What is a trusted setup ceremony?

A trusted setup ceremony creates the public parameters that some zero-knowledge proof systems need. Each participant adds secret randomness and destroys it, and the result is safe as long as at least one participant was honest.

Also called setup ceremony or Powers of Tau.

Why it is needed

Proof systems such as Groth16 and PLONK check proofs against shared parameters. Whoever knew all the secret randomness used to create those parameters could forge proofs. A ceremony splits that randomness across many people, so nobody ever holds all of it.

Why more participants make it safer

Every contribution builds on the previous one, and the final parameters are only compromised if every single participant kept their secret. One honest participant is enough. Public transcripts let anyone verify that each contribution was included correctly.

In Redacted

Redacted’s parameters are created by a community ceremony before launch. You contribute in a browser or a terminal, a contribution contains no wallet keys and no personal data, and the ceremony touches the parameters only, never funds. When it closes the transcript will be published, so anyone can compare the verification key byte for byte with what the contracts check against.

The Redacted ceremony →

Related terms

zk-SNARKA zk-SNARK is a zero-knowledge proof that is small, quick to verify and needs only one message from the prover, which is why blockchains can check them inside a smart contract.Zero-knowledge proofA zero-knowledge proof lets someone prove that a statement is true without revealing anything else, for example that they own funds and may spend them, without showing which funds or who they are.

Sources: How do trusted setups work?, Vitalik Buterin

Updated October 7, 2026. All terms