On July 8, at the 2023WAIC Global Blockchain Industry Summit Forum, AntChain announced that the privacy collaboration platform AntChain FAIR has undergone a new architecture upgrade, introducing zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) as the core verifiable computing technology, and expanding from trusted data circulation to the verifiability of the calculation process, data attributes, and identity. It is understood that this is an important upgrade for the core architecture of the FAIR platform following the increase in large-scale computing capabilities last year.
Zero-knowledge proof is regarded by the industry as one of the most critical technologies in the next 5 years of Web3. It refers to the fact that the prover can convince the verifier that a certain assertion is correct without providing any useful information to the verifier . Compared with privacy computing, which emphasizes data analysis and calculation on the basis of protecting data privacy, zero-knowledge proof is characterized by "verifiability".
Enterprises and institutions adopting zero-knowledge proof architecture can ensure that the entire process of data calculation is carried out in accordance with the agreed conditions, correct and verifiable on the basis of privacy protection, which will greatly improve identity verification and AI model training. , data transfer, asset transaction, on-chain and off-chain collaboration and other whole-process credibility, accelerating the penetration of Web3 from the digital world to more complex industrial scenarios. In recent years, with the rapid development of zero-knowledge proofs in basic protocols and hardware acceleration, the technology has gradually been able to handle complex tasks such as neural network reasoning.
As the earliest manufacturer in China to deploy Web3 technology, AntChain has self-developed and launched blockchain and service BaaS, blockchain all-in-one machine, blockchain communication network BTN, blockchain storage engine LETUS, large-scale open architecture HOU, cross-chain ODATS, etc. Iconic product with broad coverage of Web3 infrastructure.
Wei Changzheng, senior technical expert of AntChain, said: "Privacy and verifiability have always been important topics in the field of data and computing. There are similarities and differences in nature between the two. Zero-knowledge proof has efficient verifiable characteristics, and can protect specific data. It is not seen by the verifier, so to a certain extent, it meets the dual needs of privacy and verifiability.”
The most critical part of zero-knowledge proof is the "proof generation stage", that is, to generate a "proof" for data, identity, calculation process, etc. It is understood that through the optimization of software algorithms, AntChain has accelerated the end-to-end "proof generation" by 2.8 times the original baseline.
In addition, the above characteristics of zero-knowledge proof can also "compress" calculations and data. A typical application of blockchain is to migrate calculation tasks to off-chain, and use zero-knowledge proof to prove that the actions that occur off-chain are verifiable. Only let the proof result be stored and verified on-chain. For example, blockchain platforms such as Ethereum use zkRollups based on zero-knowledge proofs to effectively solve the problem of chain resource shortage.
It is understood that in order to lower the threshold for the use of zero-knowledge proofs, AntChain FAIR has added zkWASM, a new type of zero-knowledge proof virtual machine, to the trusted computing architecture to achieve provable features at the instruction level. Algorithmic programs written in multiple front-end languages can be proved and converted without caring about the underlying complex algorithm details, which improves the friendliness of development and application.
FAIR is a privacy collaboration platform launched by AntChain for data transfer. It combines the advantages of blockchain and privacy computing. The collaboration process is driven by smart contracts, and the data transfer is solved by a privacy computing engine. The right is confirmed through blockchain technology Registration and transaction consensus. It can solve the natural contradiction between data sharing and privacy protection in the process of data circulation. At present, FAIR has been applied in many data exchanges such as Hangzhou Data Exchange and Guishu Exchange.