15 - Verification
from Part III - Scope Of Complexity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 October 2026
Summary
This chapter covers a complexity-theoretic perspective on software verification: An efficient verifier wants to be convinced that some computation’s output is correct, given information by a more powerful prover. Interaction (back-and-forth communication between prover and verifier) is surprisingly effective at convincing a verifier with much less computational resources than would be needed without the prover’s help. This is applicable when someone delegates an intensive computation to an untrusted cloud computing service and wants to be convinced the computation was performed correctly. The chapter concludes with the surprising power of zero-knowledge proofs, in which the prover convinces the verifier without revealing any further information.
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- Complexity in Computer Science , pp. 544 - 576Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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