{
  "type": "failure-mode",
  "name": "A transparent system that quietly reintroduces a setup",
  "slug": "a-transparent-system-that-quietly-reintroduces-a-setup",
  "section": {
    "id": "ceremony",
    "number": "04",
    "title": "Running or reusing a trusted setup",
    "url": "https://zkpick.com/ceremony/"
  },
  "url": "https://zkpick.com/ceremony/failure-modes/a-transparent-system-that-quietly-reintroduces-a-setup/",
  "markdown": "https://zkpick.com/md/ceremony/failure-modes/a-transparent-system-that-quietly-reintroduces-a-setup.md",
  "detail": "The team selects a setup-free proving system and announces that no trusted setup is needed — and then, to make on-chain verification affordable, wraps the final proof in a pairing-based SNARK. That wrapper circuit has its own trusted setup, so the system does depend on one after all, often on parameters inherited from a ceremony nobody on the team examined.",
  "mitigation": "Trace the trust assumption all the way to what the chain actually verifies. If a wrapper is used, its parameters are in scope: name their provenance, verify that transcript, and describe the assumption in user-facing documentation rather than claiming the system is setup-free.",
  "relatedOptions": [],
  "updated": "2026-09-12",
  "version": "1.3",
  "canonical": "https://zkpick.com/ceremony/failure-modes/a-transparent-system-that-quietly-reintroduces-a-setup/",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "authors": [
    "MarketComp"
  ]
}