Manta Network conducts record-breaking Trusted Setup ceremony, 4,000+ contribute

cointelegraph.com:

Manta Network has recently completed the largest trusted setup ceremony ever, with over 4,000 people participating, according to a press release provided to Cointelegraph. The setup was done in order to help create MantaPay, an app that intends to allow for private payments between individuals.

8/ 2022 also saw the launch of the world’s largest trusted setup on Polkadot by @MantaNetwork, spanning 177 countries with over 13,000 participants and counting.This technology is essential for building a better, more secure web that keeps sensitive information private.

According to the company, MantaPay will run on the PolkaDot parachain Manta Network, and on the Kusama parachain Calamari. It will use zero-knowledge-proofs (ZKPs) to ensure that only the sender and recipient of each payment will be able to view the payment.

Setting up a zero-knowledge-proofs system requires multiple parties to participate in a ceremony called a “trusted setup.” This process ensures that the shared secret upon which the system relies is eventually thrown away, removing the ability of an attacker to create fake proofs at any point in the future. The more people who participate in a trusted setup, the more secure the resulting system is.

MantaPay’s trusted setup was the largest ever recorded, with over 10,000 registrations and 4,328 contributions. The contributors came from a total of 177 countries, according to the team’s press release. The registration process first began on October 10, 2022, and the first contributions were made on November 28, 2022.

Polkadot Founder Gavin Wood expressed excitement at Manta Network's accomplishment. He argued that similar processes may pave the way towards decentralized web identity systems in the future, stating:

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