Proposal: Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) for Login Process - Adena

[thinhnx-var]

Description

This issue proposes investigating Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) as a potential replacement for Web3Auth in Adena login process and transaction authorization on the blockchain. While Web3Auth offers a convenient solution, ZKPs hold significant promise for improving user privacy and transaction efficiency.

Status

AFAIK, Adena supports multi-party computation (MPC) technology, provided by Web3auth. Simply put, MPC "splits" your private key into multiple shares, which are each bound to various factors including passwords, devices, or social accounts.

The point is here, Adena depends on Web3Auth provider.

The Drawbacks of Centralized Providers:

• Privacy Concerns: Users entrust their credentials to Web3Auth, raising privacy risks if the provider is compromised. (Adena has their own setup to avoid this).

• Single Point of Failure: Dependence on a single provider creates a vulnerability if Web3Auth becomes unavailable or experiences security issues.

  Benefits of ZKPs:

• We can run the ZKP node ourself. This lead to the top of decentralize security.

• Enhanced User Privacy: Users can prove they meet authentication or authorization requirements (e.g., account ownership) without disclosing the underlying credentials. This strengthens user privacy in the blockchain ecosystem.

• Reduced Transaction Fees: ZKPs can generate more compact proofs compared to traditional cryptography. This could lead to lower transaction fees on the blockchain network.

• Improved Scalability: ZKPs can contribute to a more scalable system as verification processes are often more efficient than those used in Web3Auth.

Addressing Potential Challenges:

• Current Stage of Development: ZKP technology is still maturing, and integration might require additional development effort.
• Evaluation and User Experience: A thorough assessment of ZKPs compared to Web3Auth is crucial, considering user experience, security, and implementation complexity.

Call to Action:

We - VarMeta team invite the community to participate in this discussion and explore the potential of ZKPs to:

• Decentralize user authentication and transaction authorization.
• Empower users with greater control over their privacy.
• Strengthen security by eliminating reliance on centralized providers.

Possible Next Steps:

• Research existing ZKP libraries and frameworks suitable for our needs.
• Conduct a comparative study to evaluate ZKPs against Web3Auth across various aspects.
• Prototype a ZKP-based solution to assess its feasibility and user experience.

Summary

By exploring ZKPs, we can potentially create a more secure, private, and efficient user experience within our blockchain ecosystem. We look forward to your valuable feedback and collaboration.

By the side, we welcome your eyes of view on this Zero Knowledge Proof topic. This help us to define a good approach to reach the goal that making ZKP works well with GnoLand.

CC: Adena team and CoreTeam

[moul]

I'm concerned about the potential complexity introduced, making it hard to understand and verify what we're doing. Can you provide some hints on how the implementation and expected usage could look? Additionally, could you list the required cryptographic algorithms and patterns we should use for the implementation?

• ping @gnolang/security.