Data Integrity Trust Model

Imagine you're sending two very important sealed letters through a courier service: one is a signed credential and the other is a signed DVR. You want to be absolutely certain that no one has tampered with these letters by the time they reach their destination. Welcome to zkPass, a service designed to act like that ultra-secure courier for your digital "letters."

In the world of zkPass, these letters go through a process similar to a high-tech, digital wax seal check—something called DSA verification. This ensures that your letters are exactly as you sent them, untampered and intact. Now, this seal check can happen in one of two rooms in zkPass's secure facility.

The Trusted Room

In the first room, the seal check happens separately from the main operation, which creates something known as a Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP). Think of this as zkPass first unsealing and reading your letters in a secure room, verifying they are legit, and then moving on to another task. This is what's called the Trusted Data Integrity model.

The All-in-One Room

In the second room, everything happens at once. The letters are unsealed, verified, and the ZKP is generated, all in one go. This is known as the Trustless Data Integrity model. It's like having a super-efficient clerk who can multitask like a pro.

Now, you might wonder, "Why not always use the All-in-One Room?" Well, the issue is that the seal-checking process is quite demanding. It's like asking the clerk to juggle too many tasks at once, and right now, the zkPass system can't handle that level of multitasking efficiently.

So, for the time being, zkPass recommends using the Trusted Room approach. It's not that it's the best option, but it's the most doable one right now, and it's still pretty secure. But keep an eye out! As zkPass gets better at juggling tasks, we might soon be able to use the All-in-One Room for even greater security.

In a nutshell, zkPass is currently taking a practical approach to keeping your data untampered, but it's always looking to step up its game.