You know zero!

Zero-Knowledge (ZK) Proofs are cryptographic protocols that allow one party (the prover) to prove to another party (the verifier) that a certain statement is true, without revealing any additional information beyond the truth of the statement itself.

In other words, the prover can convince the verifier that they know something without actually revealing what they know.

The concept of Zero-Knowledge Proofs was introduced by Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali, and Charles Rackoff in 1985.

They have since become an important tool in cryptography and have numerous applications in various domains such as authentication, privacy-preserving protocols, and secure multiparty computation.

To give you a high-level understanding of how Zero-Knowledge Proofs work, let's consider an example called the "color-blind men" protocolAn example of Zero-Knowledge Proofs is the "color-blind men" protocol, which illustrates how they work.

Imagine two men, Alex and Bob, are color-blind and they want to prove to each other that they can distinguish between red and green without revealing which color is which.

Here's a simplified version of how the protocol would work:

1. Alex selects two objects, one red and one green, and randomly places one in each hand. He keeps the colors hidden from Bob.

2. Alex extends his hands towards Bob, who is unable to see the colors in Alex's hands due to his color blindness.

3. Bob randomly guesses which hand holds the red object.

4. Alex reveals the contents of the chosen hand to Bob.

5. Bob compares the revealed color with his guess. If he guessed correctly, he becomes more convinced that Alex can indeed distinguish between red and green. If not, he becomes more skeptical.

6. The protocol can be repeated multiple times to increase Bob's confidence in Alex's ability to distinguish colors.

In this example, Alex doesn't reveal any information about which hand holds the red object, but Bob's confidence in Alex's ability increases over repeated iterations.

In the context of cryptography, Zero-Knowledge Proofs utilize complex mathematical algorithms and cryptographic techniques to achieve the same goal of proving a statement's truth without revealing any additional information.

The protocols are designed to be secure against various types of attacks, ensuring that the verifier cannot deduce any information beyond the validity of the statement being proven.

Zero-Knowledge Proofs have practical applications in various scenarios, such as verifying the correctness of computations without revealing the input or the output, proving ownership of private information without disclosing the information itself, and conducting secure and private transactions in cryptocurrencies like Zcash.

I hope this provides you with a basic understanding of Zero-Knowledge Proofs.

If you have any further questions or would like to dive deeper into any specific aspect, feel free to comment below!