Ernst & Young introduced its unique zero-knowledge proof privacy solution that is aimed at reducing barriers to blockchain adoption.
Mainstream adoption of blockchain is on its way. The big four accounting firms have never poured so many resources into blockchain technology before but now the application of the emerging technology has become one of the priorities for them.
EY’s Commitment
As it has become known, Ernst & Young (EY), a London-based “Big Four” professional services firm, launched its own prototype of a system that is aimed at providing a possibility to carry out secure and private transactions on the Ethereum public network – EY Ops Chain Public Edition (PE) prototype.
According to the announcement, it is “the world’s first implementation of zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology on the public Ethereum blockchain”. The technology is considered to be a unique one due to its capacity to enable businesses to securely issue and trade product and service tokens on a public blockchain, while their transaction records will be hidden from public access.
Peculiarities of Zero-Knowledge Proofs
The new platform is a product of throughout research and hard work of the EY blockchain labs in London and Paris. Its main special feature is using a zero-knowledge proof technology that allows to verify the knowledge of a secret information without revealing a secret itself.
So, the consensus algorithm stays intact just like it happens in the situation with such coins as Zcash, for example. Such an approach helps to increase privacy and security for participants of a network.
Commenting their innovation, Paul Brody, EY Global Innovation Leader, Blockchain, said:
“Private blockchains give enterprises transaction privacy, but at the expense of reduced security and resiliency. With zero-knowledge proofs, organizations can transact on the same network as their competition in complete privacy and without giving up the security of the public Ethereum blockchain.”
As it has been revealed, this new EY’s solution is able to support both payment tokens and unique product and services tokens that have similar features as the ERC-20 and ERC-721 Ethereum tokens.
EY’s Blockchain Initiatives
The latest EY’s solution is not the first firm’s initiative aimed at promoting blockchain adoption. In April 2017, it launched its EY Ops Chain which represents itself an entire range of applications and services. The main aim of these apps and services is to encourage business to find the ways to commercialize the use of blockchain technology across various sectors of the economy.
Brody explained the current situation with blockchain adoption the following way:
“The biggest challenge for enterprises’ blockchain adoption is the ability to on-board business partners into their private or consortium blockchain network. Using the standard, secure infrastructure of a public blockchain while keeping their transactions private, businesses greatly reduce the expensive and time consuming process of setting up private networks and on-boarding business partners one at a time.”
Moreover, to offer blockchain participants more opportunities to track their records, the privacy-focused EY Ops Chain PE solution will provide them with access to their transaction history with the help of the EY Blockchain Private Transaction Monitor solution. A production offering of the new solutions is planned for 2019.
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