Aleo: The Blockchain Project Leading the Web3 Privacy Revolution

Aleo is a blockchain project dedicated to privacy protection, achieving higher privacy and scalability through zero-knowledge proof technology (ZKP). The core idea of the project is to enable users to authenticate and process data without disclosing personal information.

Project Overview

Privacy

The core of Aleo is the Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) technology, which enables transactions and the execution of smart contracts to take place while maintaining privacy. User transaction details, such as the sender and transaction amount, are hidden by default. This design not only protects user privacy but also allows for selective disclosure when necessary, making it very suitable for the development of DeFi applications. Its main components include:

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

2. snarkVM and snarkOS: snarkVM allows off-chain computation, with only the verification of computation results on-chain, thus enhancing efficiency. snarkOS ensures the security of data and computation while allowing 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. In addition, developers can deploy applications in Aleo's program registry without relying on third parties, thereby reducing platform risks.

Scalability

Aleo adopts an off-chain processing method where transactions are first computed on the user's device to generate proofs, 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 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 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 network's level of decentralization and computational power.

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

Latest Developments

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

1. ARC-100 Voting Passed: The voting for ARC-100 ("Best Compliance Practices for Aleo Developers and Operators" proposal) has ended and passed. The team is making final adjustments.

2. Validator Incentive Program: This program will start on July 1st and aims to verify the new puzzle mechanism. The program will run until July 15th, during which 1 million Aleo points will be allocated as rewards. The percentage of points generated by nodes will determine their share of the rewards, and each validator must earn at least 100 tokens to qualify for rewards.

3. Initial Supply and Circulating Supply: The initial supply is 1.5 billion tokens, and the initial circulating supply is approximately 10%. These tokens mainly come from Coinbase tasks (75 million) and will be distributed within the first six months, including rewards for staking, running validators, and validating nodes.

4. Testnet Beta Reset: This is the final network reset, and after completion, no new features will be added. The network will be similar to the mainnet. The reset is intended to add ARC-41 and the new puzzle feature.

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

6. Validator Node Expansion Plan: The initial number of validator nodes is 15, with a target to increase to 50 within the year, and eventually 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 Update

Aleo recently updated its latest version of the puzzle algorithm, called Synthesis Puzzle. The new algorithm no longer focuses on the generation of zk proof results, but instead concentrates on generating the intermediate data witness before the proof generation. Here are the main features and processes of the algorithm:

1. A common EpochProgram is generated for each epoch, sampled from the instruction set using the random number produced by the current epoch_hash.

2. Use nonce (constructed from the address receiving the mining reward, epoch_hash, and random number counter) as a seed to generate the input for EpochProgram.

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

4. Convert the calculated witness into a sequence of leaf nodes of the Merkle tree, and construct an 8-ary Merkle tree with a depth of 8.

5. Calculate the Merkle root and convert it into the solution's proof_target, checking if it meets the latest_proof_target of the current epoch.

6. If the conditions are met, submit the solution and broadcast.

This update changes the puzzle from generating proofs to generating witnesses. The calculation logic for 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 since there are some dependencies in the witness generation process that require serial execution, achieving parallelism presents considerable challenges.

Overall, Aleo's recent algorithm update further strengthens its advantages in privacy protection and scalability, providing new momentum for the Web3 privacy revolution. As the project continues to develop and improve, Aleo is expected to play an increasingly important role in the blockchain privacy protection field.