Short-Cut
“Short-Cut” – a cartoon that illustrates one cryptographic approach that blockchain developers are using to scale up the technology.
For decentralized technology to be the next generation infrastructure, Ethereum (which accounts for 30% of all developer activity) needs to find ways to increase transaction speeds and reduce costs while dealing with larger volumes.
One approach, called a ‘roll-up,’ is to create a secondary channel that can do the computational heavy-lifting outside the main Ethereum chain.
A zero knowledge (ZK) roll-up is perhaps the most efficient use of blockchain space, as they require less storage than traditional smart contracts since “zero knowledge” of the whole transaction’s data is needed.
This lightweight approach requires the prover submitting the transaction data to be able to demonstrate he/she has the data without disclosing all the information to the receiver (known as a verifier).
For example, a consumer can show without a doubt that he/she knows the answer to a puzzle without disclosing the solution.
In the case of the cartoon, the farmer (prover) tells the walker (verifier) that there is a path across the field and can prove it by showing a picture of where the path ends.
(But, the walker choses to cross the field wearing a red jacket, which is going to excite the bull, no matter what cryptographic validation is being used).
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