Ripple CTO David Schwartz sparks debate over proof of zero knowledge (ZK) and predicts that advances in cryptographic development could lead to major changes in blockchain space.
X users argued that private ledgers are technically impossible and are not part of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) functionality. Another X user responded with a 2019 tweet from Ripple CTO David Schwartz explaining the vision of an interconnected private ledger. “For example, imagine a group of 100 people who want a private ledger for low-cost transactions within a group. They can each run private ledgers on real XRP, but the cost of TXN is much lower.
Putting the resurrected thread, Schwartz shared new insights into recent developments, particularly how ZK Proof can bring life to this vision. “I’m not sure the use cases are here yet, but I think they will be there someday,” Schwartz added.
ZK Proof makes this more practical and secure, and is much closer to Layer 1 security and decentralization guarantees. I’m not sure the use cases are here yet, but I think they will be there someday.
– David ‘Joelkatz’ Schwartz (@Joelkatz) May 9, 2025
Zero Knowledge Proof (ZK Proof) is a cryptographic protocol that allows one party to prove a statement without revealing additional information, making it an effective tool for transactions that provide privacy on the blockchain. Schwartz’s comments suggest that ZK Proof can bridge the gap between private transaction systems and decentralized public chains.
ZK Proof: What’s coming?
In an April blog post entitled “Why I Support Privacy,” Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin showed that AI has significantly increased its centralized data collection and analysis capabilities, and significantly expanded the scope of voluntarily shared data.
Buterin proposed a solution based primarily on Zero Knowledge Proof (ZK Proof) to privacy concerns.
“In the digital realm, especially in the digital realm, there are more powerful tools to maintain privacy than Cypherpunkks in the 1990s imagine. A highly efficient Zero Knowledge Proof (ZK-SNARKS) can reveal enough information to prove that reliable, fully same-sex encryption (FHE) can prove enough information without providing data, without knowing it, without using data, without using data.