Max

PIPEs v2 turns spend conditions into key-recovery conditions, letting Bitcoin enforce proof-gated authorization through ordinary Schnorr signatures and extraordinary off-chain cryptography.

Services no longer need to see data to compute on it. Cryptographic and hardware primitives make that contract a deployed reality.

From Bitcoin CoinJoin to zero-knowledge proofs, every serious approach to financial privacy bets on a different crowd to disappear into.

Zero-knowledge proofs enable verification without disclosure. SNARKs, STARKs, and Bulletproofs make different tradeoffs. Deployed in Zcash and rollups; broader adoption developing.

Zero-knowledge proofs let Nostr users prove they're trusted without revealing their identity, enabling anonymous rate-limiting and reputation-gated relay access.

Nostr relays see everything - who connects, what they fetch, how often they post. Zero-knowledge cryptography can fix all three problems: Semaphore-based authentication hides which whitelisted user is connecting, private information retrieval hides which notes you're fetching, and Privacy Pass enables rate limiting without identity linkage.

NIP-17 promises deniable messaging with its three-layer design: an unsigned "rumor," a signed "seal," and an ephemeral "gift wrap." However, this setup has a hidden vulnerability. The signed seal allows recipients to prove that a message was sent by the claimed author, even without revealing the content. This creates a perfect scenario for gossip attacks, where the mere proof of communication can damage reputations. As we explore NIP-17, we find that the rumor, despite being unsigned, is not as deniable as it seems, making it a potential risk for exposure.