Buterin Proposes Quantum-Resistant Private Transactions at a Fraction of the Cost
Vitalik Buterin has proposed a solution to significantly reduce the cost of private transactions on the Ethereum network while maintaining quantum resistance. The proposal, identified as EIP-8288 and co-authored with Thomas Coratger, aims to be included in I-star, the upcoming Ethereum upgrade.
The central mechanism of the proposal involves moving the heaviest cryptography out of the execution path. Currently, a private transaction with quantum resistance costs around 10 million gas due to the large size of post-quantum signatures and STARK proofs.
Under EIP-8288, each transaction declares a 'dependency,' a 96-byte fragment, and mempool nodes generate a single recursive STARK proof every second that covers all declarations in the block. This would bring costs down to tens of thousands of gas, according to Buterin.
The proposal also suggests adopting RISC-V as Ethereum's canonical instruction set, which Buterin considers an important decision that must be made carefully.