{"id":1149935,"date":"2025-09-16T15:35:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T22:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-research-item&p=1149935"},"modified":"2025-09-16T15:35:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T22:35:18","slug":"beyond-the-circuit-how-to-minimize-foreign-arithmetic-in-zkp-circuits","status":"publish","type":"msr-research-item","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/publication\/beyond-the-circuit-how-to-minimize-foreign-arithmetic-in-zkp-circuits\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the circuit: How to Minimize Foreign Arithmetic in ZKP Circuits"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fundamental challenge in zero-knowledge proof systems is implementing operations that are \u201cforeign\u201d to the underlying constraint system, in that they are arithmetic operations with a different modulus than the one used by the proof system. The modulus of the constraint system is a large prime, and common examples of foreign operations are Boolean operations, field arithmetic, or public-key cryptography operations. We present novel techniques for efficiently embedding such foreign arithmetic in zero-knowledge, including (i) equality of discrete logarithms across different groups; (ii) scalar multiplication without requiring elliptic curve operations; (iii) proving knowledge of an AES encryption. Our approach combines rejection sampling, sigma protocols, and lookup protocols. We implement and provide concrete benchmarks for our protocols.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fundamental challenge in zero-knowledge proof systems is implementing operations that are \u201cforeign\u201d to the underlying constraint system, in that they are arithmetic operations with a different modulus than the one used by the proof system. The modulus of the constraint system is a large prime, and common examples of foreign operations are Boolean operations, 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