[miohtama]

It is incorrect to say nothing has happened during the last 10 years. Zero-knowledge proofs, as discussed in the potential research collaboration between Ethereum Foundation and LibreOffice, are more recent. The most useful, or compact, zero-knowledge proof systems have been created during the last few years. This can be partially contributed to the blockchain research.

You can more about the history of zero knowledge in this Wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_proof#Zero-Know...

[pclmulqdq]

Zero-knowledge proofs do not need a blockchain. They are "old crypto" (cryptography, not cryptocurrency) and actually predate blockchains by several decades.

[piva00]

Sensible, I'm gonna wait for real applications of ZKPs though, it's an interesting piece of technology, just like a decentralised ledger. When it gets applied I can form a better opinion if it was worth the US$ billions poured into blockchains that enabled more research of it :)