Anoma Research and Development Update: March 2022
Anoma Research and Development Update: March 2022
March concluded with the release of Anoma v0.5.0. Engineering has been focused on further integration and testing of the MASP and IBC protocol. Cryptography has been hard at work developing Vamp-IR, Plonkup, and the MASP circuits. Distributed systems has nailed down protocol economics and had a paper accepted to ICBC 2022. All of this will lead to the release of a fully functional testnet and fractal instance of Anoma called Namada.
Anoma v0.5.0 and more architectural expansion
Following the release of v0.5.0, lots of progress was made in parallel for expanding key feature sets w Anoma. Both the MASP and IBC were further integrated and tested. The Ethereum bridge was also designed and implemented along with an on-and-off-chain proposal and voting system for governance. Furthermore, continued specification of a new proof-of-stake slashing design establishes a key mechanism of the consensus architecture. From there, more testing of the PoS validity predicate implementation was carried out.
Cryptographic focuses with Vamp-IR, Plonkup and MASP
March saw lots of progress in the area of cryptography. Vamp-IR is a proof system-agnostic intermediate representation that any programming language can target and compile to any circuit backend and constraint system. As it is agnostic to both the proving system and constraint system, the circuits written in the IR can compile to R1CS, vanilla Plonk, Plonk with lookups, Plonk with custom gates, or any other constraint system. This enables different backends with varying feature sets to decipher and execute the IR in whichever way is most beneficial. The team working on Vamp-IR has expanded to include members of multiple teams and has become a cross-disciplinary project. A talk on Vamp-IR is planned for the upcoming ZKSummit in amsterdam.
Meanwhile, a convert circuit that allows limited fungibility of shielded tokens within the MASP was prototyped. It was also updated to utilize the latest upstream librustzcash. In addition, the team at ZK-Garage is making significant progress for the implementation of Plonkup. Keep an eye out for a version 0.1 that implements the full Plonkup protocol in the next few weeks!
Programing language theory with MiniJuvix and Alucard
The team behind programming languages at Anoma are hard at work developing a programming language for writing formally verified smart contracts. MiniJuvix is now in focus and is mainly inspired by other functional languages like Agda and Idris. It will compile to different backends but mostly cater to Haskell and Alucard. Another approach in early development includes Alucard, which will be the compiler of a DSL for writing Vamp-IR circuits.
Protocol economics and other distributed system developments
The underlying economics of a protocol are complex, yet vital for its functionality and longevity. Members of the distributed systems and protocol team gained momentum as they specified details about the inflation model, transaction fee design, and slashing. This lays the groundwork imperative to the protocol’s usability.
In addition, one of our lead researchers Fatemeh Shirazi along with external co-authors have had their paper accepted to ICBC 2022. The paper outlines private asset migration between protocols using Sapling.
Introducing Namada
A fully functional fractal instance of Anoma that enables shielded multi-asset private transfers for any native or non-native asset using the MASP is set to release. Dubbed Namada, it will support IBC and a natively integrated Ethereum bridge. A wallet will provide users the ability to facilitate safe and private interaction with the protocol. Keep an eye out for follow-up announcements about Namada as we will communicate various elements, including how to join the testnet.
Looking ahead
April is here and filled with exciting announcements. Anoma will have a significant physical presence this month with Real World Crypto and DevConnect happening in Amsterdam with several team members giving talks, attending panels and participating in workshops. As a sponsor of zkSummit, we will have a booth at this all-day event so come by and say hello! In addition, we will also be hosting our own meetup with the Anoma Huddle. Be sure to sign up if you’re interested as tickets are going fast!
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