Zero Knowledge in the Cave

[Tim May]

On Thursday, May 15, 2003, at 12:31  AM, Patrick wrote:

>>
>> I recall reading a very similar explanation of ZK interactive proofs,
>> using "zero knowledge in the cave," many years ago. By one of the
>> founders of the field
>>
>> I haven't searched for it to compare his (or hers, though I don't
>> recall it as an article by Shafi G.) words to yours, but you should
>> have given credit to using the "zero knowledge in the cave" version of
>> ZKIPS.
>>
>>
>> --Tim May
>
> 	I've seen the cave example in at least several places. Most of
> them make this reference:
>
> [QG90]
> J.J. Quisquater and L. Guillou, How to explain zero-knowledge protocols
> to your children, Advances in Cryptology - Crypto '89, Springer-Verlag
> (1990), 628-631.

Yes, this is where I first saw it.

I don't know if "Nomen Nescio" added any twists, so to speak, to the 
cave example, but he should not have paraphrased the cave example 
without some credit. (When I give my explanation of ZKIPS in terms of 
Hamiltonian cycles, which I certainly did not invent, I give enough 
informal comments to make it clear that this was not some invention on 
my part.)




--Tim May
"Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and
strangled with her panty hose,  is somehow morally superior to a woman 
explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound"