In this paper, Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali, and Charles Rackoffero introduced zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs).

ZKPs are a cryptographic technique that allows one party (a prover) to show another party (a verifier) that some computation is correct without revealing any information except the veracity of the statement. ZKPs provide the ability to prove the integrity of data — without revealing any underlying details about the data itself.

Goldwasser, Micali, and Goldwasser created an efficient interactive proof system: a process in which a prover probabilistically convinces a verifier of the correctness of a mathematical proposition.

In 2012, Goldwasser and Micali received the A.M. Turing Award “for transformative work that laid the complexity-theoretic foundations for the science of cryptography.”

A preliminary version of the paper appeared in 1986, and was published in revised form in 1989.