Starkware was a historically active company in the Ethereum eco-system. announced Yesterday, plans were made to begin committing resources toward new Bitcoin scaling possibilities that emerged in the last few months.
Pioneers of Zero-Knowledge Systems, this group revealed their plans to utilize OP_CAT so as to bring STARK to Bitcoin. Soft forks could enable zero-knowledge to be validated natively. This would open up a new world of design for developers.
Many people consider this announcement to be a major technical milestone in the Bitcoin protocol. I’ll give you my 2 cents unprompted on this issue.
It has been a long time coming
Starkware CEO Eli Ben-Sasson pointed out that using zero-knowledge to improve Bitcoin was not a new idea. Over a decade ago, developers began discussing the potential applications. Ben-Sasson was the person who developed it. presented The idea was first presented in San Jose, California in 2013, at a Bitcoin event. In 2017, Blockstream developers Gregory Maxwell, Pieter Wuille & Andrew Poelstra co-published a research paper on the use of Bulletproof, a zero-knowledge protocol to support confidential transactions on Bitcoin.
Robin Linus, the creator of BitVM in recent years has been a driving force behind BitVM work ZeroSync uses a technique of compression to generate zero-knowledgeproofs on the Bitcoin blockchain. When fully implemented, this would drastically reduce the resources required to run a Bitcoin node. John Light, a researcher at Alpen Labs who is currently working on this project for the Human Rights Foundation in 2022 will produce an full report A look at the possibilities of Bitcoin validity rollsups, using no-knowledgeproofs.
The applications of zero-knowledge are numerous and they will continue to be discussed for some time. Most people expect technology to be the defining factor. next The era is one of computation, and it would be very difficult for me to place a bet on them. The trend is expected to continue growing as higher level Bitcoin applications start to use them.
There’s still time to get up
In the past ten years, most of the technological advances in zero-knowledge encryption have taken place. As more and more cryptographers become interested in the applications of this technology, it is a field that continues to evolve rapidly. The researchers have engaged in an arms race to see who can produce the best proofs with less time and effort. As of right now, almost all of the proof Systems remain computationally costly. Different protocols have different trade-offs. However, improvements are focused on the verification of proofs so that users can verify them quickly. The pace of innovation is relentless but generating proofs on a large scale will require a lot more effort. specialized hardware There are large-scale operations.
In cryptographic circles, 10 years is not a long time despite the massive achievements and unlocks. Most recent proposals use techniques considered to be technically sound, but are not as tested and battle-hardened as Bitcoin. A hidden inflation bug in 2018 was discovered. discovered Zcash’s implementation ZK-SNARK could have enabled an attacker to fake the currency. Starkware has a STARK-based construction that is considered more secure due to its transparency.
The rollups can be boring
The rollups can be boring
This project was motivated by the desire to implement zk rollups in Bitcoin. Rollups, for those who are unfamiliar with them, is a highly touted product that uses off-chain sequence to increase throughput and scale applications. Zk-rollups or validity rollsups propose creating proofs that the system’s records of transactions can be independently verified. This allows off-chain applications to not need additional trust assumptions.
Today, none This system has been fully implemented in all major implementations of rollups on Ethereum. All rely on the same central operator to both prove and order transactions. To prevent fraud, in rare instances where proofs can be generated, they must only be submitted by actors with the appropriate permissions. Starkware’s Starknet There is currently no way for users to remove their transactions from the system, if an operator ceases collaboration or their network goes down.
Every project is backed by billions in deposits that are secured with a multi-signature key set. The same people who handle those keys are also responsible for upgrade The rollup contract will control all funds associated with it. Linea was the sixth-largest rollup in Ethereum as early as two days ago. halted by the operatorAfter a cyber-attack, all funds of users were frozen.
It’s possible to make a more positive case here, which is something I am not really qualified to do, but many people are. work The issues listed above are addressed with resources. For the vision of a world without fear, a lot of research is needed.
Rollups could also evolve into complex beasts that are only controlled by a few people, as Ethereum did.
BitVM Sidequest
You can also find out more about the following: introduction of BitVM The race to zero knowledge on Bitcoin was kicked into gear by Robin Linus in 2013. Starkware has made headlines for its impressive resume, but many teams are also making waves. Alpen Labs, Citrea You can also find out more about the following: Bitlayer They are researching ways to improve zero-knowledge verifications.
The next few months will be very interesting as we see their choices and if they stay true to themselves. It’s clear that OP_CAT brings many efficiencies, but the exact trade-offs have yet to be determined. It’s likely that many companies will explore the BitVM option and just emulate the zero-knowledge calculation. Both cases involve a low level of client security, which can be vulnerable to re-org attack.
In the past month, a lot of time has been devoted to discussing liquidity issues around BitVM. The current profile of users for these types solutions makes me doubt the claim that BitVM will prevent anyone from taking part. The market might not care about this, but it’s not like I think that the solution will be sustainable or practical. Multi-signature users have deposited billions in the past, so any other system will look almost worthless.
More developer funding
The ecosystem benefits from a million dollars spent on research. It’s encouraging to see the increasing awareness of OP_CAT. Although a bug-bounty is unlikely to have any real impact, I am curious about the results of more focused efforts. work On, proofThe.of-concepts-and-applications. The pitfalls are easy to see. source The final result will depend on the technical merits of these efforts. Bitcoin’s process of development isn’t as susceptible to influence as many people would like you to believe.
It is also crucial to keep in mind that OP_CAT represents only a single piece of the puzzle. While breakthroughs for specific applications are thrilling, they rarely justify losing focus on the overall picture. This technology will not pay off in the near future. An Overview of Precipitating An upgrade It seems premature to implement such systems today, when they would take many years to be reliable. Sidechains are available to those who desire centralized virtual machine.
At this stage, we are constantly breaking new ground and it is hard to say where the industry will be in one month. Although I am cautiously optimistic regarding the improvements being made to Bitcoin scripts, it seems unwarranted at this point to make any commitments. For a short time, we’ll have to wait for things to calm down.
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Source: bitcoinmagazine.com