Abstract:
Blockchain technology has revolutionized decentralized systems by enabling trustless transactions through smart contracts. However, privacy concerns remain a major barrier to widespread adoption, as transactional data and contract logic are often publicly accessible on the blockchain. This study explores advanced cryptographic techniques designed to enhance privacy within smart contracts, including zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), homomorphic encryption, ring signatures, and secure multi-party computation (SMPC). We analyze how these methods can protect sensitive data while maintaining the integrity, transparency, and verifiability of blockchain operations. A comparative evaluation is presented to highlight trade-offs between computational efficiency, scalability, and privacy guarantees. The results indicate that integrating advanced cryptographic primitives into smart contract design significantly improves privacy without compromising the decentralized trust model, paving the way for secure, confidential, and privacy-preserving blockchain applications across finance, healthcare, and supply chain domains.
