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"The Ali Baba cave" example of ZKP is pictured below. There is no need for a probabilistic ZKP protocol to prove to the verifier of the statement (that the prover has the key to the door). It can be proved deterministically without the prover revealing any knowledge/information.

Assume that both the verifier and prover are both initially positioned at one side of the door. The verifier first walks back to the entrance. The prover opens the door and walks to the entrance to meet the verifier using the opposite route that the verifier took. Hence the prover proves to the verifier deterministically, without the need for repeated experiments. enter image description here

Anon
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2 Answers2

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Yes, in cave example, it is possible to prove with a deterministic protocol. Why do people use a probabilistic proof in the cave example? Because that follows more closely to how most computational zero knowledge proofs work. Most computational zero knowledge proofs are probabilistic, and this is intended to be an analogy that helps you understand computational zero knowledge proofs. For computational zero knowledge proofs, it's usually not so easy to make a deterministic proof; often it's easier to find a probabilistic proof. The cave example is only an example intended to help give you some intuition that will be helpful to you when you study computational zero knowledge proofs, so don't worry too much about the details.

D.W.
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The example proves something stronger. Alice proves to Bob that she knows the secret word, but she actually only proves it to Bob. This is the reason, as in your illustration, Bob is initially waiting outside the cave.

Suppose that Bob was equipped with a camera and that Bob followed her to the entrance. Then he would have proof (on camera) that she knows the secret word.

But in the situation you have, even if Bob records the entire process, no-one would be convinced that Alice knows the secret word; Alice and Bob could have agreed on the order beforehand.

(Of course, he could still prove it for the world if he recorded the coin flips, what do I know ...)

Ainsley H.
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