From extractable collision resistance to succinct non-interactive arguments of knowledge, and back again

The existence of succinct non-interactive arguments for NP (i.e., non-interactive computationally-sound proofs where the verifier's work is essentially independent of the complexity of the NP nondeterministic verifier) has been an intriguing question for the past two decades. Other than CS proofs in the random oracle model Micali, FOCS '94, the only existing candidate construction is based on an elaborate assumption that is tailored to a specific protocol Di Crescenzo and Lipmaa, CiE '08.