What Are zk-SNARKs and How Do They Affect Digital Privacy?

At a time when technology can be used as both a mechanism for privacy intrusions and a tool for protecting privacy, the prescient sentiment of cypherpunks in the 1990s of cryptography as the last defense against a digital surveillance dystopia rings truer than ever.

One of the most potent instruments for defending digital privacy has recently gained significant momentum thanks to the advent of cryptocurrencies.

The potential impact of zk-SNARKs on digital privacy is enormous, and one that should not be shuttered due to a cognitive bias toward censorship and misplaced mainstream sentiment.

The use of zk-SNARKS diminishes any meaningful connection between sender, receiver and amount, and can be coupled with network-layer privacy enhancements like TOR or Dandelion++ to mask a user's IP location.

Over time, the cumbersome data and computation requirements of zk-SNARKs should be overcome, ushering in a new boon for digital privacy in the modern era.

"General platforms like Bitcoin and Ethereum already offer sufficient privacy guarantees for most users to never need niche privacy-focused blockchains. Privacy is a feature, not a product."

Particularly in the financial realm, as many governments and economists warm to the idea of a cashless society, the need for digital devices that preserve financial privacy are vital.

Coupled with the ability to launch on-chain voting models and privacy-preserving auctions, all while wielding our compact, constant-sized zk-ConSNARKs, and the potential of zk-SNARKs in the realm of privacy is materializing before us.

Bitcoin was proposed by Satoshi Nakamoto as peer-to-peer digital cash, but he did not foresee how technological intrusions into privacy would evolve to meet the cryptographic components of Bitcoin - nobody could.

Privacy is at a premium today, and as articulated by the cypherpunks so long ago, only advanced cryptographic tools are up to the task of preserving it in the digital age.