Tech Talk: Blockchain, Zero Knowledge Proof & Homomorphic Encryption
Blockchain Team
August 9, 2019
Last updated: October 17, 2023
Table of Contents
Introduction to Blockchain Technology
“Blockchain is a global online database that can be handled by anyone anywhere on the internet. They are said to be decentralized since blockchain ledgers are shared among all the computers in the world not particularly from one central location.”
It works with “Blocks”, like spreadsheet works with “rows” and “columns”. The blockchain technology is basically a database that stores information in data structures called blocks. A block is nothing but a collection of data.
Blockchain is a Database but Database is Not Blockchain
The blockchain is a decentralized ledger database keeping track of cryptocurrency transactions. Most importantly, the blockchain database is not administered by a single person. Every user participating in the blockchain operation is accountable for all the data in the blockchain. A blockchain stores information in uniformly sized blocks. To provide cryptographic security each block contains the hashed information from the previous block.
On the other hand, the database administrator (the group of people) administrates the traditional database. A traditional database is used to store information. These stored entities in a database format help to support business, financial and management decisions. The government also makes use of databases to store large sets of data. The relational database model allowed more complex ways of gathering data by relating information from multiple databases and this information stored in databases can be organized using a database management system.
Hence, both blockchain & database are not interchangeable in the sense that though they both store information, they differ in design.
ZKP (Zero-Knowledge Proof)
Zero-knowledge proofs let you affirm the truth of something without exposing how the one knows that truth or sharing the content of this truth with the verifier. Here, it is based on the algorithm that takes some data as input and returns either ‘true’ or ‘false’.
Zero-knowledge proof should satisfy the below three properties:
Completeness: If the statement is true, the honest verifier (the one who follows the protocol properly) will be convinced.
Soundness: If the statement is false, except with some small livelihood. no fraud prover can convince the honest verifier that it is true.
Zero-knowledge: If the statement is true, other than the fact that the statement is true no verifier learns anything.
Homomorphic Encryption
It is a kind of encryption that allows computation on ciphertexts, producing an encrypted result. When it decrypted, it matches the result of the operations as if they had been performed on the plaintext. Homomorphic encryption used for privacy-preserving outsourced storage and computation.
Example of Homomorphic Encryption (Google Search)
In highly regulated industries, homomorphic encryption can be used to enable new services by removing privacy barriers inhibiting data sharing.
For example, predictive analytics in a messaging app can be hard to apply due to user’s data privacy concerns, but if the predictive analytics service provider can operate on encrypted data instead, these privacy concerns are diminished.
The presented content is a glimpse of the Tech Talk session handled by Calibraint’s Blockchain Team on 8th Aug 2019. Calibraint Technologies provides a platform for its young employees to discover the technology and master it.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
