04 — Trusted setup · Failure mode

Unverified contributions in the chain

The final parameters verify, but individual contributions were never checked against their predecessors. A contribution that was malformed or replayed silently reduces the honest-participant count.

Mitigation

Verify each contribution on receipt and re-verify the full chain before publication. Publish the verification output alongside the transcript.

Cite this page
MarketComp (2026). Unverified contributions in the chain. The ZK Field Manual (Version 1.3). MarketComp. https://zkpick.com/ceremony/failure-modes/unverified-contributions-in-the-chain/
@misc{zkfieldmanual-unverified-contributions-in-the-chain,
  title        = {Unverified contributions in the chain — The ZK Field Manual},
  author       = {MarketComp},
  year         = {2026},
  version      = {1.3},
  howpublished = {\url{https://zkpick.com/ceremony/failure-modes/unverified-contributions-in-the-chain/}},
  note         = {Accessed: YYYY-MM-DD}
}