Who will protect your privacy? Encrypt "weapons" to learn about | Geekhub offline activities

On Thursday (August 8th) evening, the “Blockchain Landing – You Must Know Password Privacy” sponsored by the Babbitt Accelerator, Dimension, Nervos and the founders, Geekhub offline activities were held at Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics.

The event invited the zero-knowledge proof researcher Li Xing , Nervos community operation Lai Jiaqi , Dimension Chain founder and CEO Suji Yan , Dimension Chain legal consultant Katt Gu and other guests to bring " password and privacy " as the theme. share it.

Li Xing: Zero Knowledge Proof – Getting Started with zkSNARK

Li Xing is a low-key zero-knowledge proof researcher who has published numerous articles related to zero-knowledge proofs on his WeChat public account, Star Ideas. In 2018, he and a few small partners developed a public chain, and then chose to give up due to poor business operations. In early 2019, he began to produce technical knowledge with zero knowledge. He is currently a rare technical expert in China who specializes in zero-knowledge proof.

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For non-technical practitioners, zero-knowledge proof (zk-SNARK) is a familiar and unfamiliar term. It is familiar because it is the encryption technology used by the anonymous currency Zcash; it is unfamiliar, because we know very little about it except that it sounds cool.

Zero-knowledge proof, the original paper of Zero-Knowledge Proofs [ GMR85 ] dating back to 1985. A streamlined ZK [ K92 ] certification was subsequently introduced in 1992. By 2013, Pinocchio et al. proposed PGHR13 , a zero-knowledge proof that can be used in real life, but at a slower rate. In 2016, Groth proposed the Groth16 algorithm, which proved that the amount of calculation was greatly reduced. From then on, zero-knowledge proof began to be gradually commercialized. Subsequent launches of Bulletproofs and zk-STARKs , with Groth16 are considered to be the current three mainstream certification protocols.

How to explain zero proof of knowledge? Here is a classic " Alibaba Zero Knowledge Proof " story:

Alibaba was caught by the robbers. In order to save his life, he needed to prove to the robber that he had the password to open the stone gate, and at the same time could not tell the robber the password. He came up with a solution to let the robbers leave their own land, far enough for the robbers to hear the password, close enough to prevent Alibaba from escaping under the bow of the robber. Alibaba showed the opening and closing of the stone door to the robbers at this distance.

This is a zero-knowledge proof that the prover can believe that the verifier (Alibaba knows how to open the stone gate) is correct without providing any useful information to the verifier (Shimen's password) .

In the computer world, there are more application scenarios of zero knowledge. For example, we use asymmetric encryption to do identity authentication. The authenticator can prove the identity of the authenticated party by using the public key to solve the random number provided by itself. It needs to provide its own private key.

At the event site, in addition to introducing the development history and basic concepts of zero-knowledge proof (zk-SNARK), Li Xing also deduced in detail the operation process of zero-knowledge proof . Various parameters and equations are set on the projection screen, which reminds me of the high number of classes I have attended in college. Since the content is too hard, it will not be described here. Interested readers can click on " Zero Knowledge Proof – Getting Started with zkSNARK " or read the article of its public number.

Lai Jiaqi: MimbleWimble's Privacy Agreement and Its Application

Lai Jiaqi currently works in the community at Nervos. He is a member of the Cypherpunks Core and the head of the research department of the first blockchain association of Tsinghua University. Recent research topics include privacy protocols such as Mimblewimble and more equitable encryption economics such as Radical Markets.

MimbleWimble is a blockchain protocol that focuses on interchangeability, privacy and scalability . It was released in July 2016 by an anonymous person named Tom Elvis Jedusor on IRC channel #bitcoin-wizards. MimbleWimble technology removes all spent output from the transaction, effectively compressing the size of the block data and hiding the amount using Unidirectionally Polymeric Signature (OWAS).

Thereafter, the range proof proves that the output is within the normal range of values. The user does not need to traverse the entire blockchain, only need to verify that the sum of the input sum of the entire blockchain and the unspent output is equal, and in turn prove that the entire blockchain is correct. In addition, MimbleWimble offers some privacy and extensibility, but the solution cannot support complex bitcoin scripts.

Lai Jiaqi said that in the privacy transaction, the MimbleWimble protocol uses the confidential trading technology to achieve the purpose of not exposing the transaction amount, avoiding money and inflation, and using the currency trading technology to avoid the purpose of reducing the input and output values ​​of the transaction. One-way signature technology achieves the goal of not being able to restore the signed public key.

He also pointed out that MimbleWimble's significance for public chain design lies in its scalability , including the need to store all data for a long time in the whole node (similar to Monero's key image, Zcash's remarks are invalid), which can solve the transaction address and the amount can be used by everyone. Query the privacy issue and reduce the average block size.

