Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is advocating for deeper analysis into the Poseidon hash operate 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 acknowledged:
“We’re critically 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 operate 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 method that enables 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 accordance with Poseidon Cryptanalysis:
“Poseidon hash operate has been utilized in quite a few Ethereum purposes that cope with 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 house view Poseidon’s potential adoption as a optimistic step for Ethereum’s effectivity, others have raised issues.
Ye Zhang, a co-founder of the Ethereum Layer 2 undertaking Scroll, questioned whether or not Poseidon’s benefits outweigh its trade-offs.
Zhang identified that Poseidon’s numerous configurations might restrict SNARK selections, making it much less versatile. He additionally famous that Poseidon is considerably slower than options like Blake and Keccak, which might create bottlenecks except 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 attributable to efficiency issues.
