04 — Trusted setup · Failure mode

Running a ceremony you did not need

Substantial cost, schedule risk and a permanent trust assumption are taken on because the proof system was chosen without regard to its setup requirement, or because a ceremony was assumed to be a prerequisite for credibility.

By MarketComp Updated 2026-09-12 v1.3 About the authors Changelog

Mitigation

Settle the setup question as part of §01, not afterwards. If a setup-free system meets the constraints, the entire workstream and its residual risk disappear.

Cite this page

MarketComp (2026). Running a ceremony you did not need. The ZK Field Manual (Version 1.3). MarketComp. https://zkpick.com/ceremony/failure-modes/running-a-ceremony-you-did-not-need/

@misc{zkfieldmanual-running-a-ceremony-you-did-not-need,
  title        = {Running a ceremony you did not need — The ZK Field Manual},
  author       = {MarketComp},
  year         = {2026},
  version      = {1.3},
  howpublished = {\url{https://zkpick.com/ceremony/failure-modes/running-a-ceremony-you-did-not-need/}},
  note         = {Accessed: YYYY-MM-DD}
}