Early Bitcoin (btc) pioneer Hal Finney shared his vision of zero-knowledge proofs more than 25 years ago, a decade before the launch of the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
The video, purportedly from the Crypto '98 conference held on August 26, 1998 in Santa Barbara, shows Finney discussing detailthe concept of zero-knowledge proofs, a cryptographic technology that gained immense popularity decades later.
๏ธ NEW: Bitcoin legend Hal Finney discusses zero-knowledge proofs in a newly discovered presentation, given 25 years ago at Crypto '98 in Santa Barbara.
did you ever hear @halfinThe voice from before? pic.twitter.com/HdddworTsg
- Trust Machines (@trustmachinesco) September 20, 2023
Finney explains how a zero-knowledge proof could hypothetically be performed on a SHA-1 hash, describing the possibility of submitting a cryptographically encrypted claim without revealing any of the details contained in the claim itself.
โI want to show you that I know a message that encodes a given hash value using the SHA-1 hash. I don't want to reveal anything to you about the message. It is a zero-knowledge proof and I have written a program to do this that I will tell you about,โ Finney explained.
A zero-knowledge proof (ZK) is a cryptographic protocol that allows one user (the prover) to convince another (the verifier) โโthat a particular claim is true without revealing any details about the claim itself.
At the time of Finney's speech, zero-knowledge proofs were considered a possibility, but due to hardware limitations at the time they were widely considered, as Finney says, "inefficient or impractical."
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Decades later, the crypto industry is full of discussions and debates about the best way to implement zero-knowledge proofs, primarily using technology. being leveraged to scale the Ethereum network.
Finney is a historic pioneer of the cryptocurrency industry. He was a computer scientist who was an early contributor to privacy-enhancing technology, including the first fully anonymous mail sender, a tool that protected a user's identity when sending emails. Additionally, Finney created the first reusable proof-of-work system, which preceded Bitcoin by almost five years.
In 2009, Finney was the first recipient of Bitcoinafter the cryptocurrency's pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, transferred him 10 BTC, and was known to have worked closely with Nakamoto in the early days of Bitcoin.
Some have speculated that Finney could be Satoshi Nakamoto himself, although he has denied the theory.
Finney was diagnosed with a rare neurological disease known as ALS, the complications of which would end his life in 2014. Finney was cryopreserved by the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona.
The video could be one of the first times some people have been able to hear Finney's voice, TrustMachines on X suggested.
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