1985
Zero-knowledge proofs published
Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali published zero-knowledge interactive proof systems in 1985 — foundational work for modern cryptographic protocols.
What it was for
Zero-knowledge proofs let one party prove a statement is true without revealing why — underpinning zk-SNARKs, blockchainA distributed ledger where records are chained cryptographically — designed for tamper-resistant shared state. privacy, and authentication protocols. Goldwasser and Micali won the Turing AwardThe ACM's highest honor in computing — often called the Nobel Prize of computer science. partly for this line of research.
People
- Shafi Goldwasser — researcher
- Silvio Micali — researcher
Why it's here
Zero-knowledge proofs became a core primitive in modern cryptography and blockchains.
Why it mattered
They formalized how to prove knowledge without leaking secrets.
What it solved
Authentication and verification protocols lacked rigorous privacy guarantees.
Media
ImageShafi GoldwasserWeizmann Institute of Science, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons