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zero-knowledge

(9 articles)

Proving You Belong Without Saying Who You Are

Zero-knowledge proofs let Nostr users prove they're trusted without revealing their identity, enabling anonymous rate-limiting and reputation-gated relay access.

austrian-economicsfreedom-techzero-knowledgewotnostrprivacycryptographyanonymityrelayvertexrate-limitingspam

Private Relay Connections: Zero-Knowledge Solutions for Nostr

Nostr relays see everything - who connects, what they fetch, how often they post. Zero-knowledge cryptography can fix all three problems: Semaphore-based authentication hides which whitelisted user is connecting, private information retrieval hides which notes you're fetching, and Privacy Pass enables rate limiting without identity linkage.

austrian-economicsfreedom-technostrrelayprivacyzero-knowledgecryptographypirblind-signaturesprivate-authentication

Computing on Secrets

Services no longer need to see data to compute on it. Cryptographic and hardware primitives make that contract a deployed reality.

austrian-economicsfreedom-techcryptographypirteezero-knowledgeprivacyencryptionprivate-computehomomorphic-encryption

Every Crowd Hides You Differently

From Bitcoin CoinJoin to zero-knowledge proofs, every serious approach to financial privacy bets on a different crowd to disappear into.

austrian-economicsfreedom-techbitcoincoinjoinlightningprivacycryptographyzero-knowledgeanonymityarksparkcsv

The Gossip Vulnerability: Why NIP-17's "Deniable" Messages Aren't

NIP-17 promises deniable messaging with its three-layer design: an unsigned "rumor," a signed "seal," and an ephemeral "gift wrap." However, this setup has a hidden vulnerability. The signed seal allows recipients to prove that a message was sent by the claimed author, even without revealing the content. This creates a perfect scenario for gossip attacks, where the mere proof of communication can damage reputations. As we explore NIP-17, we find that the rumor, despite being unsigned, is not as deniable as it seems, making it a potential risk for exposure.

austrian-economicsfreedom-technostrnipmessagingprivacycryptographyzero-knowledgemarmotwhite-noisedmsnip17

The Key Inside the Ciphertext: A Full Introduction to PIPEs v2

PIPEs v2 turns spend conditions into key-recovery conditions, letting Bitcoin enforce proof-gated authorization through ordinary Schnorr signatures and extraordinary off-chain cryptography.

austrian-economicsfreedom-techbitcoincryptographyzero-knowledgeprivacypipes

The Praxeology of Privacy ~ Chapter 16: Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Zero-knowledge proofs enable verification without disclosure. SNARKs, STARKs, and Bulletproofs make different tradeoffs. Deployed in Zcash and rollups; broader adoption developing.

austrian-economicsfreedom-techpraxeology-of-privacypraxeologyzero-knowledgecryptographyprivacybitcoin

The ZK Proof Landscape: From Academic Cryptography to Sovereign Infrastructure

ZK proofs spent four decades as mathematical curiosities. Between 2016 and 2024, proving times dropped from minutes to milliseconds. By March 2026, the benchmark landscape on a standardized SHA-256 circuit (~22,000 constraints) looks like this:

privacyzkzero-knowledgeaicryptographyfromack

Proof of Personhood Is a Trap

Most proof-of-personhood schemes claim to defend the human internet from bots. In practice, they smuggle a border regime into everyday computing, and they fail to solve the problem they were invented to solve.

identityproof-of-personhoodzero-knowledgeprotocol-layeragentssurveillancereputation