Trade-Offs in Distributed Interactive Proofs

The study of interactive proofs in the context of distributed network computing is a novel topic, recently introduced by Kol, Oshman, and Saxena [PODC 2018]. In the spirit of sequential interactive proofs theory, we study the power of distributed interactive proofs. This is achieved via a series of results establishing trade-offs between various parameters impacting the power of interactive proofs, including the number of interactions, the certificate size, the communication complexity, and the form of randomness used. Our results also connect distributed interactive proofs with the established field of distributed verification. In general, our results contribute to providing structure to the landscape of distributed interactive proofs

Brief Announcement: Distributed Quantum Interactive Proofs

The study of distributed interactive proofs was initiated by Kol, Oshman, and Saxena [PODC 2018] as a generalization of distributed decision mechanisms (proof-labeling schemes, etc.), and has received a lot of attention in recent years. In distributed interactive proofs, the nodes of an n-node network G can exchange short messages (called certificates) with a powerful prover. The goal is to decide if the input (including G itself) belongs to some language, with as few turns of interaction and as few bits exchanged between nodes and the prover as possible. There are several results showing that the size of certificates can be reduced drastically with a constant number of interactions compared to non-interactive distributed proofs. In this brief announcement, we introduce the quantum counterpart of distributed interactive proofs: certificates can now be quantum bits, and the nodes of the network can perform quantum computation. The main result of this paper shows that by using quantum distributed interactive proofs, the number of interactions can be significantly reduced. More precisely, our main result shows that for any constant k, the class of languages that can be decided by a k-turn classical (i.e., non-quantum) distributed interactive protocol with f(n)-bit certificate size is contained in the class of languages that can be decided by a 5-turn distributed quantum interactive protocol with O(f(n))-bit certificate size. We also show that if we allow to use shared randomness, the number of turns can be reduced to 3-turn. Since no similar turn-reduction classical technique is currently known, our result gives evidence of the power of quantum computation in the setting of distributed interactive proofs as well

Towards Solving the Blockchain Trilemma: An Exploration of Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Research on blockchain has found that the technology is no silver bullet compared to traditional data structures due to limitations regarding decentralization, security, and scalability. These limitations are summarized in the blockchain trilemma, which today represents the greatest barrier to blockchain adoption and applicability. To address these limitations, recent advancements by blockchain businesses have focused on a new cryptographic technique called Zero-knowledge proofs . While these primitives have been around for some time and despite their potential significance on blockchains, not much is known in information systems research about them and their potential effects. Therefore, we employ a multivocal literature review to explore this new tool and find that although it has the potential to resolve the trilemma, it currently only solves it in certain dimensions, which necessitates further attention and research