Decentralized storage and zkSNARKS - Golem joins the Filecoin trusted setup ceremony
Some time ago, near Christmas time, we joined the Filecoin ceremony. Why do we do this? Because we think that decentralized storage is a key part of our future, and of the internet of the future - as well as decentralized compute, such as the one we build here at Golem.
It is worth noting, that the Ceremony’s attestation was signed with the company’s public key - you can verify it with our website. Golem, as a company, has decided to act as a public trusted party within the Filecoin trusted setup, which at this stage, generates parameters for general SNARKS usage.
What is the ceremony about? it generates setup parameters for zkSNARKS. By participating the users increase the trust in the network. If at least one person (or one Golem in this case), that takes part in this ceremony is trusted, we can trust the whole setup.
The Filecoin ceremony marks the launch of the project’s testnet - Filecoin uses zkSNARKS and these, in the context of the Filecoin Setup Ceremony require proofing from independent users within the network. Golem has already participated in the first phase, named The Powers of Tau, generating parameters that can be used for SNARKS (not only for Filecoin).
TLDR: every participant of this ceremony makes the network more trustworthy
But… trusted? What does “trusted” mean in this context?
Quoting the Filecoin blogpost:
"The Powers of Tau ceremony proceeds in turns, one turn for each participant… The result of each computation is then added to a public transcript, so that the entire protocol can be publicly verified. As long as one participant successfully destroys their randomness when they’re finished, the resulting parameters are secure. As more and more participants are added, it becomes unlikely that an adversary could have compromised everyone. This is especially true as participants have enormous flexibility in the counter-measures they employ."
You can see our PR here → https://github.com/arielgabizon/perpetualpowersoftau/pull/15
In conclusion, Golem considers Filecoin an ally in the mission towards a fairer, user-controlled web, decentralization is the means to this end. We wish this project the best and we encourage the community to contribute to events such as this Ceremony. “Dogfooding” - aka using and testing our own tools and protocols - is key for building better tools and protocols.