According to World Bank data, an estimated one billion individuals worldwide lack official identification credentials.
Zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs in decentralized identity applications have sparked a debate in the crypto industry — with some arguing that ZK is too expensive and complex to implement.
Leo Fan, co-founder of ZK hardware company Cysic, says that while ZK-proofs have been expensive historically, they are still more cost-efficient than legacy ID systems run by centralized institutions.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, the co-founder explained that advancements in hardware and more efficient proof generation have substantially reduced costs and finality time for ZK-proofs, which were already less costly than traditional identification systems requiring sprawling bureaucracies and potentially billions of dollars to operate. Fan stated:
