By Yumin Xia, Chief Technology Officer at Web3 Growth Platform Galxe By Yumin Xia, Chief Technology Officer at Web3 Growth Platform Galxe Google’s recent announcement that it is integrating Zero-Knowledge-Proofs (ZKPs) into its wallet services marks the first time that a technology incubated by the cryptocurrency industry has found wider adoption in the mainstream web2 world. This rollout signals that ZKPs' potential to improve user experience and data protection is not only vital within web3, but well beyond. integrating integrating As the name suggests, Zero-Knowledge technology enables the verification of claims (like a person’s identity, age, or credit score, for example) without the need for the verifier to see the underlying information. Using ZKPs allows users registering for a new product or service to prove they meet the providers’ requirements without explicitly exposing their information. Invented in 1989 by Goldwasser, Micali, and Racko, these proofs lived a shadow existence for decades despite the seemingly obvious privacy benefits. One reason for their lack of immediate application is that proofs remained computationally heavy. As hardware became more powerful and facilitated the verification of proofs, blockchain became a playground for ZKP adoption. The first to implement zkSNARKS - a proof type - was Zcash: a privacy coin that relied on proofs to allow users to transact under the guise of anonymity. ZK tech’s role in scaling blockchain In addition to their privacy benefits, ZKPs also provide immediate efficiency gains for the protocols implementing them. Instead of computing the entirety of the underlying information again, ZKPs reduce the workload to verifying a single proof instead. Filecoin, an incentive layer on top of the IPFS blockchain that pays data storage providers for hosting data, adopted ZKPs in 2020 to reduce the time it took to verify that data was stored correctly. This move didn’t just benefit Filecoin’s network efficiency, it also reduced costs for data storage providers by reducing the amount of information they had to disclose. 2020 2020 To this day, Filecoin continues producing millions of proofs every day, making it one of the largest implementations of zkSnarks. Nevertheless, data storage and privacy coins aren’t the only implementation of ZKPs in crypto. More recently, countless rollup teams have used proofs to reduce the amount of data they have to submit to the Layer1 chains they operate from. The problem with current crypto onboarding While ZKPs have paved the way for scaling Ethereum and given rise to new privacy-preserving apps, the inflow of new users into crypto remains low. Often, new users enter Web3 through a centralized exchange to convert fiat into crypto. Due to the fragmented identity landscape, they must complete tedious Know Your Customer (KYC) processes for each platform, creating a barrier to broader adoption. With an increase of regulatory scrutiny on the crypto space, and a desire to hold bad actors accountable, chances are that compliance won’t be limited to centralized exchanges either. Rather, its likely KYC processes will become a key risk hedging strategy for any project launching a protocol that potentially allows private transfers, or exchange of meaningful funds. However, the reality is that, the easier the onboarding, the more likely users are to sign up and go through with their transfer and so creating more barriers to entry into Web3 will, in-fact, protect no-one as it drives down revenues. Zero-Knowledge Proofs offer a path that solves this conundrum: one that solves the compliance question, but which dispenses with the user friction that hinders growth. The cost of repetitive KYC The above problem isn’t limited to Web3, either. It’s a larger issue around how identity is managed online. Traditional implementations of KYC processes pose three problems to the user: Identity theft: a user’s information might be copied and distributed without their knowledge.
Bundling: usually, KYC procedures collect more data than is really necessary
Lack of control: no transparency into what happens with the data. Identity theft: a user’s information might be copied and distributed without their knowledge. Bundling: usually, KYC procedures collect more data than is really necessary Lack of control: no transparency into what happens with the data. As trust in institutions wanes and hackers grow increasingly sophisticated, it’s a tall order to ask users to trust anyone with data that makes them vulnerable to attacks. Meanwhile, storing sensitive data creates a burden that even well-established corporations such as T-Mobile struggle with. wanes wanes T-Mobile struggle with T-Mobile struggle with ZKPs = compliance without compromise Aspiring crypto users expect the same smooth user experience from crypto exchanges as they receive from their mobile banking apps. Currently, though, this is far from the case. ZKPs have the ability to solve not just this issue, but to bring an enhanced level of security and privacy to providers and users. What’s more, when combined with a digital identity system, ZK tech paves the way for KYC solutions that don’t force users through repetitive KYC. Instead, it allows them to complete a KYC process just once, and then present only their ZKP for verification when onboarding to new platforms. On top of cutting costs for companies, such identity systems also provide an advantage for compliance with Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations as protocols would be able to verify whether any of the wallets tied to an identity had been involved in illicit activity. The path to mass adoption via ZK Studies have found that up to 68% of consumers abandoned financial apps during onboarding due to the inherent friction. In an industry already struggling with onboarding, forward-looking businesses can turn the implementation of ZK tech into a competitive advantage: offering a seamless sign-up flow while establishing high levels of trust through data minimization. 68% of consumers 68% of consumers ZKPs represent a breakthrough technology that benefits business users, regulators, and users all the same, explaining its appeal to big Web2 giants such as Google. As more projects implement ZK-powered identity and KYC solutions, Web3 will become significantly easier to navigate from an onboarding perspective, and gain trust by adhering to existing regulatory systems. For Web3 projects looking to scale beyond early adopters and tap into more mainstream markets, implementing ZK tech won’t just be a question of optimization. Instead, this technology will become part of the essential infrastructure that will onboard millions into Web3 products and services that can serve them in any number of ways.

The is an opinion piece based on the author’s POV and does not necessarily reflect the views of HackerNoon.

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ZK Tech is the Tool that will Mass Onboard Web3 Users

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