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The Beauty of Zero Knowledge Proofs (and possibly a few other privacy related topics)
About the author
My name is Lawrence, and I am a PhD student studying computer science at UCSB. My field of study is privacy-preserving systems, which is building applications with cryptography in order to create private systems. I have been a TA for cryptography classes and given lectures in topics related to cryptography. Though my research area isn't the field of (theoretical) cryptography specifically, I have enough mathematical domain knowledge and passion to discuss it in detail. I have even presented on ZK Proofs (among many other topics) to my research lab.
Quick Summary
There are many topics related to cryptography and privacy I'd love to talk about, and I've listed many of them at the bottom. Among these topics, I find the most mathematically beautiful is ZK Proofs. Zero Knowledge proofs are an interaction between a prover and verifier where the prover is trying to prove a statement to the verifier while imparting no extra information. Indeed, several other videos have already discussed this topic, but they only cover the topic at a high level and are rather confusing. Even one of the top comments in the Numberphile video reads, "Finished watching and I still have zero knowledge". This recent WIRED video on ZK Proofs is the best resource for those without cryptography background, yet it's still very high level and skims over mathematical details necessary for understanding. Even some of my PhD advisors have told me that they were unable to understand the undergraduate level! Clearly, there is a need for a more approachable and convincing video that imparts some precise rigor and understandable intuition. For me, ZK Proofs are beautiful in intuition - understanding the definition of zero knowledge has a moment where everything clicks, and even makes amazing connections to other problems like P vs NP. I'd like to (ambitiously) impart that onto video viewers.
Target medium
I hope to make an approachable video discussing ZK Proofs on a more mathematical level targeted to around undergraduate level understanding. I am looking for a collaborator with video editing and animation skills and some basic understanding of computer science.
More details
I've presented on ZK Proofs before, and I have a set of powerpoint slides and can share on this topic. (Please DM me for access since it was for my lab.) A brief outline which is based on the powerpoint slides might go as follows (though it should absolutely change to fit the video format):
- Motivate ZK Proofs
- Introduce ZK Proofs informally with an example used in the rest of the video (the example could be the classic graph isomorphism or graph three-coloring problem)
- Introduce the zero knowledge definition
- Show how to prove zero knowledge with the example
- Discuss the implications of the zero knowledge definition: in particular, how does it relate to P vs NP, what happens if someone else is watching both the prover and verifier, etc. <- This part contains the 'aha' moment!
- If time permits, extensions of ZK Proofs, such as non-interactive zero knowledge proofs (NIZK), secure multiparty computation (SMPC), applications, etc.
Unfortunately, this goes a bit long, so there will be some time dedicated to writing and re-writing a script.
Contact details
Feel free to contact me via discord at Duck#3629 or email at lawrenceklim (at) ucsb (dot) edu.
Additional context
There are many other topics related to cryptography and privacy I'd also love to discuss and make a video about (eventually)! I'll just list several of them:
- Symmetric Key Cryptography
- Differential Privacy
- Homomorphic Encryption
- Secure Multiparty Computation
- Private Information Retrieval
- and more! I'd love to bounce several ideas, so hit me up if you are interested.
Hello, I am in discussions working with someone else right now on ZK Proofs, but I am open to working on a different topic related to privacy. (I just don't want to overextend myself.)
Hello, I am in discussions working with someone else right now on ZK Proofs, but I am open to working on a different topic related to privacy. (I just don't want to overextend myself.)
I mailed. Thanks ([email protected])
This video could also be useful for anyone looking to make a video on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOGdb1CTu5c
This video could also be useful for anyone looking to make a video on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOGdb1CTu5c
Thanks for letting me know, but I am already aware. I had even mentioned it as a video with some problems.
@lawrencekhlim Would love to stay informed about this project -- I'm writing about ZKPs with RISC Zero and we're looking for collaborators for video content.
Here's the Tweet thread about zk-STARKs I just released; check it out if you're keen! https://twitter.com/RiscZero/status/1542969863726985216?s=20&t=9dLOWYoQXtpURiEPVoYLxA
