You've learned the building blocks: converting secrets into circuits, the commit-challenge-response dance, SNARKs with their trusted ceremonies, and STARKs with their transparency.

ZK proofs enable private transactions, anonymous identity verification, and confidential computation. You can prove you know a secret without revealing it, prove you belong to a group without revealing which member you are, and prove data is valid without showing the data itself.

Use cases include private voting, age verification without revealing your birthdate, proving you have sufficient funds without showing your balance, anonymous whistleblowing, confidential medical research, and private machine learning on encrypted data.