What is OZKi?

OZKi (Open Zero Knowledge Integration) is a zk-SNARK based proof framework for developing privacy protecting components of a web application using verifiable computation as its underlying technology.

The online book is still a work in progress. The contents are currently about three-quarters complete.

OZKi is a MICS Capstone Project focused on users' privacy protection. At the highest view, it aims to help web developers to protect the privacy of web users. The main problem OZKi is trying to mitigate is the ubiquitous PII leak problems.

OZKi has two main components: the OZKi Toolkit and OZKi Oracle service, which together provide a secure end-to-end proving system. OZKi is based on the Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP), which is used primarily in the blockchains and Web3 ecosystems. However, OZKi is specifically designed to help Web2 developers to implement privacy-protecting software components with minimal effort and without requiring the need to use a blockchain. In addition to lowering the bar to access the ZKP technologies, the OZKi framework also brings in real-world external data through the oracle, securely protects the input to proving function, and mitigates the proof replay attacks. OZKi toolkit defines the ProofGenerator and the ProofVerifier typescript classes that webapp developers can use to generate a zk-snark proof on the client running in a browser or nodejs, and to verify the proof on the service side. OZKi enables the concept of ID-less server design in which the traditional sign-in process is replaced with proof-based authorization flows such that the server does not use or store any PII on its end. The OZKi BOT demo app shows how one can implement proof-based authorization flows such as Proof-of-Payment with PayPal and Proof-of-Login with Google. With the proof of payment flow, the server can reliably verify if the user is a paid customer without knowing anything about the user. With the proof of login flow, the server can determine if the user's email login matches a particular domain without knowing the email address itself. In both scenarios, the user's PII is never sent to the server and is thus wholly protected.

OZKi uses Polygon Iden3's circom language and compiler toolsets for writing the proof functions.

Please see this page for the latest status of the project.