Using a zero-knowledge proof to prove knowledge that a website visitor is a legitimate human user

A method, comprising:

• receiving, from a first client network application, a first request for a network resource;
• determining that verification that the first request is initiated by a human user is to be performed;
• transmitting to the first client network application a second request to challenge that a human user initiated the first request;
• receiving, from the first client network application in response to the second request to challenge, a first zero-knowledge proof of a first attestation signature to attest that a human user has performed a physical interaction;
• verifying validity of the first zero-knowledge proof;
• and
• fulfilling the first request responsive to verifying validity of the first zero-knowledge proof.

A client device, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, when executed by the processor, will cause the client device to perform operations comprising:
• transmitting, from a client network application of the client device, a first request for a network resource to a server;
• receiving, from the server, a second request to challenge that the first request was initiated by a human user through verifying a physical interaction between the human user and a hardware component;
• causing a prompt to be displayed to perform the physical interaction with the hardware component;
• receiving a cryptographic attestation that includes an attestation signature that is generated after confirmation that the physical interaction was performed with the hardware component;
• generating a zero-knowledge proof of the attestation signature at the client device;
• transmitting, from the client network application to the server, the zero-knowledge proof of the attestation signature for verification;
• and
• receiving the network resource responsive to the server verifying the validity of the zero-knowledge proof of the attestation signature.