V God: Outdated mining hardware can be used for zero-knowledge proofs

Editor's Note: This article comes fromCointelegraph Chinese (ID: CointelegraphChina), Author: JEFFREY ALBUS, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

Editor's Note: This article comes from

Cointelegraph Chinese (ID: CointelegraphChina)

, Author: JEFFREY ALBUS, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of distributed blockchain computing platform Ethereum, has had a lot to say in recent weeks. On April 25, Buterin appeared on The Shitcoin Dot Com Show to discuss the upcoming launch of Ethereum 2.0.

In the interview, Vitalik was asked what people should do with Ethereum mining rigs once the network transitions from its current consensus algorithm to a model that no longer requires such specialized hardware. Currently, Ethereum employs a custom version of the proof-of-work (POW) algorithm called Ethash. This system requires massive computing resources to verify new blocks on the Ethereum blockchain. An early milestone on the Ethereum 2.0 roadmap is the move to proof-of-stake (POS), a competitive consensus algorithm that allows users to validate blocks using their accumulated wealth (total digital assets) on the network. In response to his desire to see how obsolete mining hardware is used, Vitalik revealed:

“Certainly not 100% mining equipment will be eliminated, there will be some obsolete mining equipment that can be used for zero-knowledge proof.”

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Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) is an information sharing protocol. They allow two parties to share with each other a piece of information they know without revealing what the actual information is.

In the context of blockchain technology, zero-proof transactions are useful for users who wish to maintain a higher level of anonymity. Projects like Zcash utilize a unique iteration of ZKPs called Zk-SNARKS. It allows users to send fully encrypted transactions locally while being verified against the network's consensus rules.

Buterin, who has often publicly expressed his liking for ZKPs, went on to say: "This zero-knowledge proof technology is undergoing a huge, silent technological revolution". He went on to elaborate:

“Zero-knowledge proofs are very powerful. First, they provide users with strong privacy. Second, they provide users with strong scalability, because instead of going through a tedious process to verify transactions, you only need to verify very few steps of proof That’s it. You can use them to verify the validity of transactions, and you can use them to replace Merkle trees; reducing the size of Merkle tree leaf nodes and verification information from hundreds of bytes to kilobytes.”

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Exciting times for Ethereum

Discussing what Vitalik calls "Ethereum," the 26-year-old developer didn't seem bothered by the network's most significant update since its initial launch in 2015. He admitted: