Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is advocating for deeper analysis into the Poseidon hash perform because the community explores methods to enhance zero-knowledge (ZK) proof effectivity.
In a Feb. 26 publish on X, Buterin inspired cryptographers to take part in a safety evaluation program for Poseidon whereas quoting a message that prolonged the funding utility deadline to March 15.
He acknowledged:
“We’re severely contemplating migrating Ethereum to the Poseidon hash to optimize zk-prover friendliness, so having extra details about its safety properties is extraordinarily excessive worth.”
What’s Poseidon?
Poseidon is a cryptographic hash perform designed particularly for zero-knowledge functions.
In contrast to conventional hash capabilities corresponding to SHA-256, Poseidon is optimized for zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, a cryptographic method that permits transactions to be verified with out revealing delicate particulars.
ZK proofs have gotten more and more essential in Ethereum’s scaling efforts, notably for rollups that course of transactions off-chain earlier than finalizing them on the primary blockchain. Poseidon’s effectivity might cut back computational prices, making these options quicker and extra accessible.
In keeping with Poseidon Cryptanalysis:
“Poseidon hash perform has been utilized in quite a few Ethereum functions that cope with verifiable computation. It’s among the many prime performers at current STARK benchmarks by StarkNet, which makes it a promising candidate for the use at Ethereum L1 for numerous protocols that make use of ZK proofs.”
Neighborhood reactions
Whereas some within the crypto area view Poseidon’s potential adoption as a constructive step for Ethereum’s effectivity, others have raised issues.
Ye Zhang, a co-founder of the Ethereum Layer 2 mission Scroll, questioned whether or not Poseidon’s benefits outweigh its trade-offs.
Zhang identified that Poseidon’s numerous configurations might restrict SNARK decisions, making it much less versatile. He additionally famous that Poseidon is considerably slower than alternate options like Blake and Keccak, which might create bottlenecks except Layer 2 options modify for compatibility.
Zhang added that Scroll initially used Poseidon however would revert to the Merkle Patricia Tree (MPT) with Keccak in a future improve on account of efficiency concerns.
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