Motivation and Overview

The goal of our proposed project is to research how techniques inspired from the area of differential privacy (DP) can be used in order to construct anonymous cryptocurrencies without the need to rely on a trusted setup process.

Our motivation rises from the fact that Monero, one of the most popular private cryptocurrencies that does not require a trusted setup, has been recently empirically analyzed to find that approximately 80% of the transactions provide no or very limited privacy [1]. Monero utilizes ring signatures in order to conceal the source of a transaction. In a nutshell, when a user spends a coin, she first finds other unspent transactions with the same denomination, and uses the public keys corresponding to those transactions to create her ring. The user’s identity will be hidden within the set of PKs that are part of the ring. However, the number of Monero mixins is usually rather small and sampled in a way that can be distinguished from the real transaction [1].

Our plan is to investigate whether we can build a protocol for mixing transactions in the spirit of Monero, while formally proving that we preserve differential privacy for the users. Specifically, we would like to claim that two neighboring transaction graphs are nearly equally likely to give rise to the same chain. We view a transaction graph as a set of transactions between n users and n recipients, and define a neighboring graph as any that results from swapping the recipients for two senders. In order to keep the size of each individual ring signature small while providing a large number of potential options for the real transaction, our plan is to have users submit several ring signatures in sequence that rope in an ever-increasing number of possible mix-ins.

Technical approach

We will work towards building a protocol that will (a) provide the right graph structure to be analyzed for differential privacy and (b) will be efficient enough for practical implementation. We expect that a rather challenging step in our approach will be the the security analysis of the protocol, as it involves studying the differential privacy of graphs in a new setting, where each individual contribution influences multiple nodes and edges. We finally plan on providing a proof of concept implementation of the proposed protocol and detailed comparisons with other private cryptocurrencies.

Team background and qualifications

Our team consists of a group of cryptographers with expertise in differential privacy, MPC and building anonymity solutions for cryptocurrencies.

Foteini Baldimtsi (George Mason University)
Ethan Gertler (George Mason University)
Dov Gordon (George Mason University)
Mayank Varia (Boston University)

Evaluation plan

Our proposed approach will be evaluated in the form of providing formal cryptographic definitions and proofs to showcase the exact level of security and privacy that we achieve. On the practical side, we will provide a proof of concept implementation to showcase the level of efficiency that we achieve.

Security considerations

This project will advance knowledge on the flavors of anonymity that a private cryptocurrency can achieve and will explore the efficiency - privacy trade-offs.

Budget and justification

$25K

We would spend the requested budget towards graduate students stipends, equipment expenditures and research visits among the research team members.

** Schedule **

(2 months) Work on new DP based definitions for privacy in cryptocurrencies
(3 months) Construction and proofs
(1 month) Discuss trade-offs and comparisons with existing solutions and if time permits provide a proof of concept implementation.
Email address(es) for direct contact

Foteini at gmu dot edu

References
[1] Malte Möser, Kyle Soska, Ethan Heilman, Kevin Lee, Henry Heffan, Shashvat Srivastava, Kyle Hogan, Jason Hennessey, Andrew Miller, Arvind Narayanan, and Nicolas Christin, “An Empirical Analysis of Traceability in the Monero Blockchain”, to appear in PETS 2018

THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE

Proposal: open source incentivization app to share community content
Abstract
This is a description of the problem.

Open source is not self-sustainable at this point. Some of the business models around it that we have seen in the past include:

Selling support or consultancy services around an open-source product
Selling pro services not included in the core open-source implementation
Doing a token sale and deploying your own token which interacts or provides some value add to those using the open-source product and having the token
Problem with all those is that they require external elements that make the core team or maintainers lose focus, and can also sometimes misalign incentives. For example, you'd want your open-source implementation to be as basic as possible to people resort to consulting with you for custom solutions, buying the pro services, or buying the token that unlocks some value add. Therefore, corrupting the interest of the project itself.

The solution is truly community-run open-source projects. We propose using governance tokens to provide sustainable funding for open source projects in a way that perfectly aligns the maintainers, contributors and community incentives, by implementing a decentralized Git repo as an aragonOS app.

This is enabled by two components:

Aragon: By using Aragon, a token can be created for governance purposes, and different governance mechanisms could be put in place in order to incentivize the interests of the community
Decentralized Git repo app: The core resource of an open-source project is its source code. By using Aragon's governance mechanisms, the community could decide who are the maintainers, who is allowed to merge pull requests and how are those all rewarded.
Deliverables
A decentralized Git repo app compatible with aragonOS, exposing roles for curating issues, opening PRs, merging PRs, naming maintainers, setting bounties to issues and triggering events when each of those should be rewarded.
A GitHub-alike frontend for it
Ideally, implement everything described in the OpenCollab whitepaper
Grant size
Funding: From $50k Up to $100k in ETH, split into chunks paid out over achieved deliverables.

Success reward: Up to $50k in ANT, given out when all deliverables are ready.

Application requirements
Proof of concept of the smart contracts for the decentralized Git repo as an aragonOS app. Alternatively, a whitepaper researching the implementation of the whole stack
Details of the team members, alongside with their willingness in terms of implication
Estimated average burn rate for completing the deliverables
Legal structure to be adopted, if any
Development timeline
Testnet launch will be expected during Q1, with mainnet launch being Q2.

Is your idea related to a problem? Please describe.
To achieve ultimate decentralisation, send 2000 RockPi's serving as Cardano nodes into orbit around the globe, and 50 to Mars and make ada the default currency for early-bird colonisers.

Describe the solution you'd like
Contact Elon and ask for a little baggage space on the next SpaceX launch

Describe alternatives you've considered
Hyperdimensional nodes, however these are still theoretical in nature

Additional context
To boldly go where no node has gone before!

A document we want to create is a ISO Procurement Policy and Procedures like this (but simpler) https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/about%20ISO/working_with_iso/docs/Procurement_Procedures.pdf

Selection shall be made in a neutral and transparent manner and in accordance with the criteria predetermined in the initiation phase or as per the call for tenders. Cost-effectiveness and quality shall
figure heavily in any weighted selection process.

I have seen many "matchstick foundation" intro videos, but non of them were truly engaging, inspiring and moving enough to convince a guy from the street to pay attention. Note I might have possibly missed some as well :slight_smile: I believe such a video should not be longer then 3 minutes. It should not be deeply technical as it should speak to everyone who has no background in technology, cryptography or maybe even have ever heard about cryptocurrencies. It should somehow touch the ideology & vision of matchstick foundation, that we are running a revolution to put back finance in the hands of the People. The YouTube video should clarify the major concerns, enlighten the true values & differentiators of matchstick foundation and create interest and appetite for further exploration and knowledge, finally show direction, guidance where to find more info and how to proceed. In 3 minutes this is super challenging, but you don’t get the attention longer for a newbie. MF should sponsor such a contest in case they agree with the initiative and have some really attractive & serious price and incentive to participate. It’s maybe too late for it, but a fully covered trip to the birthday celebration of matchstick foundation in Tokyo could have been an option.

MILESTONE 1

NOTES

TEAM