Dr. Sarang Noether
Multidisciplinary Academic Grants in Cryptocurrencies (MAGIC) is raising funds to fund Dr. Sarang Noether of the Monero Research Lab to develop and implement Bulletproofs+ in Monero. Bulletproofs+ will reduce typical transaction sizes by around 5% (96 bytes/transaction) with similar verification time. This work should remain compatible with future research, including Triptych and Arcturus.
This project funding proposal includes:
- Computer code for the Bulletproofs+ prover and verifier algorithms, written for compatibility with the Monero open-source code base;
- Performance and unit test computer code;
- All code released under the MIT license.
The campaign does NOT include an audit of the code, which would be required before the code is used in Monero.
Dr. Sarang Noether is one of the most knowledgeable individuals on Monero research and development. You can see some of his previous work here: https://www.getmonero.org/resources/research-lab/
This campaign is necessary to support research and development to benefit a public good. If you prefer to make a donation outside of GoFundMe (for example, an "offline" donation with Monero or another cryptocurrency), please donate on our website https://www.magicgrants.org/contribute. Your donation will still count towards the proposal, but it will need to be added manually after a delay.
Your donation is tax-deductible to the amount allowable by law. In 2020, you may be able to take a $300 above-the-line tax deduction even if you do not itemize your deductions. Take advantage of the tax benefits afforded to you and support a cause you care about.
MAGIC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on expanding education and research in cryptocurrencies, and for supporting public, permissionless payment infrastructure. MAGIC distributed $3,000 this 2020-2021 school year in scholarships to students interested in cryptocurrencies. Monero is an example of a public, permissionless payment network.
In the unlikely case that the project is not fully funded and we are unable to begin the project, or if the project is canceled for any reason, MAGIC will treat the donations as unrestricted donations. If there is a funding excess, MAGIC will treat the excess as unrestricted donations. MAGIC will use the funds for any other appropriate purpose, which could be another payment infrastructure proposal or a scholarship, among other things within its mission.
Why not use the Monero CCS?
The Monero CCS is useful for many funding methods, but it is not the only way contributors can raise money to work on projects.
Some of the advantages of using this new MAGIC fundraising platform (which is tested here for the first time):
- Donations are tax-deductible to the amount allowable by law since MAGIC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
- Funds can be paid to grant recipients in USD, EUR, or another stable asset
- We can accept donations in several assets, including but not limited to XMR
- We can accept donations with credit/debit cards and checks
Some disadvantages:
- We can only create projects that are in-line with MAGIC's mission
- XMR donations need to be added manually (the donations will not be reflected in the funding goal immediately because MAGIC must manually count and add them)
- We must legally collect some donor information (this is kept confidential)