Suji Yan: Encryption is the basic tool for everyone to protect their property and rights.

Suji Yan and Katt Gu are a couple of entrepreneurs who are also drafters of the 1.0 version of the Anti-996 license . Suji Yan is the founder and CEO of Dimension Chain, a Ph.D. in law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a legal consultant at Dimension Chain.

“The Natural Law of Pricacy, Now Being Enforced.” This is the slogan on the cover of Suji Yan. This sharing, his speech theme is also related to privacy – " BTC changes money, ETH reshapes the contract, the next step is to protect data privacy ."

In his view, BTC is a free money or asset that does not depend on centralized institutions, organizations and countries. ETH expands the results of BTC and achieves free contract or governance through decentralized voting, election, and governance programs. .

However, due to the compromise of the mechanism, the BTC computing power is centralized; due to the problem of Internet centralization, the centralization of trading platforms, communication channels and contract entrances has been caused.

How to extend "free assets" and "autonomous contracts" to a larger level? How to combine more existing infrastructure to promote more "free labor" and "autonomous communication"?

Suji Yan said that data assets are the biggest value shift in the Internet today. The company or platform provides services "free of charge", the user is responsible for generating data, checking algorithms, and the user becomes a "data worker" on the assembly line. There is a conflict between encryption, privacy, and the business model of the giant.

He believes that in the future, data is the "new oil" that drives algorithms, incubates AI, and enhances the economy. Creating data is seen as a kind of "labor . " This kind of "labor" will be accepted by the giants and willing to create a new business model and profit-making mechanism. Due to the nature of the network, it is difficult for individuals to protect this kind of "labor", and encryption is the basic tool for everyone to protect their own property and rights, thus ensuring all "digital labor" and communication channels of freedom and autonomy, thus expanding BTC and ETH. The results will be able to benefit everyone.

Suji Yan proved this concept with the following five pictures.

Left is Figure 1, right is Figure 2

Figure 1 shows the traditional mode of labor in which workers produce goods in exchange for income. The Fed links money and goods through free markets, and then combines money and labor through consumption and credit.

Figure 2 shows the labor model in the Internet era. When users generate data on a mobile phone or computer, Internet companies convert data into French currency through technologies such as AI algorithm, and the credit of the French currency becomes a credit card.

image 3

Figure 3 shows the labor pattern after the emergence of bitcoin in 2009, and the data generated by the user is distributed through distributed storage, using DeFi and edge calculation to generate BTC or ETH, and the credit relationship is also changed.

Left is Figure 4, right is Figure 5.

Figure 4 shows the labor model after the birth of Libra. The data generated by users is stored in the cloud. The Internet giant uses algorithms to generate currency. The personal credit relationship is through VISA and Master Card.

Figure 5 shows that the US captain can control this game. The blockchain and web3.0 can't change the centralization of the Internet giant for a long time, but the user's "labor", "asset" and "equity" can be guaranteed.

Katt Gu: Encryption tools are the "weapons" of cyberspace

Katt Gu's sharing is to interpret data privacy and encryption rights from the perspective of US law.

Regarding data privacy protection, there has been a history of technical utopianism and anti-technical utopianism.

Technical Utopianism originated in the 1996 Cyber ​​Innovation Independence Declaration by John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). "I declare that the global social space we created is naturally not subject to what you impose on us. The bondage of dictatorship. You have no moral rights to rule us, and you have no coercive methods, so that we really have reason to fear."

Anti-technical utopianism stems from an incident in which two hackers from New York, Phiber Optic and Acid Phreak, invaded TRW's system, stealing Barlow's credit history and displaying it on Barlow and other Internet users' computer screens. .

In the United States, bills related to data privacy protection include the Patriot Act and the US Freedom Act . The Patriot Act was signed by US President George Walker Bush on October 26, 2001. The bill expanded the authority of the US police to prevent terrorism. For example, according to the content of the Act, the police have the right to search telephones, e-mail communications, medical, financial and other kinds of records, or conduct secret investigations without the approval of a judge. The US Freedom Act stipulates that the NSA can only request data from a telecommunications company when it is confirmed that someone or an organization is suspected of terrorist activities.

She believes that if you have a power but are not given the power of this tool, it is equivalent to not having this power. Regarding the right to encryption, she pointed out that "the Second Amendment of the United States protects everyone’s right to possess weapons and protects everyone’s rights to use weapons for legitimate purposes such as self-defense, and these rights have nothing to do with militia military service." In the American Castle Law, "In certain circumstances, the infringed person may use force to prevent and confront the invaders who invade his house, and the consequences are exempt from legal liability and are not prosecuted."

She further proposed that in today's increasingly urgent data privacy protection, encryption tools are the "weapons" of cyberspace.

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