Cryptography is gaining a new trusted configuration, moving beyond the use of machines that have been burned or Chernobyl radioactive dust. That is bigger this time.
The secret payments app will be introduced through a trusted setup ceremony, according to P0xeidon Labs, a division of Manta Network.
Using zkSNARK technology, MantaPay will enable users to send cryptocurrency privately through other Polkadot and Kusama-based networks. A testnet for all things Polkadot, Kusama is similar.
According to Manta Network, the ceremony will continue for up to two weeks, featuring about 5,000 attendees from as many as 133 nations, making it the biggest and most widely dispersed trustworthy setup in Web3 history.
The purpose of trusted installations is to ensure that a newly launched privacy network cannot ever be corrupted. They are distinct occurrences in the crypto sphere. The cryptographic rules for a network (public parameters) are generated randomly by setup participants, who occasionally even destroy the machine that generated the rules.
“We have received about 5,000 registrations, indicating an overwhelmingly high interest in participating in our trusted setup. According to Kenny Li, co-founder and COO at Manta Network, it “indicates exactly how crucial privacy is for Web3, and the ecosystem understands that,” he told Decrypt.
The future of Web3 is being built with privacy protection, according to Manta Network, which is creating its layer-1 blockchain utilizing Polkadot’s Nomination Proof of Stake (NPoS) consensus architecture. This will let users perform secret transactions between any parallel chain of assets.
According to the creators, MantaPay won’t have a native token. Nonetheless, there are plans to start one for the Manta Network.
Discarding Manta Network’s ‘toxic waste’
Participants in the ceremony, referred to as provers and verifiers in Manta Network’s trusted setup, will produce Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), which Manta Network claims are essential to its privacy preservation feature. By doing so, transactions are guaranteed valid without exposing private data to the blockchain.
To create the “shared secret” that will be utilized to construct the public parameters, the prover, and the verifier will carry out a challenging computation. A set of confirmed private keys that the prover and the verifier can access constitute a shared secret.
Cryptographers refer to the output of the computation of the keys as “toxic trash,” which must be discarded.
“Toxic waste may be compared to a set of codes that would enable the production of false ZKPs. Anyone aware of those figures can create tokens using our protocol, according to Todd, a pseudonymous cryptographer at P0xeidon Labs, who spoke with Decrypt.
They claim that a trusted setup ceremony’s purpose is to divide the garbage into thousands of smaller pieces and distribute one to each participant. If you shatter your piece, an assailant will never be able to identify the toxic waste.
Trusted Setups
Zcash (ZEC) in 2016 is one of the more famous instances of a trustworthy setup in the blockchain industry. It was the first time a zero-knowledge proving system had ever been used in practice, and NSA leaker Edward Snowden was among those who helped introduce the privacy currency.
At its celebration in 2021, Aleo, a different initiative that creates privacy solutions for the web, welcomed roughly 1,000 contributors.
The greatest trustworthy arrangement until now is thought to have been carried out by the U.S.-approved Ethereum mixing firm Tornado Cash. As the ceremony ended, one thousand one hundred fourteen people helped launch the platform in 2020.
To the extent that trusted setup rituals are required, it is vital to remember that not all setups are created equal, as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated earlier this year. Six participants are worse than 176, and 2,000 is better.
The project team underlined that the low criterion for participation made it feasible for Manta Network to reach a new record for trusted setups.
We have no hardware requirements because ZKP is device agnostic; hence the criteria are fairly lax. Li says we support all main operating systems, including Windows OS, Macintosh, and Ubuntu Linux.
Li claims that participating in the ritual is extremely simple as long as one can follow the rules.
If you can complete the registration procedure, which consists of a few stages, you can finish the donation phase once it begins, the speaker continued.
Privacy as the core value
According to one unnamed setup participant, user privacy is still a priority for Manta: “Building the infrastructure for Web3 is crucial since it represents the cutting edge of modern technology. The security of personal data, particularly financial data, worries me. I’m able to contribute to a future that I believe in thanks to the established system.”
The COO of Manta Network further emphasized that there are no financial rewards for participating in the trustworthy setup ceremony other than receiving a non-fungible token (NFT) as proof of their participation and a Discord title in Manta’s community channel.
As a result, the trusted setup at Manta Network is truly a collective effort.
Li told Decrypt that privacy isn’t just about protecting the confidentiality of transactions but also about your complete on-chain identity: “Every application you use, every wallet you use, any piece of data that you record on the blockchain is permanent and publicly available.” “Blockchain becomes a gigantic surveillance tool in the absence of privacy alternatives.”
