The phrase “to the moon” is prevalent in cryptocurrency circles. Cryptosat and DoraHacks take that precept to the center following their experiment on the Worldwide Area Station (ISS). Each events ran a cryptographic trusted setup for zero-knowledge proofs in house. 

Trusted ZK-proof Computations at ISS

It’s the first time a crew efficiently conducts a ZK-proof system in house. Cryptosat, a famend crypto-satellite developer, and DoraHacks, the worldwide hackathon organizer, joined forces to make this occur. Extra importantly, the experiment was carried out aboard ISS, giving this much more attract.

The trusted ZK-proof setup highlights the potential of utilizing satellite-based computation environments. Opposite to what some thought, such an surroundings can show viable to carry out zerk-knowledge cryptography. Whereas the enterprise illustrates the viability of performing part of the trusted setup course of, it marks an important business milestone. 

Cryptosat is decided to create a fleet of satellites. That fleet will consist of assorted CubeSats launched into orbit over the approaching years. The experiment aboard ISS confirms it’s a viable strategy, no matter considerations over connectivity cut-outs. 

The ISS maintains a radio frequency hyperlink with a floor station, which proved essential in making this strategy profitable. As well as, the crew used pre-uploaded open-source packages to generate a string file for DoraHacks’ ZK proof-based voting.

Cryptosat Has Massive Ambitions

The CubeSats-based strategy by Cryptosat is intricate. These CubeSats set up a workable surroundings for trusted setups, which neutral events can handle. Such a setup can be utilized for numerous functions, together with personal ballots or random beacons.

Cryptosat Co-founder Yonatan Winetraub states:

“We’re excited to unlock the potential for working trusted setups for Zero-Data schemes in house. The flexibility to carry out a trusted setup in a very remoted surroundings is essential in making environment friendly SNARK schemes rather more broadly used, safe, and simpler to iterate on. By having Cryptosat take part within the ceremony, we assure there’s at the least one celebration out of this world, making the ceremony safer.”

Nonetheless, Cryptosat acknowledges the constraints of its present strategy. With no rising satellite tv for pc fleet, the strategy is barely viable for lower-bandwidth use circumstances. Due to this fact, increasing the fleet stays an important precedence for the crew.