{
  "type": "failure-mode",
  "name": "Forgetting that a universal SRS is updatable by you",
  "slug": "forgetting-that-a-universal-srs-is-updatable-by-you",
  "section": {
    "id": "ceremony",
    "number": "04",
    "title": "Running or reusing a trusted setup",
    "url": "https://zkpick.com/ceremony/"
  },
  "url": "https://zkpick.com/ceremony/failure-modes/forgetting-that-a-universal-srs-is-updatable-by-you/",
  "markdown": "https://zkpick.com/md/ceremony/failure-modes/forgetting-that-a-universal-srs-is-updatable-by-you.md",
  "detail": "A public universal SRS is adopted as a fixed artefact, when its defining property is that anyone may re-randomise it. A team that contributes nothing is trusting that at least one of the existing participants was honest; a team that adds one contribution of its own puts itself inside the 1-of-N set, which is cheap and materially strengthens the claim it can make to its users.",
  "mitigation": "Consider adding your own contribution on top of the adopted SRS. Weigh it against the cost: an updated SRS is no longer byte-identical to the widely mirrored artefact, so you take on publishing and verification duties that reuse would otherwise have avoided.",
  "relatedOptions": [
    {
      "name": "Avoid the setup entirely: transparent proof systems",
      "url": "https://zkpick.com/ceremony/transparent-proof-systems/"
    }
  ],
  "updated": "2026-09-12",
  "version": "1.3",
  "canonical": "https://zkpick.com/ceremony/failure-modes/forgetting-that-a-universal-srs-is-updatable-by-you/",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "authors": [
    "MarketComp"
  ]
}