This project will develop a policy brief that spells out the importance of encryption for preserving rights to expression and association, arguing that zero knowledge proofs can provide a valuable path forward for regulatory compliance that simultaneously preserves the privacy of individual network users.

This is a joint effort between Eric Alston (CU Boulder) and Sofia Cossar (BlockchainGov) each of whom has published academically on blockchain governance (among other areas). While ZKPs have considerable applications in blockchain contexts, their value is not limited to blockchain networks, such that the project is likely to have beneficial scope beyond blockchain-specific applications, which the brief and ultimate article will naturally cover.

Given sufficient traction, the authors intend to turn this brief into a full-fledged law review article, with presentations at academic conferences and discussions with European and U.S. regulators.