zkTLS Technology Analysis: A New Direction for Data Bridge between Web3 and Web2

When looking for new project directions, I came across an emerging tech stack zkTLS. After research, I have organized my learning insights as follows, hoping to inspire everyone.

zkTLS is a new technology that combines zero-knowledge proof ( ZKP ) and the TLS ( transport layer security protocol ). In the Web3 field, it is mainly used in on-chain virtual machine environments and can verify the authenticity of off-chain HTTPS data without trusting third parties. The authenticity here includes three aspects: the data source indeed comes from a certain HTTPS resource, the returned data has not been tampered with, and the timeliness of the data is guaranteed. Through this cryptographic implementation mechanism, on-chain smart contracts gain the ability to access off-chain Web2 HTTPS resources trustfully, breaking the data island.

Overview of TLS Protocol

TLS( Transport Layer Security Protocol ) is used to provide encryption, authentication, and data integrity in network communications, ensuring the secure transmission of data between clients ( such as browsers ) and servers ( such as websites ). The HTTPS protocol is based on the HTTP protocol and uses the TLS protocol to ensure the privacy and integrity of information transmission, making the authenticity of the server verifiable.

The TLS protocol addresses the following issues:

1. Encrypted communication: Use symmetric encryption to protect data and prevent eavesdropping.
2. Identity Authentication: Verify the server identity through digital certificates issued by a third party to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.
3. Data Integrity: Use HMAC or AEAD to ensure that the data has not been tampered with.

The data exchange process of the TLS protocol is divided into the handshake phase and the data transmission phase. The handshake phase includes:

1. The client sends ClientHello
2. The server sends ServerHello
3. Client-side validation server
4. Start Encrypted Communication

Advantages of zkTLS

Traditional Oracle projects break data silos by acting as a bridge between on-chain data and off-chain data. However, this solution has two problems:

1. High cost: Requires a PoS consensus mechanism to ensure data authenticity, with high maintenance costs.
2. Low efficiency: PoS consensus takes time, resulting in delayed on-chain data.

The zkTLS technology introduces the ZKP zero-knowledge proof algorithm, allowing on-chain smart contracts to directly verify the authenticity of data provided by nodes, avoiding the high usage costs caused by consensus algorithms in traditional Oracles.

Specifically, zkTLS uses cryptographic protection to replace the high costs of traditional Oracle-based consensus mechanisms for data availability. It introduces ZKP to compute and generate proofs for requests for HTTPS resources, CA certificate verification information, timestamp proofs, and data integrity proofs made by off-chain relay nodes, and maintains the necessary verification information and algorithms on-chain, allowing smart contracts to verify the authenticity, timeliness, and reliability of data sources without exposing critical information.

Application Prospects of zkTLS

The biggest advantage of zkTLS technology is that it reduces the cost of achieving availability for Web2 HTTPS resources, which has stimulated many new demands:

• Reduce the on-chain price acquisition cost of long-tail assets
• Use authoritative Web2 websites for on-chain KYC, optimize DID
• Improve the technical architecture design of Web3 games

In the face of the impact of zkTLS, existing oracle projects such as Chainlink and Pyth are actively researching related directions in an attempt to maintain their leading position in the industry. At the same time, new business models are also emerging, such as the transition from time-based charging to usage-based charging, and Compute as a Service.

The main challenge facing zkTLS currently is how to reduce computational costs to make it commercially viable. This is also a common problem for most ZK projects.

In summary, during product design, attention can be paid to the development trends of zkTLS, and this technology stack can be integrated in appropriate aspects, which may lead to new directions in business innovation and technological architecture.