blog: what "publicly verifiable" means for zkTLS - #62
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New post explaining that a zkTLS proof is a designated-verifier attestation, not trustless math: "publicly verifiable" means verifiable by anyone who trusts the verifier that witnessed the session. Covers why an in-session witness is unavoidable, the verifier vs. notary vs. attestation-verifier distinction, where zero-knowledge does and does not help, and how to minimize the trust you take on. Includes three light/dark diagrams (self-verify, delegated verifier, and a new witness-needed contrast) authored in draw.io and exported via convert_all.sh.
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Deleted my prev comment to suggest cleaner terminology.
The description could be changed to something like "A zkTLS proof is a non-transferable claim meaningful only to the party who witnessed the TLS connection. The witnessing party can make the claim transferable and publicly verifiable by issuing an attestation. Here we explore why a witnessing party in unavoidable" |
Address PR feedback by stating explicitly that an in-session proof convinces only the witness, while signing it into an attestation is what makes the claim portable. Keeps the colloquial "zkTLS proof" wording rather than renaming the concept.
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Summary
New blog post: "Zero-knowledge ≠ trustless: what "publicly verifiable" means for zkTLS."
A zkTLS proof isn't trustless math anyone can check; it's a designated-verifier attestation, so "publicly verifiable" means verifiable by anyone who trusts the verifier that witnessed the session. The post covers why an in-session witness is unavoidable, the verifier vs. notary vs. attestation-verifier distinction, where zero-knowledge does and doesn't help, and how to minimize the trust you take on.
Notes
self_verify,delegated_verifier, and the newwitness_needed) will be polished once we've agreed on the text.docusaurus build— recommend a local preview to confirm figures render in both themes.