Aleo: Blockchain Innovation in Privacy Protection and Scalability

Aleo is a blockchain project focused on privacy protection, achieving higher privacy and scalability through zero-knowledge proof technology (ZKP). The project's core concept is to enable users to verify their identity and process data without disclosing personal information.

Project Overview

Privacy

The core of Aleo is zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) technology, which allows transactions and the execution of smart contracts to take place while maintaining privacy. User transaction details are hidden by default, while allowing for selective disclosure when necessary, making it very suitable for the development of DeFi applications. The main components include:

1. Leo Programming Language: Adapted from the Rust language, specifically designed for developing zero-knowledge applications (ZKApps), reducing the requirements for cryptographic knowledge for developers.

2. snarkVM and snarkOS: snarkVM allows for off-chain execution of computations, with only the verification of the computation results on-chain, thereby improving 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 a software development kit (SDK), supporting 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, and only the verification results are uploaded to the Blockchain. This approach significantly improves transaction processing speed and system scalability, avoiding network congestion and high fee issues.

Consensus Mechanism

Aleo introduces AleoBFT, a hybrid architecture consensus mechanism that combines the immediate finality of validators with the computational power of provers. AleoBFT not only enhances the degree of 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, preventing a few entities from monopolizing the network.

3. Incentive Mechanism: Validators and provers share Block rewards; encouraging provers to become validators by staking tokens, thereby enhancing the decentralization and computational capacity of the network.

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

Latest Developments

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

1. ARC-100 vote passed: The proposal concerning compliance aspects, the locking of funds on the Aleo network, and security measures such as delayed account credits has been approved.

2. Validator Incentive Program: This program will launch on July 1st, aiming 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. Token Supply: The initial supply is 1.5 billion tokens, with an initial circulating supply of about 10%. These tokens mainly come from Coinbase tasks and various rewards.

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. Verification Node Expansion Plan: The initial number of verification nodes is 15, with a target to increase to 50 within the year, ultimately reaching 500.

Algorithm Update Interpretation

The latest algorithm core of Aleo is called Synthesis Puzzle. Its core is to generate a common EpochProgram fixed for each epoch, by constructing an R1CS proof circuit for the input and the EpochProgram, generating the corresponding R1CS assignment and using it as the 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.

Consensus Process

1. Prover calculates puzzles, constructs solutions, and broadcasts them to the network.
2. Validator aggregation transaction and solution for the next new Block
3. The legality of the Solution needs to be verified against the various parameters maintained in the network.
4. A valid solution can earn consensus rewards.

Synthesis Puzzle detailed process

1. Each puzzle computation 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 EpochProgram, and perform witness calculation.
5. After calculating all witnesses, convert them into the leaf node sequence of the Merkle tree.
6. Calculate the merkle root and convert it to the solution's proof_target, determining whether it meets the requirements of the current epoch.
7. The input of EpochProgram can be updated multiple times through the iteration counter in the same epoch for solution calculations.

This update changes the puzzle from generating proofs to generating witnesses. The calculation logic of all solutions within each epoch is consistent, but there are significant differences in the calculation logic between different epochs. The new algorithm discards the previous MSM and NTT calculations, and faces new challenges in achieving parallelization.