I built a from-scratch experimental blockchain to explore some ideas I've been interested in:
– post-quantum signatures (Dilithium)
– custom zk-STARK system (AIR + FRI, written in Rust)
– shielded + anonymous transactions
– simple P2P gossip network
It’s not production-ready (no persistence, no DoS protection, etc.) — this is purely a learning/research project.
The most interesting part was implementing the STARK system end-to-end and integrating it into a working chain.
I’d really appreciate feedback, especially on: – the AIR design
– the privacy model
– tradeoffs between PQ signatures vs performance
Repo / demo:
https://github.com/sil714/qchain
Happy to answer any questions.
Exploring post-quantum + zk privacy in one experimental chain
byu/BEWViD inCryptoCurrency
3 Comments
How would you compare your project to what Neptune Cash is doing? Genuine question and curiosity.
This is the type of project I like seeing here. Real experimentation instead of another “AI chain” with no tech behind it.
Very interesting, and I appreciate the manner in which you are building this out as a research project first.
1. How is transaction ordering handled? Maybe the answer is in the Git but I didn’t really see it referenced in a way that was obvious. I would spend some time thinking about this, because blockchains are primarily financial products and swaps and liquidations are heavily influenced by transaction ordering
2. Anonymous deposits via mixing/coin join type of schemes seem to be vulnerable to unmasking in many contexts. I’m not sure what the answer is, and maybe the answer is that is the best that can be done, but it is worth looking into more robust solutions possibly.
3. Somewhat a personal aside and not necessarily the most important aspect, but due to QAnon, it feels somewhat like the letter Q has been tainted. It’s still very early and if you only ever intend this to be a research project it doesn’t matter, but if you ever envision becoming concerned with marketing, it might make sense to think about other potential names during this early stage when changing it wouldn’t be much of an issue. Not sure if that matters to others or that it would matter in the long term, but it was the first place my mind went when I saw the name.
All in all, good stuff and I’ll be looking forward to keeping up with your progress