Marvin Jones – Clemson University

Title: Polynomial commitments with zk-SNARKs

Abstract: In many situations or transactions in which two parties do not trust each other but need to interact, it is necessary to prove the truth of certain statements without leaking private information.  For example, one often needs to prove to be at least 21 years old when buying liquor or at the entrance of a bar, but really does not want to reveal the actual date of birth. Or one may want to prove that her GPA at Clemson University is at least 3.5 but does not want to reveal any information on her transcripts.  As our life becomes ever more immersed in the digital world, privacy-preserving computing has been a hot research area in the last few decades.  In this talk, we shall introduce the basics on zero knowledge proof, particularly zk-SNARKs, that can solve this seemingly impossible problem. We show how to convert an arithmetic circuit into a polynomial identity, and how the identity can be checked via polynomial commitments, without revealing any information on input and intermediate values computed by the circuit.