Zero Knowledge Proof Privacy Protection for Smart Contract Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Smart contracts on blockchain systems face challenges in protecting the privacy and authenticity of input data from the real world, as existing solutions fail to ensure data integrity and confidentiality, leading to potential privacy leaks even with access control mechanisms.
Innovation Solution
A Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP)-based privacy protection method that involves a trusted Data Authenticator generating a public/private key pair, authenticating private data, and using a proof key to generate a ZKP, which is verified by a validator without revealing sensitive information, ensuring the correctness of calculation results and executing smart contracts accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If access control mechanism is adopted to prevent privacy leakage, then privacy protection is improved, but data authenticity verification becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a trusted Data Authenticator (DA) as an intermediary that issues digital signatures for private data. The DA acts as a mediator between data sources and smart contracts, providing authentication without requiring complex access control mechanisms at every node. The digital signature serves as a trusted intermediary proof that simplifies the verification process while maintaining strong privacy protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the authentication function from the blockchain nodes and concentrates it in a trusted Data Authenticator. By separating the authentication responsibility from the verification process, the system achieves privacy protection without requiring complex access control at each node. The digital signature extracted from the DA provides sufficient proof for smart contract execution.
2Measurement precision
If private data is provided to smart contract for calculation, then calculation accuracy is improved, but data privacy is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses cryptographic hashing to create a copy of the private data in the form of a hash value. The smart contract receives and processes this hash copy instead of the original private data. The hash function ensures that the calculation can be performed on the hash value while the original private data remains hidden, achieving both calculation accuracy and privacy protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the private data into a different parameter form (hash value) that preserves the essential properties needed for verification and calculation while removing the sensitive information. The digital signature and hash value serve as transformed parameters that enable smart contract execution without exposing the original private data.
3Reliability
If digital signature is used for data authentication, then data authenticity is improved, but verification time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The trusted Data Authenticator performs the computationally intensive digital signature generation in advance, before the smart contract execution. The signature is pre-computed and attached to the data submission. During verification, nodes only need to perform the relatively fast signature validation rather than generating signatures, significantly reducing verification time while maintaining strong authenticity guarantees.
Data Source
AI summary
A Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP)-based privacy protection method and system for authenticated data in a smart contract wherein initialization is performed. Inputting a security parameter obtains a public parameter. A Data Authenticator (DA) generates a public/private key pair. A key pair is generated using the public parameter and a verification circuit as inputs, the key pair including a proof and a verification key. Authentication on private data of a Decentralized App (DApp) User (DU) is performed using the private key of the DA, and generates a signature. A DU prover terminal inputs private data as an input value and a calculation result and hash value as output values. The DU generates a ZKP using the proof key. A validator verifies whether the ZKP is correct. If verification passes, the calculation result is correct; otherwise the calculation result is wrong. The validator executes a smart contract based on the verification result.


