Sethforprivacy proposes exploring trustless zk-SNARKs as a replacement for Monero ring signatures

Sethforprivacy¹ has opened a new MRL meta issue (#100²) to further explore and catalogue resources on trustless zk-SNARKs in Monero w/o Orchard code³, citing known limitations⁴ of ring signatures:

The goal of this meta issue is to build a go-to place for links, information, and opportunities for building trustless zk-SNARKs as a potential future protocol building-block for Monero.

I will write up a blog post further outlining in laymen’s terms why exploring zk-SNARKs as a replacement for ring-signatures (and likely confidential amounts) is an interesting and worthwhile topic to explore [..]

According to Sethforprivacy, Amir Taaki⁵ of Dark.fi⁶ has offered to help Monero developers get up to speed on implementing zk-SNARKs (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge⁷) in Monero’s payment protocol.

Monero devs selsta⁸ and hyc⁹ have both shared conservative comments about this proposal on Matrix:

it’s stupid to plan it now. assuming we deploy seraphis, it will be at least several months of operational experience before we know what shortcomings we want to fix. (hyc)¹⁰

This seems 1-2 years too early [..] anyway if someone is interested (and they have the necessary skills) they can comment on the issue (selsta)¹¹

To learn more about the proposed efforts, open research questions, access reference links and submit feedback, consult MRL meta issue #100².

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

Update 22/5/3: removed reference to Orchard thread¹².