Aleo: A Pioneer in Blockchain Privacy Protection and Scalability

Aleo is an innovative project dedicated to enhancing blockchain privacy protection and scalability. By utilizing zero-knowledge proof technology, Aleo enables users to complete identity verification and data processing while protecting personal information.

Project Overview

Privacy Protection

The core technology of Aleo is zero-knowledge proofs ( ZKPs ), which ensures the protection of user privacy during the execution of transactions and smart contracts. By default, transaction details such as the sender and amount are hidden. This design not only protects user privacy but also supports selective disclosure when necessary, making it very suitable for the development of DeFi applications.

The main components of Aleo include:

1. Leo programming language: adapted from Rust, specifically designed for developing zero-knowledge applications ( ZKApps ), which reduces the requirements for developers' knowledge of cryptography.

2. snarkVM and snarkOS: snarkVM supports off-chain computation execution, with only the results being verified on-chain, improving efficiency. snarkOS ensures the security of data and computation, supporting permissionless function execution.

3. zkCloud: Provides a secure and private off-chain computing environment that supports programming interaction among all parties.

Aleo also provides an integrated development environment (IDE) and a software development kit (SDK), making it easier for developers to quickly write and publish applications. Developers can deploy applications directly in Aleo's program registry without relying on third parties, reducing platform risk.

Scalability

Aleo adopts an off-chain processing method where transactions are first computed on the user's device, and only the verification results are uploaded to the Blockchain. This approach greatly improves transaction processing speed and system scalability, avoiding issues of network congestion and high costs.

Consensus Mechanism

Aleo introduces AleoBFT, a hybrid architecture consensus mechanism that combines the instant finality of validators with the computational power of provers. AleoBFT not only enhances the decentralization of the network but also improves performance and security.

1. Block quick finality: AleoBFT ensures that each block is immediately confirmed after generation, enhancing node stability and user experience.

2. Decentralized Assurance: By separating block production from coinbase generation, validators are responsible for generating blocks, while provers perform proof calculations to prevent a few entities from monopolizing the network.

3. Incentive Mechanism: Validators and Provers share block rewards; encourage Provers to become Validators by staking tokens, enhancing the network's decentralization and computing power.

Aleo allows developers to create applications without gas limits, making it particularly suitable for applications that require long runtimes, such as machine learning.

Latest Developments

Aleo will launch the incentivized testnet on July 1st. Here are some important updates:

1. ARC-100 proposal approved: The proposal involving compliance, fund locking, and delayed payment security measures has been approved, and the team is making final adjustments.

2. Validator Incentive Program: Running from July 1st to 15th, 1 million Aleo points will be allocated as rewards. The reward distribution is based on the percentage of points generated by the nodes, and each validator must earn at least 100 tokens to be eligible for rewards.

3. Token Supply: The initial supply is 1.5 billion tokens, with an initial circulating supply of approximately 10%. These tokens mainly come from Coinbase tasks (7500 million ), which will be distributed over the first six months, including rewards for staking, operating validators, and verification nodes.

4. Testnet Update: The Testnet Beta will undergo a final reset, adding ARC-41 and new puzzle features. After the reset, the network will be similar to the mainnet and no new features will be added.

5. Code freeze: Completed a week ago.

6. Validator Node Expansion: The initial number of validator nodes is 15, with a target of increasing to 50 within the year and ultimately reaching 500. To become a delegator, 10,000 tokens are required, and to become a validator, 10 million tokens are needed. These amounts will gradually decrease over time.

Synthesis Puzzle Algorithm Analysis

The latest puzzle algorithm released by Aleo is called Synthesis Puzzle, which is centered around generating a fixed EpochProgram for each epoch. By constructing an R1CS proof circuit for the input and EpochProgram, the corresponding R1CS assignment (, which is the witness ), is generated and used as a leaf node of the Merkle tree. After calculating all the leaf nodes, the Merkle root is generated and converted into the proof_target of the solution.

The detailed process of Synthesis Puzzle is as follows:

1. Each puzzle calculation is called a nonce, composed of the address receiving the mining reward, epoch_hash, and random number counter.

2. In each epoch, all provers compute the same EpochProgram, which is derived from a random number generated by the current epoch_hash sampled from the instruction set.

3. Use nonce as a random number seed to generate the input for EpochProgram.

4. Aggregate the R1CS and input corresponding to the EpochProgram, and perform the witness calculation.

5. Calculate all witnesses and convert them into a sequence of leaf nodes of the Merkle tree.

6. Calculate the Merkle root and convert it to the solution's proof_target, and determine whether it meets the current epoch's latest_proof_target.

7. If the conditions are met, submit the reward address, epoch_hash, and counter required for building the input as the solution and broadcast it.

8. The input of EpochProgram can be updated through the iterative counter in the same epoch to perform multiple solution calculations.

This update changes puzzle from generating proof to generating witness. The solution calculation logic within each epoch remains consistent, but the calculation logic between different epochs varies significantly. The new algorithm discards the previous MSM and NTT calculations, bringing new challenges for GPU optimization. Since the process of generating witness involves executing programs that change with each epoch, there are some serial execution dependencies among the instructions, making parallelization a significant challenge.