Perfect Privacy?

[likeprotocol]

Just stumbled upon this article from Mike Orcutt. Man, this can leads to major discussions (eager to see it, though).

Perfect Online Privacy

True internet privacy could finally become possible thanks to a new tool that can—for instance—let you prove you’re over 18 without revealing your date of birth, or prove you have enough money in the bank for a financial transaction without revealing your balance or other details. That limits the risk of a privacy breach or identity theft.

The tool is an emerging cryptographic protocol called a zero-­knowledge proof. Though researchers have worked on it for decades, interest has exploded in the past year, thanks in part to the growing obsession with cryptocurrencies, most of which aren’t private.

Much of the credit for a practical zero-knowledge proof goes to Zcash, a digital currency that launched in late 2016. Zcash’s developers used a method called a zk-SNARK (for “zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge”) to give users the power to transact anonymously.

That’s not normally possible in Bitcoin and most other public blockchain systems, in which transactions are visible to everyone. Though these transactions are theoretically anonymous, they can be combined with other data to track and even identify users. Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum, the world’s second-most-popular blockchain network, has described zk-SNARKs as an “absolutely game-changing technology.”

For banks, this could be a way to use blockchains in payment systems without sacrificing their clients’ privacy. Last year, JPMorgan Chase added zk-SNARKs to its own blockchain-based payment system.

For all their promise, though, zk-SNARKs are computation-heavy and slow. They also require a so-called “trusted setup,” creating a cryptographic key that could compromise the whole system if it fell into the wrong hands. But researchers are looking at alternatives that deploy zero-knowledge proofs more efficiently and don’t require such a key.

[Marcel666]

In summary, it's like a third party protocol, which releases certain details of a user to the other network, without revealing basic information and data?
Would the system work without the human factor? As that would ensure total anonymity.

[gantez]

Banks really need such technology. Nice thread but it needs to be backed up with some link. It seems like a copied work. Where is the source ?

[dothebeats]

Eh, to know that a single master key can disrupt the whole network makes it somewhat less appealing. While it sounds professional and unique, I can't help but notice that all it needs is a single key and boom, it goes rogue with all the sensitive information stored. This will be prone to hackers knowing that a single key will rule the network, and their security should always be guarded with strict protocols. Also, computation-heavy is understandable, though if it runs on a centralized server and noy a peer-to-peer network, how would people ensure that the integrity of the data is always kept?

[likeprotocol]

Sorry about the source, my fault...Here it is:
https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/technologies/2018/

[joebrook]

In summary, it's like a third party protocol, which releases certain details of a user to the other network, without revealing basic information and data?
Would the system work without the human factor? As that would ensure total anonymity.

Not sure it can work without the human factor and if that's not possible then I don't think we can call it the Perfect privacy at all. If it's not decentralized then it means that someone is always going to supervise it.

[surfVENICE]

In summary, it's like a third party protocol, which releases certain details of a user to the other network, without revealing basic information and data?
Would the system work without the human factor? As that would ensure total anonymity.

Let's see where it lead us 

[cryptoracer999]

The concept is great, but only if it can work. Well time will only tell, but if it becomes real, that would be great.

[VanityWallets2015]

Just stumbled upon this article from Mike Orcutt. Man, this can leads to major discussions (eager to see it, though).

Perfect Online Privacy

True internet privacy could finally become possible thanks to a new tool that can—for instance—let you prove you’re over 18 without revealing your date of birth, or prove you have enough money in the bank for a financial transaction without revealing your balance or other details. That limits the risk of a privacy breach or identity theft.

The tool is an emerging cryptographic protocol called a zero-­knowledge proof. Though researchers have worked on it for decades, interest has exploded in the past year, thanks in part to the growing obsession with cryptocurrencies, most of which aren’t private.

Much of the credit for a practical zero-knowledge proof goes to Zcash, a digital currency that launched in late 2016. Zcash’s developers used a method called a zk-SNARK (for “zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge”) to give users the power to transact anonymously.

That’s not normally possible in Bitcoin and most other public blockchain systems, in which transactions are visible to everyone. Though these transactions are theoretically anonymous, they can be combined with other data to track and even identify users. Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum, the world’s second-most-popular blockchain network, has described zk-SNARKs as an “absolutely game-changing technology.”

For banks, this could be a way to use blockchains in payment systems without sacrificing their clients’ privacy. Last year, JPMorgan Chase added zk-SNARKs to its own blockchain-based payment system.

For all their promise, though, zk-SNARKs are computation-heavy and slow. They also require a so-called “trusted setup,” creating a cryptographic key that could compromise the whole system if it fell into the wrong hands. But researchers are looking at alternatives that deploy zero-knowledge proofs more efficiently and don’t require such a key.

Bitcoin is very huge and very potentiating crypto currency and the most important reason behind the success of bitcoin is that bitcoin promises to have safest and the most confidential transactions as its transactions does not involve any third party seizure so no third person has the right to see the transaction between two and then it also provides user anonymity that makes bitcoin the safest to invest in and this is the reason that people are investing their money with a faith that they are investing their money at right place.

[charlotte04]

Just stumbled upon this article from Mike Orcutt. Man, this can leads to major discussions (eager to see it, though).

Perfect Online Privacy

True internet privacy could finally become possible thanks to a new tool that can—for instance—let you prove you’re over 18 without revealing your date of birth, or prove you have enough money in the bank for a financial transaction without revealing your balance or other details. That limits the risk of a privacy breach or identity theft.

The tool is an emerging cryptographic protocol called a zero-­knowledge proof. Though researchers have worked on it for decades, interest has exploded in the past year, thanks in part to the growing obsession with cryptocurrencies, most of which aren’t private.

Much of the credit for a practical zero-knowledge proof goes to Zcash, a digital currency that launched in late 2016. Zcash’s developers used a method called a zk-SNARK (for “zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge”) to give users the power to transact anonymously.

That’s not normally possible in Bitcoin and most other public blockchain systems, in which transactions are visible to everyone. Though these transactions are theoretically anonymous, they can be combined with other data to track and even identify users. Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum, the world’s second-most-popular blockchain network, has described zk-SNARKs as an “absolutely game-changing technology.”

For banks, this could be a way to use blockchains in payment systems without sacrificing their clients’ privacy. Last year, JPMorgan Chase added zk-SNARKs to its own blockchain-based payment system.

For all their promise, though, zk-SNARKs are computation-heavy and slow. They also require a so-called “trusted setup,” creating a cryptographic key that could compromise the whole system if it fell into the wrong hands. But researchers are looking at alternatives that deploy zero-knowledge proofs more efficiently and don’t require such a key.

There are no perfect thing in this world. If you are looking for a perfect privacy then I am afraid that it is does not exist. There would always be some in-perfection in this world.

[Conasse]

For a perfect privacy, forget about using Bitcoin. But there are alternatives. Horizen is built with zk-SNARK with full end-to-end encryption at node & inter-node level, its cryptocurrency but not only, ZenHide, ZenChat and Zenpub. The cryptocurrency gives to people more privavy than Zcash

[pakhitheboss]

in order to remove the human factor, the system will require some kind of AI, I guess. If the AI evolves and then decides to take advantage of the system or gets hacked by hackers, What happens next?

I think first it has to work, and in order for it to work a lot man hours will be required. Lets wait and watch.