Is the approach analogous to one way hash? But with mathematical statements?

Given that they can’t be proven, so it’s effectively unpredictable and “un-generatable” ?

How is this not security through obscurity?

If math is STO then I would argue passwords are also STO.

It's only secure until someone figures it out.

> to create a powerful new tool in cryptography.

What is that new powerful tool in cryptography, then?

> He wanted to build zero-knowledge proofs that weren’t interactive. Thirty years earlier, Goldreich and Oren had established that such proofs are impossible.

I'm not sure what "interactive" means here, but I thought ZK-SNARKs were already non-interactive.

It seems the article has nothing to do with anything practical..

You are correct. I suspect Quanta just needed some sort of "math filler".

Typical of Quanta magazine