Zero-knowledge constructs in the context of system security and the public blockchains

This thesis is intended to explore the possible applications of ZK constructs in the context of system security and/or public blockchains. ZK constructs are used to provide public verification of the correctness of a certain computation or operation without revealing any private data related to the computation/operation. In this way, it is possible to implement, for example, public voting or auction protocols that preserve the privacy of data publicly produced by distributed participants. The most common ZK constructs are often instantiated by schemes that provide homomorphic encryption, such as ElGammal encryption or integer arithmetic fields over modulo N. However, the feasibility of these constructs in the domain of the public blockchain may vary due to possible high costs, or security aspects. The goal of this thesis is to analyze and quantify these existing options and implement the most meaningful (and novel) applications in the system security and or decentralized blockchains.