Rucknium submits CCS proposal to conduct statistical research to improve Monero's privacy

Rucknium¹ has submitted a CCS proposal² looking to carry out statistical research to improve Monero’s privacy in aftermath of the suspected flood attack³:

I propose to carry out statistical research to improve Monero’s privacy, guide protocol decisions, and respond to Monero developer requests for statistical analysis of code changes where needed. [..] In the short them, analysis of the suspected flood attack is a higher priority. After, I will put hours into finishing the OSPEAD CCS proposal. Then after OSPEAD I will return to putting hours into this CCS proposal.

Proposed funding: 204 XMR.

ETA: ~3 months (13 weeks).

Tasks overview

• short term (this CCS):
  • complete in-progress analysis of the suspected transaction spam attack
  • produce a Monero Research Lab research bulletin from the draft [monero-black-marble-flood.pdf]⁴
  • work with ArticMine to evaluate changes to ring size, fees, and block size scaling parameters to balance privacy, usability, and decentralization
• other research priorities (TBD):
  • PocketChange privacy evaluation
  • Ring member binning
  • Fee discretization and fee prediction
  • Safety of adjusting the 10 block lock
  • Preparation of a paper describing OSPEAD for peer review and research journal publication
  • EAE/EABE attack and churning
  • Network privacy through steganography

Rucknium is an empirical microeconomist and a consistent Monero contributor. Consult previous Monero Observer reports to learn more about their work⁵’⁶’⁷’⁸’⁹’¹⁰.

To share your feedback, ask questions and support this proposal, consult !439².

This is an ongoing story and the report will be updated when new information is available.

Update 24/4/10: moved to funding stage¹¹.

Update 24/4/12: fully funded (68 XMR contributed from GF¹²).

Update 24/10/11: M1 completed¹³.