Milestone: zerokit release v0.1

[s1fr0]

Problem

UPDATE: This is becoming a waterfall release which keeps getting delayed, which was never the intention. We want to take existing code and cut it into an initial 0.1 release.

We want to publish a release v0.1 for Zerokit with a first mature version of the RLN module.

Before that, it is desirable to clean-up the RLN module library code and implement different optimizations which are already standard in other libraries.

These allow to: make the RLN module more efficient and easily integrable in projects employing the RLN primitive; bring a cleaner code and optimized cross-module primitives (e.g., Merkle trees) to new zerokit modules.

Scope

Release zerokit v0.1 with a RLN module that can replace and improve Kilic's RLN module currently employed by nwaku.

Must have:

• Sanity check main features included / bug fixes included
  -- Err on side of not accepting more scope
• Release branch with release note and tag
• Announce release on Discord and Twitter

Initial list of issues, many nice to haves that can be dealt with separately:

• RLN: use space-efficient Merkle Tree implementation #29

• Maximize usage of only arkworks dependencies (e.g., replace Semaphore's Field with arkworks Fr, etc.) and remove unnecessary ones (might require adapting/integrating used primitives e.g. Poseidon hash)
  • RLN: Use arkworks field arithmetic only #35
  • feat(RLN): integrate Poseidon Hash #44
• Eventually add/update APIs to address new needs resulting from completions of milestones in the RLN-RELAY track Track: RLN-Relay waku-org/nwaku#1062 or other tracks:
  • refactor(RLN:) Remove dependencies and add new APIs #45 (contains feat(RLN): add new_with_params #36)

• Reduce size of compiled libraries (might require partial refactoring of dependencies) Reduce static libraries sizes #37

Acceptance criteria

Issues defined in scope addressed.

Risks and uncertainty

Removing some dependencies (e.g. semaphore-rs) might result not trivial, since there might some implementation used across the code base that should be ported to the replacing dependencies.

Out of scope

This milestone's scope requires a RLN module which can replace (in terms of APIs and efficiency) Kilic's RLN module. However, integration of zerokit v0.1 in nwaku is out-of-scope and is tracked in waku-org/nwaku#1061.

Notes and links

This first issue partially overlaps with vacp2p/research#127, where a thorough performance analysis of employing Incremental Merkle trees is performed. This milestone will clearly benefit from completion of vacp2p/research#127, and new items will be added to the above issues list to implement any eventual optimization found.

[oskarth]

This release was supposed to be out 2-3 weeks ago and it has become big in scope. Last portfolio update it was reported to be "100% complete" which is clearly not the case.

A lot of code hasn't been merged, no release notes or anything. I know there's a "blocker" but the goal was to take what exists and make that into a release.

We want to cut scope and fix time, not expand scope and increase time.

[oskarth]

Maximize usage of only arkworks dependencies (e.g., replace Semaphore's Field with arkworks Fr, etc.) and remove unnecessary ones. Related issues: #35

This is marked as done but issue is still open.

[s1fr0]

Last portfolio update it was reported to be "100% complete" which is clearly not the case.

It was marked in red with comments, which meant that required attention/discussion. From commit history, the implementation was complete (modulo cherry-picking commits in sub PRs) the 2nd of September with respect to scope set in #31 (reduce library size was added later in light of #37 to track experiments done in #37 (comment)).

Note that blockers (most of which were later solved internally) would have prevented drafting a reasonable release note and/or merge scoped small sub-PRs, since such blockers would have affected directly features' usage and availability.

[s1fr0]

Maximize usage of only arkworks dependencies (e.g., replace Semaphore's Field with arkworks Fr, etc.) and remove unnecessary ones. Related issues: #35

This is marked as done but issue is still open.

See #35 (comment)