Aleo: The Rising Star Leading the Web3 Privacy Revolution

Aleo is a blockchain project focused on privacy protection, achieving higher privacy and scalability through zero-knowledge proof technology (ZKP). Its core idea is to enable users to authenticate their identity and process data without disclosing personal data.

Project Overview

Privacy

The core of Aleo is zero-knowledge proof (ZKPs) technology, which allows transactions and the execution of smart contracts to be carried out while maintaining privacy. The details of users' transactions are hidden by default, while selective disclosure is permitted when necessary, making it very suitable for the development of DeFi applications. Its main components include:

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

2. snarkVM and snarkOS: snarkVM allows for off-chain execution of computations, with only the verification of results on-chain, enhancing efficiency. snarkOS ensures the security of data and computations, and allows for permissionless functionality execution.

3. zkCloud: Provides a secure and private off-chain computing environment that supports programming interactions between users, organizations, and DAOs.

Aleo also provides an integrated development environment (IDE) and software development kit (SDK), enabling developers to quickly write and publish applications. Developers can deploy applications 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 to generate a proof, and then only the verification result is uploaded to the blockchain. This approach greatly enhances the transaction processing speed and the system's scalability, avoiding network congestion and high fees.

consensus mechanism

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

1. Fast Block Finality: AleoBFT ensures that each block is confirmed immediately 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, preventing a few entities from monopolizing the network.

3. Incentive Mechanism: Validators and provers share block rewards; provers are encouraged to become validators by staking tokens, thereby enhancing the decentralization and computing power of the network.

Aleo allows developers to create applications that are not restricted by gas, making it particularly suitable for applications such as machine learning that require long-running processes.

Current Progress

Aleo will launch its incentive testnet on July 1st, here are some important updates:

1. ARC-100 vote passed: The proposal involving compliance aspects, locking of funds on the Aleo network, and security measures such as delayed deposits has been approved. The team is making final adjustments.

2. Validator Incentive Program: This program will launch on July 1st and aims to validate the new puzzle mechanism. The program will run until July 15th, during which 1 million Aleo points will be allocated as rewards.

3. Initial supply and circulating supply: The initial supply is 1.5 billion tokens, with an initial circulating supply of approximately 10% (not yet finalized). These tokens mainly come from the Coinbase task (75 million) and will be distributed within the first six months.

4. Testnet Beta Reset: This is the last network reset, and after completion, no new features will be added; the network will be similar to the mainnet.

5. Code freeze: The code freeze was completed a week ago.

6. Verification Node Expansion Plan: The initial number of verification nodes is 15, with a target to increase to 50 within the year, and ultimately reach 500. To become a delegator, 10,000 tokens are required, while becoming a validator requires 10 million tokens; these amounts will gradually decrease over time.

Synthesis Puzzle Algorithm Analysis

The latest algorithm core of Aleo is called Synthesis Puzzle, which is designed to generate a common EpochProgram fixed for each epoch. By constructing R1CS proof circuits for the inputs and the EpochProgram, it produces the corresponding R1CS assignment (i.e., witness) and uses it as a leaf node of the Merkle tree. After calculating all the leaf nodes, it generates the Merkle root and converts it into the proof_target of the solution.

Consensus Process

1. Prover calculates puzzles, constructs solutions, and broadcasts them to the network.

2. Validator aggregates transactions and solutions for the next new block, ensuring that the number of solutions does not exceed the consensus limit.

3. The legitimacy of the solution needs to verify that its epoch_hash matches the latest_epoch_hash maintained by the validator, that the computed proof_target matches the latest_proof_target maintained by the validators in the network, and that the number of solutions included in the block is less than the consensus limit.

4. An effective solution can obtain consensus rewards.

Synthesis Puzzle Detailed Process

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

2. In each epoch, the EpochProgram calculated by all provers is the same, sampled from the instruction set using the random number generated by the current epoch_hash.

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

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

5. After calculating all the witnesses, convert them into a sequence of leaf nodes for the Merkle tree.

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

7. The input of EpochProgram can be updated multiple times through the iterative counter within the same epoch to perform multiple solution calculations.

Changes and Impacts of Mining

The new version of the puzzle algorithm has changed from generating proofs to generating witnesses. The calculation logic for all solutions within each epoch is consistent, but the calculation logic between different epochs varies significantly. This update abandons the previous optimizations for MSM and NTT calculations. Additionally, since the witness generation process involves executing programs that change with each epoch, where some instructions have dependencies that require serial execution, achieving parallelization poses significant challenges.

This change could have a significant impact on existing mining strategies and hardware optimization, requiring miners to reassess and adjust their mining methods.