Hidden Proof

"Effective zero knowledge" beats long-standing cryptographic impossibilities

- Peter Hall

IN MATHEMATICS, PROOFS CAN BE written down and shared. In cryptography, when people are trying to avoid revealing their secrets, proofs are not always so simple-but a new result significantly closes this gap.

Zero-knowledge proofs are the closest cryptography gets to magic.

They promise to let one person convince another of the truth of some fact-say, that they know the solution to a sudoku puzzle-without giving away any information about it. Such proofs can help people authenticate identities virtually, make online banking transactions, build blockchains, and more.