Pairing-based polynomial commitments and Kate polynomial commitments posted June 2021

There's this thing called a Kate polynomial commitment, which is a polynomial commitment primitive that makes use of pairings. There's an excellent post from Dankrad which I would recommend reading instead of this post. I wrote this as a shorter summary of how you can commit to a polynomial, and then prove any evaluation $f(x) = y$.

Here's how it works:

You have a polynomial $f(x) = x^2 + 3x$

and some public parameters:

$$ SRS = {[1], [s], [s^2], [s^3]} = {G, sG, s^2 G, s^3 G} $$

where $[x] := xG$ for some generator $G$ of an elliptic curve group.

and $s$ is a toxic waste (something that no one should know) hidden behind an elliptic curve point G (some people call that "hidden in the exponent").

to commit to $f$

To commit to this polynomial, evaluate it at the unknown point $s$. You can do that by playing with the $SRS$:

$$ [f(s)] := [s^2] + 3 [s] = s^2 G + 3 sG = (s^2 + 3s)G $$

to prove that $f(\zeta) = a$

One day, the verifier asks "what's the evaluation at $\zeta$?" And the prover responds by sending the answer, $a$, and a proof ($h(s)$, see below).

The idea behind the proof

Notice that because $\zeta$ is a root of $f(x)-f(\zeta)$, then for some polynomial $h(x)$:

$$ f(x) - f(\zeta) = (x-\zeta) \cdot h(x) $$

Due to this, $h(x) = \frac{f(x)-f(\zeta)}{x-\zeta}$ must be a valid polynomial.

At a high-level:

• the verifier will compute what they think $[h(x)]$ should be at some random point $s$
• the prover will send the actual value $[h(s)]$
• the verifier will check if they match

This works because the Schartz-Zippel lemma tells us that two polynomials that are different are different in most points.

The proof

Here's the protocol:

1. the prover sends the verifier a commitment $[\frac{f(s)-f(\zeta)}{s-\zeta}]=[h(s)]$ evaluated at some random point $s$ (the toxic waste).
2. the verifier constructs a similar $h(s)$ but with the expected value of $f(\zeta)$ instead: $[\frac{f(s) - a}{s-\zeta}]$. The prover then checks if it's equal to $[h(s)]$.

Note:

1. The prover can compute $[h(s)]$ easily, because they can just compute the polynomial $h(x)$ first, and then reconstruct it at $s$ with the $SRS$. $$ h(x) = \frac{f(x)-f(\zeta)}{x-\zeta} = a_0 + a_1x + a_2x^2 + \cdots $$ and then $$ [h(s)] := a_0[1] + a_1[s] + a_2[s^2] + \cdots $$

   for example with our previous $f(x)$ and $\zeta = 3$

   

2. The verifier cannot compute their own $[h(s)]$ because they cannot divide by $s$ (remember, nobody knows $s$). They need a pairing. Remember, you want to check the following identity hidden in the exponent (using commitments): $$ \frac{[f(s) - a]}{[s-\zeta]} = [h(s)] $$ But since you can't divide with commitments, you can't compute what's on the left-hand side. You can multiply thanks to pairings though. So instead, you could check the following equation: $$ [f(s) - a] = [(s-\zeta)h(s)] $$ and with pairings, you can multiply $[s-\zeta]$ with the proof $[h(s)]$: $$ e([f(s)] - [a], [1]) = e([s-\zeta], [h(s)]) $$