Cardano (ADA) recently made a significant announcement regarding its scaling solution, Mithril. The project has released a research paper called “Mithril 2,” which highlights the concrete results of its efforts. 

Launched on the Cardano mainnet in July, Mithril has now introduced what the developers call “innovative cryptographic techniques” to prove knowledge of a large dataset without revealing the dataset entirely.

IOG’s Romain Pellerin Highlights ALBAs 

Romain Pellerin, the Chief Technical Officer of the research company Input Output Global (IOG), summarized the key points covered in the Mithril 2 paper. 

Pellerin explained that the paper introduces a technique called “Approximate Lower Bound Arguments” (ALBAs). The goal of ALBAs is to allow individuals to prove ownership of a large dataset without exposing the entire record.

According to Pellerin, this approach has applications where it is necessary to demonstrate possession of multiple digital signatures from different individuals without revealing each signature.

The core idea behind ALBAs is that the prover only reveals a smartly selected small dataset sample. This prevents “cheating” by making it unlikely that the sample could be constructed if the real dataset is small. 

Conversely, if the real dataset is large, at least one such sample probably exists. This allegedly ensures the success of an “honest prover.” The Telescope technique introduced in the paper facilitates the efficient recursive construction of the sample.

The Mithril 2 paper also addresses situations where the dataset is distributed among multiple parties who collectively generate the proof. It demonstrates how ALBAs can be used for straight-line witness extraction in succinct, non-interactive arguments of knowledge (SNARKs). 

By utilizing ALBAs instead of custom constructions, the workload of the prover can be reduced, resulting in shorter proofs when extracting witnesses from SNARKs.

Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson Lauds Mithril 2 Paper

The paper explains that ALBAs enable provers to succinctly prove knowledge of many elements that satisfy a given predicate or weight function. While the argument is approximate due to a small gap between what the prover knows and what the verifier is convinced of, this gap allows for highly efficient schemes. 

Furthermore, the research presents non-interactive constructions of ALBAs in the random oracle and uniform reference string models, demonstrating near-optimal proof sizes. 

Additionally, it showcases communication-efficient constructions when the evidence is distributed among multiple provers, which is particularly relevant in decentralized settings.

Charles Hoskinson, the Founder of Cardano, expressed his pride in the Mithril 2 paper, emphasizing its significance on X (previously known as Twitter). Hoskinson stated: 

Mithril 2 is out. I’m very proud of this paper. It’s damn fine work. 

The Cardano community eagerly awaits the implementation of these new “cryptographic techniques”, which demonstrate the project’s commitment to advancing the scalability and privacy of the Cardano blockchain.

On the flip side, the native token of the decentralized public blockchain, Cardano, has experienced significant gains over the past 30 days. Currently trading at $0.2910, ADA has witnessed an 18% increase in value over the past two weeks.

Of particular note, ADA concluded the month of October above the crucial $0.300 level. This achievement is pivotal for the token’s prospects and the continuation of its bullish momentum, as it briefly broke its four-month downtrend structure.

It remains to be seen whether upcoming positive developments within the Cardano ecosystem will have the potential to drive ADA to new highs in 2023 and maintain its competitive position among the top 10 cryptocurrencies in the market.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com