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 submit 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 said:
“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 purposes.
Not like conventional hash features similar to SHA-256, Poseidon is optimized for zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, a cryptographic approach 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 principle blockchain. Poseidon’s effectivity might scale back computational prices, making these options sooner and extra accessible.
In line with Poseidon Cryptanalysis:
“Poseidon hash perform has been utilized in quite a few Ethereum purposes that take care of verifiable computation. It’s among the many high 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.”
Group reactions
Whereas some within the crypto area view Poseidon’s potential adoption as a optimistic step for Ethereum’s effectivity, others have raised considerations.
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 until Layer 2 options alter for compatibility.
Zhang added that Scroll initially used Poseidon however would revert to the Merkle Patricia Tree (MPT) with Keccak in a future improve as a result of efficiency concerns.
