Lower bounds for non-black-box zero knowledge

Abstract

We show new lower bounds and impossibility results for general (possibly non-black-box) zero-knowledge proofs and arguments. Our main results are that, under reasonable complexity assumptions: 1. There does not exist a constant-round zero-knowledge strong proof (or argument) of knowledge (as defined by Goldreich, 2001) for a nontrivial language; 2. There does not exist a two-round zero-knowledge proof system with perfect completeness for an NP-complete language; 3. There does not exist a constant-round public-coin proof system for a nontrivial language that is resettable zero knowledge. This result also extends to bounded resettable zero knowledge. In contrast, we show that under reasonable assumptions, there does exist such a (computationally sound) argument system that is bounded-resettable zero knowledge.