​​MGP 19 - $2,500 for State of the Mixers Report

​​Proposal

​​tl;dr
  • ​​$2,500 (16 shares) to Trent Van Epps for writing a State of the Mixers Report
  • ​​0x0B916095200313900104bAcfc288462682C38700
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​​Note from Ameen: Trent has already started working on this report and made decent progress, but has requested to keep the WIP report private until it is further along. If you are a Moloch member and would like to see it, please reach out to me directly on Discord. 
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​​There has been a recent proliferation of mixer development intended for public Ethereum. It has been pointed out that a unified source broadly surveying the efforts does not exist. General information exists on disparate repositories or peppered throughout medium posts.
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​​At the suggestion of Ameen Soleimani, I plan to complete a survey of all mixers under active development, focusing on ones which use Snarks or ring-signatures. I will avoid generalised mixing “sandboxes” given the differences in scope.
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​​Here’s a proposed outline for the survey:
  • ​​Strategic importance of mixers
  • ​​BTC coinjoin context / prior art
  • ​​Abstract Tradeoffs between SNARKs and Ring Signatures
  • ​​Mixer List
  • ​​SNARK Based
  • ​​Ring Signature Based
  • ​​Others
  • ​​General Recommendations
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​​One key output will be to collect and compare metrics across implementations. These will likely include:
  • ​​Deposit Cost (gas)
  • ​​Withdrawal Cost (gas)
  • ​​Merkle Tree Depth
  • ​​Merkle Tree Max items
  • ​​Average Proving time (ms)
  • ​​Constraints per-level
  • ​​Constraints overhead
  • ​​User Key size zipped & expanded mb
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​​Part of the process may include interviewing teams to assess needs and bottlenecks, and compare common challenges. I will summarise the report with a series of general recommendations and guidelines for mixer efforts.
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​​After the V1 report has been circulated I will transfer it to a Github repo where interested parties will be able to contribute. I plan to continue my coordinating efforts wherever they are helpful; some parts of the survey will likely remain actively maintained, as much as I am capable.

​​Previous Contributions

​​General Community

  • ​​Helped organise the Berlin Core Devs Meeting in April, including: gathering speakers, creating schedules, finding sponsors, coordinating livestream, soliciting community involvement, running the event
  • ​​Published articles recently explaining technical topics: Medium @trenton.v

​​EthGlobal Hackathons (Berlin, Denver, New York)

  • ​​ETHBerlin + EthBerlinZwei: Designed graphics (including marketing material and event posters)
  • ​​Provided logistics support throughout the venue
  • ​​Helped to staff checkin booth, facilitated sponsor interaction with attendees

​​Ask

​​Request: 2500 USD equivalent of shares