California-based crypto-satellite developer Cryptosat and global hackathon organizer DoraHacks ran the first-ever cryptographic trusted setup for zero-knowledge in space.
According to the official press release shared with CryptoPotato, the “historic event” took place on the International Space Station (ISS).
- The two platforms said that the experiment involved taking a set of pre-uploaded open source programs to the ISS and “outputting” a file that contains the “Common Reference String,” which is used in DoraHacks’ ZK-proof driven voting program. This helps in protecting user privacy while providing collusion resistance in voting and governance.
- The experiment’s output will be used to establish the security of the voting mechanism leveraged in the open-community grant organization – Dora Grant DAO.
- Furthermore, the space station experiment also sets the stage for Cryptosat towards a satellite-based service that would facilitate a fast turnaround for the initiation of ZK-proof systems.
- Commenting on the development, Cryptosat co-founder Yonatan Winetraub said,
“We are excited to unlock the possibility of running trusted setups for Zero-Knowledge schemes in space. The ability to perform a trusted setup in a completely isolated environment is key in making efficient SNARK schemes much more widely used, secure, and easier to iterate on. By having Cryptosat participate in the ceremony, we guarantee there is at least one party out of this world making the ceremony more secure.”
- The latest development comes a week after Cryptosat rolled out the second “cryptographically-equipped” satellite – Crypto2 – with the help of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicles.