vac:acz:ift:2025q2-libp2p-mix-testnet
Publishing the findings with a blog post and a paper, maintaining the Waku PoC over mixnet, and also maintaining EF grant application with a privacy project that introduces sender anonymity to Ethereum nodes for censorship resistanceness
Description
This commitment entails publishing the findings with a blogpost and a paper with extensive benchmark and privacy analysis, also maintaining the Waku PoC over the mixnet and finally maintaining the EF grant application.
Background
The primary objective of this anonymization layer is to serve as a cohesive anonymization solution for gossip-based projects, with a specific focus on integrating it with the IFT projects Waku and Codex.
Our initial exploration will revolve around extending our Tor push proposal. In this approach, messages will traverse through an anonymization network before being disseminated via gossip protocols upon exiting the anonymization network. Additionally, we aim to investigate the concept of embedding anonymization capabilities directly into gossipsub, rather than routing messages through a separate anonymization network before entering a standard gossipsub network operation.
Currently we view this anonymization solution as a P2P base layer, which the Vac P2P team will offer as part of libp2p. This effort could potentially spawn an incubation project. This effort would act as a basis for the Validator Privacy Network incubation project.
In 2025q1, we developed the extended functionality of mixnet and its integration with libp2p such as transport protocol. Also, we released a simple gossipsub poc over the mixnet.
Narratives
By utilizing this commitment, we will reinforce the Conduit of Expertise narrative by:
- Implement a poc over Waku PoC shows the base functionality on Waku network.
We will also strengthen the Premier Research Destination narrative by:
- Create a proposal for the Ethereum Foundation (EF) to apply for EF grants to promote the mixnet PoC and gain support from the Ethereum ecosystem.
- Publish a paper on arxiv.com that includes security/privacy analysis with applicability and revelance(product-market fit), offering improvements over Tor push.
- Publish a blogpost on vac.dev/rlog that includes update on transport layer of mixnet and Waku integration.