From a paper called ‘How to Explain Zero-Knowledge Protocols to Your Children’ by Quisquater Jean-Jaques, Myriam, Muriel, Michael Guillou Louis, Marie Annick, Gaid, Anna, Gwenole, Soazig and Tom Berson (for tranlsating to English!)


Here’s a dilemma: If you possess some extremely valuable information, and wish the world would acknowledge it without you having to reveal any information about it to them, how can you do it? Ofcourse, you would need to give the audience some assertion for them to believe you. And you would have to ensure that you don’t reveal anything more than ‘I know what I know!’.

Hint: Remember “Khul jaa sim sim (the magic words)” from Ali baba and the 40 thieves? The answer lies there.