Explore Merkle root proofs with the Noir lang
From within MerkleTree run the following:
nargo check
This will generate Prover.toml and Verifier.toml, The input/output files.
Add the appropriate values to Prover.toml for the inputs and run:
nargo prove p
This will have generated proofs/p.proof and updated Verifier.toml
We can now run:
nargo verify p
This will verify the proof. Notice the argument p here is the same as the name
given when generating the proof in the previous step. We are able to generate
multiple proofs (stored in the proofs dirrectory) by updating the values in
Prover.toml and calling the nargo prove <new proof name>. However, the output of
the most recent proof will overwrite the preivous in Verifier.toml.
If the proof is verified, there will be no notice, while an error is produced if it fails.
We will use four addresses as data while creating a new merkle root.
- 0xdAC17F958D2ee523a2206206994597C13D831ec7
- 0xA0b86991c6218b36c1d19D4a2e9Eb0cE3606eB48
- 0x6B175474E89094C44Da98b954EedeAC495271d0F
- 0xB8c77482e45F1F44dE1745F52C74426C631bDD52
As we walk through the tree(bottom up), these addresses will be hashed into leaves, and then two leaves will be hashed into an intermediary node. The two nodes will then be hashed into the root value. While some merkle tree implementations hash the concatination of two values, we will use an available hash method that accepts two inputs and not worry about under the hood details.
ROOT: 0x289975d2db0b11a41e68d044249299ef957d2742cac18aa788ffcf54e8a5dbca
Node 2: 0x091694ea829fdeffbd3d2fd7c5bc449f8f8ddf8024a74dbb28cd144438f68ee6
Leaf 1: 0x261c233b8780d005788a19f55647ae1c28ae3faaaf0c9114b95f6287b2cd2b4e
As the owner of, or user with knowledge of the second address(shown as data2 in the above graphic), we will require a hash path with leaf 2 and intermediary node 2 to prove our inclusion.
The following steps will be followed for validation:
- Hash our address (data 2) to create leaf 2
- Hash leaf 2 w/ leaf 1 to produce node 1
- Hash node 1 w/ node 2
If the outcome of our final hash matches the provided root, our membership has been proven.
Note:
At no time are we made aware of the other three data points. Only their hashed values, which are typically obscured via the use of a one way hash function.