Zero knowlege (”ZK”) technology was first conceptualized decades ago. In the last ten years we have seen dramatic advances in ZK research, enabling applications in privacy and scaling in the cryptocurrency industry.
Future applications the community has conceived of include processing of health data and voting privately. However, applications like these may take a long time to materialize due to bureaucracy and data sensitivity. In addition, entrenched power dynamics and the high cost of implementation reduce motivation to implement new systems, even if they achieve better societal outcomes.
We want to conceptualize real world and quick(er)-win applications of zero knowledge tech, focusing on environments where actors are likely to be highly-motivated to implement better solutions.
For this grant, we focus on the mergers and acquisitions (”M&A”) industry. We want to demonstrate to buyers and sellers of companies, as well as their investment bankers, that zk tech can solve several high-value trust problems that they currently solve through escrow arrangements or “trusted” intetermediaries (who don’t always deserve such trust). po
Here are the trust problems between the main parties in an M&A transaction.
| SELLER | BUYER | SELLER’S BANKER | |
|---|---|---|---|
| trust problem with… | |||
| Seller | - | * Hide or falsify info |
Qualifying the trust problems to solve
We will not attempt to solve trust problems that are:
Contrived (only problems that are real and acute)
Low value (only problems that when solved lead to significant value creation)
Easily solved with solutions that don’t use zk
A website with these components:
Description of specific pain points in the M&A process, including an overview of how zk tech can be applied to alleviate those pain points
A simple, interactive “game” to illustrate how it would work. Some graphic novel components may be incorporated
Link to a code repository for the zk circuits required to implement the solution