Succinct Non Interactive Arguments of Knowledge
Succinct non interactive arguments of knowledge, or SNARKs, are a type of zero knowledge proof that is compact and does not require interaction between the prover and the verifier. The succinctness refers to the fact that the proof is very small and can be verified extremely quickly, regardless of the complexity of the original computation.
This is a major breakthrough for blockchain scalability, as it allows the network to verify large amounts of data without needing to re-execute every transaction. In financial derivatives, SNARKs enable private order books and confidential settlement, ensuring that trade details are hidden while the validity of the trade is guaranteed.
They are essential for building privacy-preserving layer-two solutions that can process high volumes of transactions. Because they do not require a back-and-forth communication between parties, they are highly efficient for asynchronous blockchain environments.
They represent the state of the art in verifiable computing.