, credit score, etc.” read the report.
The Mina Foundation report gave the example of the implementation of ZKP in creating a dapp (decentralized application) that could confirm that a user’s credit score exceeds a certain threshold for a loan. This would allow verification by the loan provider, while maintaining the confidentiality of the user’s sensitive information.
Those who responded to the blockchain-based survey indicated strong concern about governments’ access to their private data. Nearly half (48.5%) said this was their biggest privacy concern, with third-party companies (44.0%) coming second and social media platforms (41.0%). 3%) in third.
The Mina Foundation inferred that since many of those who responded to the survey are cryptocurrency holders, it makes sense that they would want additional privacy from government access to private data. And interest from cryptocurrency holders and ZKP developers has grown over the past few years as Web3 technologies continue to grow.
“More crypto developers and users are also paying more attention than ever to ZKPs from a construction and trading perspective,” according to the report. “The focus will likely show up in the launch of many more applications using ZKP technology to enable privacy, scalability, or both in the near term.”
