Below are the latest meeting summaries. Expand the table of contents below to jump to a particular date.
Monero Research Lab Meeting Summaries
Jan 1, 2025
Source: https://github.com/monero-project/meta/issues/1134#issuecomment-2571653304
AI Summary:
Here’s a summary of the meeting in bullet points:
- Attendance and Greetings:
- Present: rucknium, chaser, syntheticbird, rbrunner, jberman, dukenukem, articmine, fede, jeffro256
- Updates and Announcements:
- Rucknium: Working on OSPEAD, likely submitting milestone 2 next week
- MoneroKon 2025 call for presentations open until March 25
- jberman: Testing reimplementation of faster torsion check for FCMP++
- Main Discussion: Post-quantum security and ethical considerations
- Quantum Computer (QC) Threats:
- Discussed potential compromises of wallet privacy by QCs
- Explored implications of breaking wallet private keys on transaction graph privacy
- Post-Quantum (PQ) Solutions:
- PQ RingCT proposals exist but result in huge transaction sizes
- Possibility of more efficient PQ FCMP-like proposals mentioned
- Discussion on PQ primitives and their larger key/signature sizes
- Carrot/Jamtis/FCMP++ Security:
- Jeffro256 explained privacy implications of QC attacks on Carrot wallets
- Churning discussed as a potential mitigation strategy
- Address and Transaction Size Concerns:
- Debate on practicality of larger addresses and transaction sizes in PQ era
- Suggestions for potential workarounds (e.g., animated QR codes, UTF-8 encoding)
- Future Directions:
- Interest in off-chain key exchanges as a near-term solution
- Discussion on PQ addressing schemes (e.g., SPHINCS+)
- Consideration of KEM-based key exchanges
- Other Points:
- Importance of quantizing transfer amounts and fees for privacy
- Mention of Brandon Goodell’s previous work on PQ lattice cryptography
- Debate on on-chain vs off-chain address registration methods
Closing summary:
The meeting focused heavily on post-quantum security challenges and potential solutions for Monero. Discussions ranged from the immediate implications of quantum computing on wallet privacy to long-term strategies for maintaining transaction privacy in a post-quantum world. The team explored various technical approaches, including off-chain key exchanges and post-quantum cryptographic primitives. While no definitive solutions were agreed upon, the meeting highlighted the complexity of the challenges ahead and the need for continued research and development in this area.
Dec 18, 2024
Source: Github logs
AI Summary:
- Rucknium discovered a critical privacy vulnerability in Wownero’s decoy selection algorithm
- jberman is implementing an optimized torsion check for faster FCMP++ curve tree building
- vtnerd is working on Boost 1.87 related tasks
- jeffro256 is brainstorming on carrot switch commitments and drafting changes to the carrot doc
- tobtoht is mostly done with build system work for rust FFI
- Discussion on preventing P2P proxy nodes:
- Spy node ban list has been enabled on some wallet nodes
- More ecosystem projects are implementing the ban list
- ASmap research to be started soon
- Post-quantum security and ethical considerations:
- Discussed the concept of a “turnstile” for transitioning to post-quantum cryptography
- Debated the implications of amount limits and time limits for the turnstile
- Considered the risks of quantum computers breaking existing cryptography
- Discussed the potential for counterfeiting and the ethical considerations of allowing or preventing it
- Explored the implications of Carrot address design for post-quantum security
- Debated the handling of pre-RingCT and coinbase outputs in a post-quantum scenario
- Technical considerations:
- Discussed the need for LMDB migration to track total emission with a 128-bit integer
- Explored the complexity of implementing post-quantum solutions
- Considered the implications of making individual output amounts transparent during the turnstile process
- Future work:
- No immediate decisions needed on switch commitments, but further development and discussion required
- Need to consider the structure and rules of the turnstile in future discussions
Closing summary:
The meeting covered a wide range of topics, focusing heavily on post-quantum security considerations and the potential implementation of a “turnstile” system for transitioning to quantum-resistant cryptography. Participants discussed the technical challenges, ethical implications, and potential risks associated with different approaches. While no final decisions were made, the discussion laid groundwork for future development and highlighted the complexity of balancing security, privacy, and fairness in a post-quantum scenario for Monero.
Dec 11, 2024
Source: Github logs
AI Summary:
- Rucknium is working on OSPEAD and stepping down from the MAGIC Monero Fund committee.
- jeffro256 is working on FCMP benchmarking and Carrot integration.
- Discussion on preventing P2P proxy nodes and a ban list was mentioned.
- Post-quantum security and ethical considerations over elliptic curve cryptography were discussed.
- Switch commitments for Carrot were proposed as a low-cost preparation for potential quantum threats.
- The concept of a “turnstile” for verifying the Monero supply in a post-quantum scenario was explored.
- Privacy implications of post-quantum solutions were considered.
- Concerns about the NIST post-quantum standardization process were raised.
- The absence of tevador was noted with some concern.
- The meeting concluded with a discussion on the theoretical limits of quantum computing and cryptography.
Roundup: The meeting covered a wide range of topics, with a focus on preparing Monero for potential quantum computing threats. The discussion highlighted the complex balance between maintaining privacy, ensuring security, and preparing for future technological challenges in cryptocurrency.