Encryption and digital signatures are the most commonly used methods for secure communication and authentication, such as when utilizing chat applications, online banking, or accessing government services.

Recent research has significantly advanced cryptographic methods, including fully homomorphic encryption, multi-party computation, and zero-knowledge proofs, to name a few. These methods are associated with privacy, enabling computation on or proof of statements about encrypted information, potentially involving many different (untrusted) parties in a distributed setting.

Zero-knowledge proofs are a crucial component in privacy contexts. They allow us to convince third parties that specific properties of encrypted data are met without revealing the data itself, thereby ensuring the integrity and privacy of the information involved. This addresses a significant challenge in many systems: the data owner seeks privacy, while the data receiver requires the data to be adequately generated to be applicable or valid.

This talk will explain zero-knowledge proofs and their security properties. We will also examine real-world applications such as electronic voting, blockchain transactions, private contact tracing, and privacy-preserving machine learning.