Gubsheep's talk last week wildly changed my perspective on zk-crypto. Basically he frames zk-circuits as an "expressive language for claims". For example, while

Gubsheep's talk last week wildly changed my perspective on zk-crypto. Basically he frames zk-circuits as an "expressive language for claims". For example, while you can come up with custom crypto schemes for claims like "I know a private key that belongs to Alice's public key", RSA and ECDSA both do this, but using zk-circiuts you can easily make much more complex claims. The example he gives later is "I know a private key corresponding to Alice, Bob or Charlie's public keys, and the other two can (or maybe can't) prove that they did NOT generate this message." So, using these tools, you as a programmer can build up complex cryptographic machinery claiming all sorts of wild things without needing a cryptographer standing over your shoulder. Circom (https://github.com/iden3/circom https://github.com/iden3/circom) has already been used to build several cutting edge privacy tools, such as Tornado Cash, zero knowledge gaming platforms, like the "Dark Forest" game that Gubsheep works on, and lots of really interesting private voting platforms with various properties. The possibilities in this space are truly mind bending. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAfprVCBhdQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAfprVCBhdQ