The Paper that can Change the Foundations of all Blockchain Cryptography
One of the biggest breakthroughts in modern cryptography can have a deep impact in blockchain protocols.
Cryptography is at the heart of many blockchain protocols. From traditional proof-of-work(PoW) to L2 modern approaches such as ZK-rollups, many advanced cryptographic methods provide the foundation of blockchain runtimes and protocols. Consequently, there is an omnipresent question about the security robustness of any blockchain architecture. Naively, we assume that blockchain cryptographic implementations that have survived complex attacks are inherently secured but that’s far from being an empirical proof. Is there a better way to verify the robustness of security algorithms. The answers seem to be in a new paper that just won the National Security Agency(NSA)’s “Best Cybersecurity Research Paper Competition” causing a lot of noise within the cryptography research community.
Titled “On One-way Functions and Kolmogorov Complexity” the paper provides an answer to one of the quincentennial problems in cryptography. The problem at hand is related to the existence of a mathematical construct called “one-way functions” that can prove whether a method such as a zero knowledge proof in an L2 blockchain, is cryptographically secured.