🛒 E-commerce & Privacy - Myth or Reality? 🔐
🛒 E-commerce & Privacy - Myth or Reality? 🔐
💻 Online shopping without revealing your personal data?
🚀 Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP), zkLocus and Mina Protocol blockchain enable just that
https://illya.sh/blog/posts/privacy-is-a-myth-without-zero-knowledge-proofs/
Here's how 🧵👇
🔍 The challenge with e-commerce privacy lies in two main areas:
1️⃣ Keeping search queries private 🔒
2️⃣ Protecting personal info like name and address 🙅♂️
Traditional platforms require us to trust them with this data
💰 Wether you are online shopping on Amazon, eBay, AliExpress or any other e-commerce platform, you are sharing your personal data with them.
🤔 But does it have to be this way?
✨ Is a fully private online shopping experience possible?
❗️Yes, and Zero-Knowledge Proofs are the answer❗️
📜 Instead of sharing raw data, ZKP allow us to share proofs about our data
🤯 Now, you can search for products to buy without revealing your exact queries!
🧩 Here's how private search queries work:
1️⃣ User runs a zkML computation to abstract their query
2️⃣ The abstracted query is sent to the e-commerce platform
3️⃣ Platform returns relevant results, which are filtered locally by the user
🕵️♀️ Such an approach allows us to search for data with a centralized provider without revealing our exact search queries
🔎 In the end, the provider has enough information to provide us with relevant results, without being able to track us
👀 Private search quries are great, but can we go a step further?
🪪 Is it possible to shop online without revealing any of your identity and shipping data to the e-commerce platform?
🤯 The answer is YES!
🔐 How can we conceal personal info like name and address?
📍This is where zkLocus comes in!
🌍 zkLocus allows users to prove they're in a certain area without revealing exact coordinates
🏠 It's like saying "I'm somewhere in New York" without revealing your exact address
🎁 Here's how zkLocus enables private shipping:
1️⃣ You creates a zkLocus proof of their location
2️⃣ Proof is associated with encrypted name & address
3️⃣ E-commerce platform gets general area, but not exact info
4️⃣ Package is sent to a processing center in the general area
5️⃣👇
5️⃣ You provide the decryption key to the center to reveal address
📦 The package then gets shipped & delivered to the user
🔐 Throughout this process, your name and address remain hidden from the e-commerce platform. 😌
🌍 The platform only knows a broad area, not your specific location
🪪 The processing center only gets your exact info when you choose to reveal it
🟣 This entire solution can be implemented on Mina Protocol blockchain! 💪
💻 $MINA's zkApps enable efficient, scalable and verifiable computation powered by zkSNARKs
📍 Combined with zkLocus for geolocation proofs, we have all of the necessary components
🔗 The process leverages several ZKP building blocks:
⚙️ zkSNARKs for succinct, verifiable proofs
🌿 Merkle Trees for efficient data storage
🔐 Cyrptographic Commitments for data integrity
🛡️ The result is an e-commerce platform that respects end-user privacy without sacrificing functionality 🎉
❌ There is no need to trade personal data for convenience
🙌 ZKP, Mina Protocol blockchain and zkLocus enable us to have both!
👉 Learn more about Zero-Knowledge Proofs, their applications, and how they redefine privacy:
📍 zkLocus: https://zklocus.dev/
📖 Full article: https://illya.sh/blog/posts/privacy-is-a-myth-without-zero-knowledge-proofs/
💜 Let's build a Web3 future where privacy is the default, not an afterthought