Are Hashed Timelock Contracts and Zero-Knowledge Contingent Payments the same thing?

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This answer to How is a node in the middle prohibited from keeping the money in a routed Payment in Lightning network? describes how a Hashed Timelock Contract would be used to exchange the "secret" for a payment. This sounds a lot like the Zero-Knowledge Contingent Payment described by Greg Maxwell.

Would I be correct in assuming that the HTLC would be implemented including a ZKCP?

Murch

Posted 2016-05-03T23:17:34.210

Reputation: 41 609

Answers

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Not really. Both use OP_CLTV, in order to recover from a situation where one side refuses to participate in the protocol, but other than that, they're pretty different.

ZKCP has a zero knowledge proof communicated outside of the blockchain. On the other hand, HTLC passes signed transactions back and forth to update a channel.

Nick ODell

Posted 2016-05-03T23:17:34.210

Reputation: 26 536

Asked: 2016-05-03T23:17:34.210

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Active: 2016-05-04T17:21:10.740