[Cryptography] Halo: Recursive Proof Composition without a Trusted Setup

[jamesd at echeque.com]

On 2019-09-11 08:02, Alfie John wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I saw today that Electric Coin Co (the folks behind Zcash) have released a paper that may be of interest to people here:
> 
>    https://electriccoin.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Halo.pdf

At present, Zcash has unacceptable costs, and is therefore unlikely to 
replace bitcoin.

Due to network effects, one crypto currency is likely to take over the 
world, and Zcash it is current form cannot be that currency.

Further, the scaling costs of bitcoin make it unlikely to take over the 
world.  Bitcoin is currently close to its scaling limit.

This approach, if it works out, in principle allows Zcash, or a currency 
constructed on similar principles, to take over the world.  Each full 
peer would only store current unspent outputs, recent spent outputs, and 
a recursive proof that all past outputs were handled in accordance with 
the rules that were applicable at that time.