3 ms·

I find it interesting that Stefan Brands [1] solved the zero-knowledge authentication problem a couple of decades ago and his tools are still not widely applied

I find it interesting that Stefan Brands [1] solved the zero-knowledge authentication problem a couple of decades ago and his tools are still not widely applied. Given my bias against imaginary property, I believe that's because his patents on them are still valid -- and apparently owned by Microsoft at the moment [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Brands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Brands [2] http://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001011.html http://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001011.html

thinkingkong 8y ago
I've never heard of this before. Do you know which technologies specifically address the article posted?
- mdpopescu 8y ago
  Chapter 1 explains the usage of the protocols. Quoting from the book, on page 33: "The authentication mechanism is such that the receiver not only authenticates the message, but also demonstrates a property of the attributes encoded into its certified key pair. The receiver has full control over which property is demonstrated: it can be any satisfiable proposition from proposition logic, where the atomic propositions are relations that are linear in the encoded attributes. Any other information about the attributes remains unconditionally hidden." (Emphasis mine.) I will admit that the math was not something I studied in depth (and I definitely didn't check the proofs!), since crypto is at best a hobby for me and not my main job.
mahmoudimus 8y ago
(disclaimer: I work @ VGS) We are actually evaluating more recent advances in zero-knowledge systems. Stay tuned on more news soon in that front :)
lisper 8y ago
> Stefan Brands [1] solved the zero-knowledge authentication problem a couple of decades ago Reference? If you want people to take you seriously when you claim that someone's solution to a problem has been overlooked you have to provide a link to the (alleged) solution, not just to the author's biography.
- erpellan 8y ago
  See also: https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/35449372_Stefan_Brands https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/354493... Although I hadn't heard of Stefan Brands before, I wasn't surprised he'd worked with David Chaum, who is the person I first think of regarding zero-knowledge proofs: http://sceweb.sce.uhcl.edu/yang/teaching/csci5234WebSecurityFall2011/Chaum-blind-signatures.PDF http://sceweb.sce.uhcl.edu/yang/teaching/csci5234WebSecurity... Then I get depressed because we had anonymous digital cash 20 YEARS AGO and fucked it up. Software patents are bad, crypto patents are worse. It's (almost) literally patenting math.
- mdpopescu 8y ago
  Er... it was on the Wikipedia page. It was published on Amazon [1] but the Wikipedia page also seems to have a link to a PDF (ref #5). [1] https://smile.amazon.com/Rethinking-Public-Infrastructures-Digital-Certificates/dp/0262526301 https://smile.amazon.com/Rethinking-Public-Infrastructures-D...

thinkingkong 8y ago

I've never heard of this before. Do you know which technologies specifically address the article posted?

mdpopescu 8y ago
Chapter 1 explains the usage of the protocols. Quoting from the book, on page 33: "The authentication mechanism is such that the receiver not only authenticates the message, but also demonstrates a property of the attributes encoded into its certified key pair. The receiver has full control over which property is demonstrated: it can be any satisfiable proposition from proposition logic, where the atomic propositions are relations that are linear in the encoded attributes. Any other information about the attributes remains unconditionally hidden." (Emphasis mine.) I will admit that the math was not something I studied in depth (and I definitely didn't check the proofs!), since crypto is at best a hobby for me and not my main job.

mahmoudimus 8y ago

(disclaimer: I work @ VGS) We are actually evaluating more recent advances in zero-knowledge systems. Stay tuned on more news soon in that front :)

lisper 8y ago

> Stefan Brands [1] solved the zero-knowledge authentication problem a couple of decades ago Reference? If you want people to take you seriously when you claim that someone's solution to a problem has been overlooked you have to provide a link to the (alleged) solution, not just to the author's biography.

erpellan 8y ago
See also: https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/35449372_Stefan_Brands https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/354493... Although I hadn't heard of Stefan Brands before, I wasn't surprised he'd worked with David Chaum, who is the person I first think of regarding zero-knowledge proofs: http://sceweb.sce.uhcl.edu/yang/teaching/csci5234WebSecurityFall2011/Chaum-blind-signatures.PDF http://sceweb.sce.uhcl.edu/yang/teaching/csci5234WebSecurity... Then I get depressed because we had anonymous digital cash 20 YEARS AGO and fucked it up. Software patents are bad, crypto patents are worse. It's (almost) literally patenting math.
mdpopescu 8y ago
Er... it was on the Wikipedia page. It was published on Amazon [1] but the Wikipedia page also seems to have a link to a PDF (ref #5). [1] https://smile.amazon.com/Rethinking-Public-Infrastructures-Digital-Certificates/dp/0262526301 https://smile.amazon.com/Rethinking-Public-Infrastructures-D...