March 1, 2016 — Zero Knowledge Contingent Payments are accept been made a reality for Bitcoin users everywhere. Core dev Gregory Maxwell in addition to Sean Bowe, a fellow member of the Zcash team, completed the get-go payment of this type on the bitcoin network a few days back, using a simple script to transfer the response to a sudoku puzzle over the cyberspace for bitcoin inwards a secure, non-reversible manner.
Zero Knowledge Brings Unique Functionality To Bitcoin
With Ethereum smart-contracts proliferating inwards the opened upwardly origin community in addition to OpenBlockchain based evolution on the horizon, Bitcoin equally a platform for advanced on-chain transactions has croak relatively undesirable. Zero Knowledge Contingent Payments, or ZKCP, presents an interesting solution for complex automated payments in addition to applications for the Bitcoin ecosystem. Previously, on-chain Bitcoin scripting did non allow private informational exchange, due to the populace nature of the blockchain. In add-on to bootstrapping a smart-contract solution of sorts to the Bitcoin protocol, ZKCP implementations last out headroom for good for yous DRM for digital information transfer past times enabling protection of the information transferred past times ZKCP scripts through PGP encryption.
List of Barriers to on-chain transfers without ZKCP
Zero Knowledge Contingent Payments are specifically designed for the private sale of information, bypassing the systems of the bitcoin protocol that brand this problematic. It industrial plant past times sending encrypted information to a political party requesting it, in addition to decrypting the information off-chain upon payment in addition to verification that the information is genuinely what was requested. While Zero cognition Contingent Payments postulate to a greater extent than user intervention than other smart contract implementations, the pattern emphasis on privacy (as good equally offering potential for DRM based on strong encryption) is an attractive characteristic for people edifice Blockchain applications for digital distribution.
Smart contracts are an essential chemical constituent inwards the increment of the blockchain-integrated cyberspace in addition to has been a work expanse inwards Bitcoin development. ZKCP is a pace forrad for blockchain technology scientific discipline inwards general, equally it is the get-go efficient, zero-knowledge method for secure digital distribution tied to the blockchain. For Bitcoin, though, it’s the get-go serious offering for the evolution of Bitcoin applications that allows for smart-contract-like functionality.
Image Courtesy of Z.cash
