Zero Knowledge Proofs for Dummies

This is a collection of useful tutorials and blog post for learning and getting started with zero knowledge proofs and zk-snarks. It’s mostly written so that I have a good reference point when dwelling deeper into the depths of zero knowledge profs.

I will add to these lists as I learn more. Hopefully it is useful for someone else.

Abbreviations:

• zk-snarks — Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge
• Arithmetic circuit — standard model for computing polynomials. Maybe not surprising since the final zk-proof is a polynomial.
• rc1s — Rank 1 constraint system. Typically described by the vectors A,B,C which define the computation of our arithmetic circuit.
• QAP — Quadratic Arithmetic Program, zk-snarks can be applied on these programs but creating them from a general computational problem is non trivial.
• witness — A solution to the equation S.A⋅S.B⋅S−C⋅S=[0] is a witness. This is then used to create a proof.

Reading list:

• Vitalik Buterin’s introduction to SNARKs, part 1, 2, and 3; and STARKs, part 1, 2, and 3.
• Interactive deepdive of rc1s https://asecuritysite.com/encryption/go_r1cs
• https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/12/05/zksnarks-in-a-nutshell/
• https://blog.zkga.me/df-init-circuit
• https://blog.zkga.me/intro-to-zksnarks
• https://zkp.science

Videos:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUs1bH85X9I&t=236s

Zero knowledge proofs in the wild:

• https://github.com/darkforest-eth/darkforest-v0.3/tree/master/circuits

Tools:

• https://github.com/iden3/circom

Other links of interest:

• TariLabs — no idea what they are but they had a lot of good information.