ZmnSCPxj [ARCHIVE] on Nostr: 📅 Original date posted:2021-12-16 📝 Original message: Good morning Bastien, > * ...
📅 Original date posted:2021-12-16
📝 Original message:
Good morning Bastien,
> * it's impossible for a node to prove that it did *not* receive a message: you can prove knowledge,
> but proving lack of knowledge is much harder (impossible?)
Yes, it is impossible.
If there could exist a proof-of-lack-of-knowledge, then even if I personally knew some fact, I could simply run a virtual machine that knows everything I know *except* for that piece of knowledge, and generate the proof-of-lack-of-knowledge there.
This leads to a contradiction, as I myself *actually* know the fact, but I can present the proof-of-lack-of-knowledge by pretending to be somebody ignorant.
Regards,
ZmnSCPxj (I definitely do not know that I am an AI)
📝 Original message:
Good morning Bastien,
> * it's impossible for a node to prove that it did *not* receive a message: you can prove knowledge,
> but proving lack of knowledge is much harder (impossible?)
Yes, it is impossible.
If there could exist a proof-of-lack-of-knowledge, then even if I personally knew some fact, I could simply run a virtual machine that knows everything I know *except* for that piece of knowledge, and generate the proof-of-lack-of-knowledge there.
This leads to a contradiction, as I myself *actually* know the fact, but I can present the proof-of-lack-of-knowledge by pretending to be somebody ignorant.
Regards,
ZmnSCPxj (I definitely do not know that I am an AI)