---
title: "A participant set that cannot bear scrutiny"
description: "Contributors are all employees, investors or close partners of the project. The 1-of-N assumption is formally satisfied and practically worthless, because a…"
type: "failure-mode"
url: "https://zkpick.com/ceremony/failure-modes/a-participant-set-that-cannot-bear-scrutiny/"
section: "04 Running or reusing a trusted setup"
authors:
  - "MarketComp"
publisher: "MarketComp"
version: "1.3"
updated: "2026-09-12"
license: "CC-BY-4.0"
json: "https://zkpick.com/data/ceremony/failure-modes/a-participant-set-that-cannot-bear-scrutiny.json"
---

*By MarketComp. Updated 2026-09-12. Version 1.3. CC BY 4.0.*

# A participant set that cannot bear scrutiny

Contributors are all employees, investors or close partners of the project. The 1-of-N assumption is formally satisfied and practically worthless, because a single organisation could have controlled every contribution.

**Mitigation:** Recruit adversarially: parties with no stake, competitors, independent researchers, other jurisdictions. Publish affiliations so readers can judge independence for themselves.