By Sandeep Bishnoi
17 September 2023, 12:45 PM
ZeroSync, a Bitcoin startup, has made significant advancements in the world of Bitcoin light clients by harnessing zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs. These proofs allow for the swift verification of Bitcoin transactions without revealing sensitive information about the transaction itself. This development has the potential to revolutionize the efficiency of syncing to the Bitcoin blockchain.T
raditional Bitcoin full nodes require the download and verification of the entire blockchain history, which can be quite burdensome. Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, envisioned a different approach in the white paper – one that allowed clients to verify payments without running a full node.
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Bitcoin light clients use simplified payment verification (SPV) by querying network nodes for blockchain headers to verify incoming transactions. ZeroSync’s innovation takes this a step further by compressing these headers into a single proof using ZK proofs. This process condenses the header data into a lightweight piece of information, making it much faster for light clients to sync to the latest blockchain state.
The header chain proof demonstrates that each block in the chain met the mining difficulty requirement when it was mined, ensuring the correctness of the entire blockchain up to a given height.
ZeroSync’s first milestone was the release of the initial header chain ZK proof. To achieve their broader goal of enabling full nodes to sync without downloading the entire historical blockchain, they have two more objectives. The second involves enhancing the header chain proof to allow nodes to sync similar to Bitcoin Core’s “Assume Valid” function. The third and final objective is to provide complete Bitcoin blockchain synchronization without assumptions.
The “Assume Valid” function in Bitcoin Core assumes that scripts up to a certain block height are valid, simplifying the initial sync process for new nodes. ZeroSync’s approach offers a middle ground, allowing nodes to download all historical data but only verify witness data after the assumevalid height. They also leverage the Utreexo project to optimize the UTXO set, further improving efficiency.
ZeroSync’s top-tier offering aims to synchronize nodes with the latest Bitcoin state without making any script assumptions. Using ZK proofs, full nodes could achieve faster initial syncs with potentially higher security than Bitcoin Core’s default setting.
It’s important to emphasize that ZeroSync’s innovation not only enhances security but also dramatically improves efficiency. While the Bitcoin blockchain currently occupies 510GB of data, ZeroSync’s approach produces a compact proof of slightly over 1MB, representing a substantial boost in performance, especially in regions with limited access to high-speed internet and storage capacity. This efficiency gain becomes increasingly critical as the Bitcoin blockchain continues to grow.
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