What did Satoshi Nakamoto think about ZK-proofs? – Cointelegraph Magazine

From privacy coins to shiny iris-scanning balls, zero-knowledge proofs have become synonymous with encryption, scalability, and privacy.

In 2022, investors gave Over $700 million in funding to companies pushing the envelope with zero-knowledge proofs. This year, ZK-proofs have arguably become one of the biggest blockchain trends, with several major Ethereum scaling protocols landing on the mainnet.

ZK Proof is a cryptographic protocol that allows one party to prove the authenticity of a statement to another party without sharing any of the contents of the statement.

An oft-cited example is proving to a bartender that you are old enough to drink without having to show your ID or even tell them your date of birth.

Well, it seems that Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin, once found the technology quite interesting.

A better version of Bitcoin

In August 2010, user “Red” on the online forum Bitcointalk ask Is there a way to improve the privacy of Bitcoin transactions.

“One of the things that annoys me about Bitcoin is that the entire transaction history is completely public,” says a forum regular. Another member chimed in, suggesting that zero-knowledge proofs might be the solution.

“This is a very interesting topic,” Satoshi replied.

“If a solution is found, better, simpler, and more convenient Bitcoin implementations will be possible.”

However, Satoshi was not convinced that the technology could solve the “double-spend” problem, a fundamental flaw in all digital cash protocols where bad actors can use the same digital token multiple times.

“Checking for double spending requires a global understanding of all transactions,” Satoshi Nakamoto said.

*Satoshi Nakamoto’s response to user suggestions to use ZK proofs to improve the privacy of Bitcoin transactions. (Bitcoin Talk)*

“It’s hard to imagine how zero-knowledge proofs could be applied in this context. We’re trying to prove that something doesn’t exist, which seems to require knowing everything and checking whether something is not included,” he argued.

Years later, someone cracked the code

Little did Satoshi know that the cypherpunks would eventually find a solution to the problem.

Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash was launched in October 2016 by Electric Coin, a company formed by computer scientists from the formative years of Bitcoin. Zcash was built by modifying the original Bitcoin source code.

This is also the first time zero-knowledge proofs have been used in a true peer-to-peer cryptocurrency, allowing users to hide or block the crypto wallet addresses from which funds are sent or received.

The world finally learned that famed whistleblower Edward Snowden was one of the key players in the Zcash ritual that six people set in motion in 2016 by combining some of the project’s private keys. https://t.co/Lgag6bGA0n

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) April 28, 2022

Zcash’s founding scientist Eli Ben-Sasson later founded StarkWare, a company now famous for using zero-knowledge proofs to scale Ethereum through rollups.

Ben-Sasson told Magazine that Bitcoin Core developers’ early enthusiasm for ZK-proofs played a “critical role” in his eventual co-founding of StarkWare.

“The 2013 San Jose Bitcoin Conference marked my eureka moment.”

“Mike Hearn, a Bitcoin developer at the time and one of the earliest adopters of Bitcoin, even declared that my talk on ZK proofs was the most critical of the event because of its impact on the blockchain potential impact on the future of the chain.”

“It was there that I realized the transformative potential of the proven effectiveness I was developing,” says Ben-Sasson.

Fast forward to today, and Bitcoin itself is ready to enter the world of ZK proofs.

So what would Satoshi Nakamoto think?

“It is clear from Satoshi Nakamoto’s past comments that he strongly supports the use of ZK proofs to protect privacy,” Ben-Sasson said.

Satoshi Nakamoto is a person who insists on anonymity. His public interactions on Bitcointalk and emails were reportedly done using the IP-blocking browser Tor. This is the main reason why his public IP address can never be traced back to him.

*Bitcointalk administrators stated that Satoshi Nakamoto had been using the Onion Router (Tor) to access the forum. (Bitcoin Talk)*

The creator of Bitcoin even devoted The privacy section of the Bitcoin whitepaper recommends that users keep their public keys anonymous, so that even though the public can see transactions taking place, they don’t know who is involved, much like a stock exchange.

*The privacy diagram is shown in the Bitcoin white paper. (bitcoin.org)*

“It was obvious that Satoshi Nakamoto would be interested in the privacy innovations that my colleagues and I were doing at Zcash,” Ben-Sasson said.

Unfortunately, Satoshi Nakamoto never touched on the topic again before disappearing from public view on December 12, 2010 (the date of his last post on Bitcointalk).

However, Ben-Sasson believes that if Satoshi Nakamoto remains active, he may push to bring ZK proofs to Bitcoin.

“While they have recently entered Bitcoin through ZeroSync, I believe Satoshi will be inclined to make the necessary adjustments to further integrate them,” he said.

“After all, for Bitcoin to realize its vision as a global currency, the need to scale cannot be ignored, especially given its current ossified state.”

Felix Wu

Felix Ng first started writing about the blockchain industry in 2015 through the lens of a gambling industry reporter and editor. He has since started reporting on the blockchain space full-time. He is most interested in innovative blockchain technologies designed to solve real-world challenges.

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