Monero currently uses Bulletproofs+ to prove that transaction amounts are valid without revealing the amount. While Bulletproofs+ provides compact proofs ideal for blockchain storage constraints, computational costs remain a bottleneck. Prover time affects user experience when sending transactions, and verifier time impacts node scalability during block verification and chain synchronization.

Developing more efficient zero-knowledge range proofs will be valuable for future upgrades. This project targets an speedup for both prover and verifier by reducing the number of expensive group exponentiations, while maintaining the current proof size. This project is research-oriented, with bulletproof improvements expected to benefit the Monero community.

A copy of the project proposal with more technical information can be found here.

This project will be executed by two researchers at CSIRO (Australia’s national science agency):

• Dr Nan Wang (Principal Investigator) is a research scientist with extensive publications on zero-knowledge proofs at top-tier venues including IEEE S&P, USENIX Security, AsiaCrypt, and PETs. He was the lead author of SwiftRange (IEEE S&P 2024) and Flashproofs (AsiaCrypt 2022). https://www.nan-wang.com
• Dr Dongxi Liu (Co-Investigator) is a principal research scientist with publications in CCS, IEEE S&P, NDSS, USENIX Security, Crypto, and PETs, along with patents in consensus and key distribution. https://people.csiro.au/L/D/Dongxi-Liu

The project deliverables are:

• Design and prototype a new range proof construction in Java with benchmarks against Bulletproofs+.
• Provide formal security proofs.
• Deliver a comprehensive technical report with full protocol specification, security analysis, and open-source implementation to facilitate review and integration.
• Release all code and results under an MIT license to benefit Monero and push forward privacy research.

Timeline: 13 weeks total

• Milestone 1 — Protocol Development (9 weeks): design, Java prototype, and benchmarking.
• Milestone 2 — Report Writing (4 weeks): technical report, security analysis, implementation, and integration support.