Major crypto projects like Ethereum and Zcash have used these ceremonies to bolster their security in the past — and DOP is next. But how do they work?
The world of crypto is many things: technical, exciting, innovative. But one of the most rewarding things that projects across the industry has to offer is a sense of community — being part of something bigger.
When new protocols and blockchains are taking baby steps to launch, early adopters play an indispensable role. They put testnets through their paces to iron out bugs and vulnerabilities, spread the word on social media, and offer invaluable feedback on how to make things better.
And there’s one process where their contribution can have a lasting legacy — helping to keep a protocol thriving for years and decades to come. This is known as a multiparty computation ceremony, where the community joins forces to keep infrastructure secure.
Data Ownership Protocol has unveiled plans to hold one of these ceremonies, which will help create the zero-knowledge circuits that power selective transparency for all — enabling assets to be encrypted and decrypted at will, and private transactions to become the norm.
Participants will perform an intense cryptographic operation on their computers — contributing a random number that will be used to create an even bigger random figure that’s known to no one. At the ceremony’s conclusion, an encrypted code will be formally entered into the protocol that bolsters security — and makes it prohibitively difficult for one malicious actor to gain control.
Here, we’re going to delve into the world of multiparty computation ceremonies — and look at how other well-known crypto projects have implemented them in the past.
Zcash
Let’s rewind back to 2016 now, when the privacy coin Zcash was being launched. Here, a multiparty computation ceremony was held to prevent counterfeit assets from being created. So what happened?
Well, it involved creating — and destroying — a private key to ensure a malicious actor from creating endless amounts of ZEC. Not only would this have watered down the value of the coins already in circulation, but it would have struck a fatal blow to the project’s credibility.
In Zcash’s case, the private key was referred to as “toxic waste” that needed to never see the light of day. To achieve this, six participants — who didn’t know each other and were based around the world — were selected for the multiparty computation ceremony. Each of them created a shard that was combined to create a public key, with each destroying the shard of the corresponding private key that was also generated.
This was a powerful approach because it meant that, as long as at least one of them destroyed their “toxic waste,” it would be impossible to resurrect the private key.
Ethereum
Similar ceremonies have been held in the years that followed, with Ethereum — the blockchain that DOP is based on — implementing one after The Merge, which saw the network switch from a Proof-of-Work to a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.
Developers were striving to launch a new upgrade called “proto-danksharding” that would allow Layer 2 scaling solutions to process transactions off-chain — driving down costs for users, which remains a key stumbling block for adoption. However, this Ethereum Improvement Proposal required a new cryptographic scheme — or in other words, a multiparty computation ceremony. (In Ethereum’s case, this was referred to as “KZG Commitments,” with the abbreviation inspired by the surnames of the three cryptographers who came up with the concept.)
Ethereum’s supporters were urged to “summon powers of a powerful spirit Dankshard” — and all they had to do was throw something random into the mix. This randomness would help establish zk-SNARK parameters that mean transactions could be verified in a trustless way. So… how did it work?
Well, there were three steps for “summoners,” all beginning with the letter S: Secret, Sigil and Sample.
Step one involved something a little creative: entering text. Ethereum said this could be “a hope for the future, or the name of someone dear.” No matter what it was, one important step was to add a slew of random characters — mashing the keyboard essentially — to ensure that the summoner wouldn’t be able to recall what was written. That could turn “Madeleine” into “Madelshjsei28ne!!!”
Step two involved tracing an intricate design on the screen using a mouse, as this would create a unique path that no other user could exactly replicate. Finally, in step three, the browser generated its own randomness in the background.
The end result was a number that was truly random in nature, with this computation then mixed in with the contributions that came before it.
And what about DOP?
DOP’s multiparty computation ceremony has a similar objective in mind: creating resilient zero-knowledge proofs so someone in a transaction can prove information is true, without revealing it to the counterparty.
This is a bold step toward decentralization, as not even the DOP team will have knowledge of the encrypted code that is generated at the ceremony’s conclusion.
Everyone in the DOP community now has the chance to join the ceremony — and every single contribution will make it all the more significant. The more people get involved, the harder it will be for malicious actors to hijack the protocol for their own personal gain.
Once the mainnet has launched, and Data Ownership Protocol begins work to tackle the bug of over-transparency, you’ll be able to tell your friends that you were there — and played a vital role in making it happen.
