Vitalik: Idle mining machines can be used for zero-knowledge proofs

Written by Jeffrey Albus | Translated by Maya

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the distributed blockchain computing platform Ethereum, has been quite active in recent weeks. On April 25, Buterin appeared on The Shitcoin Dot Com show to discuss the upcoming launch of Ethereum 2.0.

During the interview, Vitalik was asked what people should do with their Ethereum mining rigs once the network moves from the current consensus algorithm to a model that no longer requires such specialized hardware. Currently, Ethereum uses a customized version of the proof-of-work system called Ethash. This system requires a large amount of computing power resources to verify new blocks on the Ethereum blockchain. An early milestone on the Ethereum 2.0 roadmap is the migration to proof-of-stake — a competitive consensus algorithm that allows users to use their accumulated wealth on the network to verify blocks.

In response to what he would like to do with the abandoned mining machines, Vitalik revealed:

“It’s certainly not going to be 100% of the miners, you’re probably only going to get a few percent at best, but I would answer: zero-knowledge proof.”

The power of zero-knowledge proofs

Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) are information-sharing protocols that allow two parties to share information they know with each other without actually revealing the content of the information.

In the context of blockchain technology, zero-proof transactions are extremely useful for users who wish to maintain a higher level of anonymity. Projects like Zcash utilize a unique iteration of ZKPs, zk-SNARKS, which allow users to natively send fully encrypted transactions while remaining verifiable under the network consensus rules.

Buterin, who has often publicly expressed his love for ZKPs, went on to say that “there’s this huge, silent technological revolution that’s already happening, zero-knowledge proofs,” elaborating:

“They’re very powerful. First of all, they give you a lot of privacy. Second of all, they give you a lot of scalability because instead of verifying something very large, you only have to verify a very small proof. You can use them to verify the validity of things, you can use them as a replacement for Merkle trees; you can cut down the branches and witnesses of a Merkle tree from hundreds of gigabytes to a few gigabytes. It has a lot of benefits.”

Exciting times for Ethereum Land

While discussing what Vitalik calls “Ethereumland,” the 26-year-old developer seemed to have no qualms about talking about the most significant update to the Ethereum network since it was first launched in 2015. He admitted:

"It's definitely less nerve-wracking than the first time, just because I've been through the whole thing before. I'm definitely excited and nervous, but also just really excited to finally see all of this go live."

He added:

“It’s important to remember that until recently, Ethereum 2.0 was largely just an idea and a dream in the eyes of most people.”

Although the release date of Ethereum 2.0 has not yet been announced, Prysmatic Labs publicly released the first ETH2.0 testnet, called Topaz, on April 18. Vitalik said of this node, “This is definitely an important milestone for us.”