Jonathan Rouach, CEO and Co-founder of QEDIT, said: Zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) cryptography, a fundamental part of the privacy-enhancing tech industry, received broad validation over the course of 2019.
In addition to being embraced by a number of leading financial institutions and global consultancies including ING, EY, Deloitte, and JPMorgan, major tech companies like Samsung SDS and Cloudfare integrated ZKPs into their products and services.
ZKPs received further validation at Convergence, the Global Blockchain Congress where the technology was widely endorsed by many regulators and governmental organizations active in the GDPR and blockchain space.
These milestones were amplified by significant growth and enthusiasm in the ZKProof community, a global network of academics, practitioners, researchers, developers, and industry leaders who advocate for the standardization of ZKP cryptography.
The second annual ZKProof workshop held in April 2019 was attended by 140 participants, more than double the number who attended the year before and received support from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
In October 2019, ZKProof.org held its first-ever community event in Amsterdam where more than 100 leading industry experts from organizations like BBVA, Calibra, Deloitte, and ING convened to discuss practical applications for ZKP privacy schemes.
On the areas most likely to be the focus of attention in 2020:
We envision that the current arc of growth for ZKP cryptography will continue in 2020, with increased adoption of ZKPs permeating an ever-expanding list of potential use cases. In the identity management space, for example, ZKPs are a highly effective method for proving and validating identities without requiring users to expose their credentials.
They could also be used for predictive maintenance when high-value equipment needs to be analyzed without sharing vendors’ confidential operational data or to help institutions track, share and validate professional certifications issued to company personnel while maintaining user confidentiality.
We are also likely to see broader adoption in the enterprise blockchain space where ZKPs provide an essential privacy layer to help companies harness the full potential of distributed ledger technology. When ZKPs are implemented on top of DLT, sensitive transactional details are kept private and blockchains can be used to mitigate risk and create efficiencies across many industries including supply chain management, insurance, banking, and finance.
What the industry as a whole needs to prioritize in 2020:
Standardizing ZKP cryptography must remain a top priority for the industry. Adoption of a widely-recognized specification will help developers produce robust solutions that are well-vetted, highly secure, and interoperable. In addition, the industry will need to focus on developing relevant solutions that are highly accessible and easy to integrate and deploy by businesses that do not have cryptographic expertise.
Source: qed-it.com