Ralph C. Merkle - 2024 Chicago Open

Question

Trees named for this cryptographer are used in distributed databases like Cassandra and Dynamo to facilitate anti-entropy repair. For 10 points each:

[10m] Name this cryptographer whose namesake trees consist of nodes labeled with hashes. With Damgård, this cryptographer names a “construction” for building hash functions from one-way compression functions.

ANSWER: Ralph C. Merkle [accept Merkle tree or Merkle–Damgård construction]

[10e] Merkle trees may be used in these proofs, which are often illustrated using examples such as the Ali Baba cave or color-blind friend. In these proofs, a Prover seeks to prove a statement to a Verifier without revealing any extra information.

ANSWER: zero-knowledge proofs [or ZKPs]

[10h] These proof protocols are used in cryptocurrencies like Zcash to validate transactions through a ZKP. Unlike a similarly-named “transparent” alternative, these proofs are commonly generated through circuit computations.

ANSWER: zk-SNARKs [or zero-knowledge Succinct Non-interactive ARguments of Knowledge; reject “STARKs” or “SNARGs”]

<DN, Other Science (Computer Science)>

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Data

Team	Opponent	Part 1	Part 2	Total
Are You There, Chat? It's Me, Margaret	Read slowly: A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A Read quickly: A	0	0	0
BHSU B	A Nervy Liberal Nanny Hence	10	10	20
Galvanized Square Steen and Eco-Friendly Wood Vermeer	AMOGH QUIZ HACK? 英雄联盟 400 PPG 24 TUH	0	0	0
I’ll take a quiet 10 / A handshake of CO (Chicago Open)	The Empire Bikes Back	10	10	20
LMM's LLM MLM	The Dyatlov Passement incident	10	10	20
Lying on a Mattress at Lou’s Apartment in Pilsen, Chicago	The Oldest Men in the World	0	10	10
Mindgoblin of Little Hobbes	when you look this good, you don’t have to know anything	10	10	20
NJTRANSit (and bobby, i guess)	Charlotte's Moderately Successful Team	10	10	20
SAYYID QUTB, DRIVING THE LONGEST CAR YOU’VE EVER SEEN THROUGH TAHRIR SQUARE	Berkeley Mafia and the Chicago Boy	0	10	10
The Jeam Team	NJTRANSit (and anwen, I guess)	0	0	0
There are buzzable clues everywhere for those with eyes to see	Lisan al-Quib	0	10	10
We Need New Names	sticking out your guyot for the ridge push; you're so seafloor spread, you're so fracture zone	0	10	10
genAI this, genAI that, have you found your 真爱 yet	First Cause, First Cause, make me young!	10	10	20
it's the great pumpkinification objection, charlie brown	Punished "Venom" BHSU	0	10	10
var merchants	Les Missourables	0	0	0

Summary

Tournament	Edition	Exact Match?	Heard	PPB	Easy %	Medium %	Hard %
2024 Chicago Open	07/28/2024	Y	15	11.33	73%	40%	0%