Thread by @ElectricCoinCo

NU5 has been a talking point for some of crypto’s biggest names.

Let’s dive into the largest network upgrade in #Zcash’s history ⬇️

The first phase of Halo deployment in Zcash introduces a new shielded-transaction protocol, Orchard, which creates the first shielded-transfer capability that does not rely on a trusted setup.

This third shielded pool, underpinned by the Halo proving system, represents the continued evolution of Zcash’s zk-SNARK technology stack and would be guarded by the same shielded-pool turnstile design as used between Sprout and Sapling.

This migration to a trustless proof system reinforces confidence in the soundness of the monetary base, and attack surface of Zcash overall.

Halo will also support techniques that can advance scalability and programmability, such as recursion and proof-carrying data.

These techniques allow proofs to be aggregated together and proof verification time to be amortized away, so that the contributors to the cost of transaction verification and storage are exponentially reduced.

Scalability will require large redesigns of Zcash’s current protocol. Halo will be a crucial component of these protocol designs. In the near term, we will be able to leverage features in Halo to reduce on-chain bandwidth and verification time via transaction aggregation.

Eventually these features could also allow us to implement a fully succinct block chain, allowing near-instant syncing, and light client support with similar security guarantees to a full node.

The implementation of Halo will ensure that we solve scalability challenges and remove the trusted setup without compromising in any meaningful way on performance.