Zcash developers move Tachyon's Udon code into Zakura Common library
In brief
- Zcash developers released Udon, first built for Project Tachyon, into the Zakura Common cryptography library on Monday.
- The Tachyon scaling upgrade itself hasn't been activated on Zcash.
- Bowe and Ojha have a long-term target of more than 50,000 private payments a second.
- Shielded transactions averaged about 6,200 a day in the week through Sept. 28, ZecStats data show.
What Udon does
Common handles some of the heavy mathematical work behind creating and checking private transactions. That work matters because a Zcash wallet has to prove a private payment is valid without revealing who paid whom (or how much), and the computers running the network then check that proof.
Udon brings some of the calculations Tachyon needs into Common, where developers can build on code they've already made faster. Bowe's team and Dev Ojha's Valar Group jointly develop Zakura.
Those earlier gains weren't small. Improvements to Common cut the time needed to create a private-payment proof from more than three seconds to under 200 milliseconds in some tests, as CoinDesk reported in August.
The 50,000-a-second target
Bowe and Ojha have set a long-term target of more than 50,000 payments a second. At that rate, they estimate today's cryptography would force each Zcash node to take in more than 500 megabytes of data per second.
Tachyon is meant to deal with that by combining proofs from many payments, so nodes have far less data to receive and check. Creating the combined proof takes more memory, which is why Bowe's team is building it with code already made faster in Common.
That figure is a target, not what the network can handle today.
Where the network stands
Zcash is a long way from that volume. ZecStats data cited by CoinDesk show the network averaged about 11,700 transactions involving shielded funds a day in the seven days through Sept. 21 (roughly one every seven seconds). The average fell to about 6,200 a day in the seven days through Sept. 28.
For now, Udon is released code in a shared library that Zcash projects already use. The Tachyon upgrade it was built for still hasn't been activated on Zcash.
Frequently asked questions
What is Udon in Zcash development?
Udon is a component first developed as part of Project Tachyon, Zcash's proposed scaling upgrade. It was released on Monday into Zakura Common, a shared cryptography library used by Zakura and other Zcash projects. It brings some of the calculations Tachyon needs into Common.
Has the Tachyon upgrade been activated on Zcash?
No. Udon has been released as software, but the Tachyon upgrade has not been activated on Zcash, according to CoinDesk's reporting.
Why does Zcash need Tachyon to scale?
Bowe and Ojha have a long-term target of more than 50,000 payments a second. At that rate, they estimate today's cryptography would make each node take in more than 500 megabytes of data per second. Tachyon is intended to combine proofs from many payments so nodes have far less to receive and check.
