ZKFDT: A Fair Exchange Scheme for Data Trading Based on Efficient Zero-Knowledge Proofs

In zero-trust environments, fair exchange schemes have long faced challenges of low efficiency and high computational overhead when verifying the integrity of large-scale data. To address these issues, this paper proposes ZKFDT, an efficient data fair exchange scheme based on optimized zero-knowledge proof algorithms, offering improvements in efficiency, fairness, and security. In terms of efficiency, ZKFDT leverages IPFS’s hash-based addressing mechanism to significantly reduce network communication overhead compared to traditional data transmission methods, while also optimizing the multi-scalar multiplication algorithm, improving proof generation efficiency by 2x. Regarding security, ZKFDT adopts the more secure ABR23 protocol, addressing the malleability attack vulnerabilities of Groth16 while maintaining its low communication overhead. Through the implementation of smart contracts, including proof verification, atomic swaps, and time-lock functionality, ZKFDT ensures fairness and immutability in data transactions. Experimental results show that ZKFDT demonstrates high efficiency and practical feasibility in large-scale data transaction applications.