zk-SNARK Concepts Explained Like You’re 15
Demystifying SNARK Jargon
For the last few months I’ve been studying zk-SNARK material and I recall what it felt like to hear many of the terms used by the zk-SNARK researchers before I learned what they meant.
Well, you see, first you need to FRI the PLONK system such that it is an R1CS…
I’ve decided to write an ELI15 for zk-SNARK jargon since I’ve yet to come across something similar during my studies. Note the 1 (ELI15). I’m going to assume some basic understanding of cryptography (hashing, Merkle trees, etc), polynomials, and computer science in my explanations.
This post is written for my own benefit. After all,
If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself. — Albert Einstein
I hope to stake a claim in the ground such that others will correct any misunderstanding that I may have about the subject. However, my hope is that this post is also beneficial to others. For these reasons, the post will be made publicly available.
Note that the intended audience for this post is someone who has no familiarity with zk-SNARKs, so many of the definitions will be mathematically imprecise (see the Finite Field definition below for example).
