Zero knowledge with efficient provers

We prove that every problem in NP that has a zero-knowledge proof also has a zero-knowledge proof where the prover can be implemented in probabilistic polynomial time given an NP witness. Moreover, if the original proof system is statistical zero knowledge, so is the resulting efficient-prover proof system. An equivalence of zero knowledge and efficientprover zero knowledge was previously known only under the assumption that one-way functions exist (whereas our result is unconditional), and no such equivalence was known for statistical zero knowledge. Our results allow us to translate the many general results and characterizations known for zero knowledge with inefficient provers to zero knowledge with efficient provers. Categories and Subject Descriptors

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: STOC
• Authors: Minh-Huyen Nguyen, Salil P. Vadhan
• Keywords: Algorithms, Efficient-prover Proof System, Probabilistic Polynomial Time, Statistical Zero Knowledge, STOC 2006