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This section covers the foundational concepts behind zero-knowledge technology. Understanding these basics will help you get the most out of zkTerm.

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Basic Concepts

  1. Zero-Knowledge Proofs: A zero-knowledge proof allows one party (the prover) to convince another party (the verifier) that a statement is true without revealing any information beyond the validity of the statement itself. For example, you can prove you know a password without ever showing the password.
  2. Cryptographic Commitments: A commitment scheme lets you “lock in” a value without revealing it. Later, you can open the commitment to prove what value you committed to. This is like putting a message in a sealed envelope - you can’t change it, but no one can read it until you open it.
  3. Merkle Trees: A data structure that allows efficient verification of large datasets. Each piece of data is hashed, and hashes are combined pairwise up to a single root hash. You can prove any piece of data belongs to the tree by providing a short “proof path” without revealing other data.
  4. Hash Functions: One-way functions that convert any input into a fixed-size output. The same input always produces the same hash, but you cannot reverse the process to find the input from the hash. zkTerm uses SHA-256 and Poseidon hash functions.
  5. Nullifiers: Unique identifiers derived from secret values that prevent double-spending or double-use. When you use a nullifier, it gets recorded publicly, so the same secret cannot be used twice - but the secret itself remains hidden.
  6. zkSNARKs: Succinct Non-Interactive Arguments of Knowledge. These are compact proofs that can be verified quickly without any back-and-forth communication between prover and verifier. zkTerm uses Groth16 proofs for file verification.
  7. Elliptic Curve Cryptography: The mathematical foundation for many ZK systems. Points on special curves enable secure key generation, signatures, and proof systems. zkTerm supports both Ed25519 (for Solana) and STARK curves (for Starknet).
  8. Field Arithmetic: Zero-knowledge proofs operate over finite fields - sets of numbers where arithmetic “wraps around” at a prime number. All ZK computations happen in these fields, which is why zkToolkit includes field arithmetic modules.
  9. Secret Sharing: Splitting a secret into multiple pieces so that only a threshold of pieces can reconstruct the original. Shamir’s Secret Sharing, available in zkToolkit, lets you distribute trust among multiple parties.
  10. Range Proofs: Proving that a number falls within a certain range without revealing the exact value. Useful for age verification, balance checks, and similar scenarios where you need to prove “greater than” or “less than” without exposure.