SIGNATURE MERGING FOR LARGE-SCALE CONSENSUS

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

Proof of Stake systems require optimization of the way cryptographic signatures, used as ballots, get collected. In large P2P systems with potentially millions of validators, aggregating bitfields is essential for system optimization. This proposal lays out potential solutions to the bitfield aggregation problem and three possible instantiations using SNARKs (zk-SNARKs or 'Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-interactive Argument of Knowledge'), including Recursive Stark, Recursive Halo2, and Folding. Though they are preliminary, all have advantages and downsides in terms of merge cost, verification, and communication overhead.