Weeklies and Offsite notes (#54)

* Weeklies and Offsite notes

* Fixes

content/nomos/updates/2024-04-08.md

@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+---
+title: 2024-01-08 Nomos weekly
+tags:
+  - nomos-updates
+date: 2024-04-08
+lastmod: 2024-04-08
+draft: false
+description: Weekly update of Nomos
+---
+
+#### `Note`
+
+- This is a weekly update from the part of the team that didn't attend the All-Hands Event in Athens.
+
+## `Mixnet (Network Privacy)`
+
+### `Research`
+
+- Regarding the current situation with the mixnet and staking, we have decided to focus on the simplest approach, that is only single-staking without stake delegation as suggested for the first iteration of the staking. Due to the simplicity of this approach, we can model it more precisely and learn more of its properties.
+- We have received a couple of comments regarding the mixnet from an external reviewer. The comments and our analysis can be seen in this [document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yWUP_HdHirwV8XY-i3l_x6qCfh4CQSSa9donAR4AszI/edit).
+- Reviewed an interesting [critique](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ev4r-aZmFM) of mixnets and suggestions on their improvements. One of them is the Poisson mixing design choice that is part of Nym and is claimed to be wrong. This led to a discussion on how to design a better mixing mechanism. We don't know exactly what is broken in the Poisson mix; there are some claims and some proposals on how to solve the problem suggested in the presentation. We have asked for more paperwork supporting their claims and the authors of the presentation are working on it. In the meantime, a proposal has been prepared based on suggestions from the presentation.
+- Looked at the Bittensor proposal (especially the idea of treating a node as a learning machine and combining it with a rewarding function), read through all of their papers. If we would like to use a similar approach then we must prove that the outcome of the mechanism cannot be biased - which might be very hard.
+- Optimization of mixnets: written the initial specification and some functions for the algorithm which uses the (asymptotic) lower bound on the probability that the fraction of compromised paths belongs to some interval to compute the optimal number of layers. The details are provided in this [document](https://www.notion.so/Analysis-of-failures-in-the-mix-network-feeef349720842759c59785af71c7c59?pvs=4#ad74be2581504c5caa6df3f020d7ce41).
+- Also, tried to tighten the bound on this probability using the AM–GM and Markov's inequalities, but trying this approach has not produced any improvements so far. The details are provided in this [document](https://www.notion.so/Analysis-of-failures-in-the-mix-network-feeef349720842759c59785af71c7c59?pvs=4#45dc0f1a32db4b6eb588a3621c6680f5).
+

content/nomos/updates/2024-04-15.md

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+---
+title: 2024-01-15 Nomos weekly
+tags:
+  - nomos-updates
+date: 2024-04-15
+lastmod: 2024-04-15
+draft: false
+description: Weekly update of Nomos
+---
+#### `Note`
+
+- This is a weekly update from the part of the team that didn't attend the All-Hands Event in Athens.
+
+## `Mixnet (Network Privacy)`
+
+### `Research`
+
+- Mixnet mixing problem: Based on the critique of the Loopix mixing design and proposed solutions, we have prepared an updated mixing [design](https://www.notion.so/Probably-Truly-Poisson-Mixing-ca267b7de0e945b197f14e2eaa93bd27).
+- We are going to prepare a Mixnet empirical analysis tool, so that we can make sure that our Mixnet design meets a proper level of anonymity that we expect. This will probably be based on our executable specification, so that anyone in the team can run it easily whenever they want. Based on it, our reference implementation (Rust) will expose similar metrics, so that we can monitor its behavior in the testnet (probably in collaboration with Vac). This will be useful for finding the Poisson problem mentioned in the previous weekly, for example.
+- Network bootstrapping/node registration: started thinking through the problem of network bootstrapping and the requirement of node registration. Looking for inspiration, details of the very early discussion can be found in this WIP [document](https://www.notion.so/Network-and-Privacy-2f0b5ca7fff04953a818b1f2b9354d05).
+- Optimization of mixnets: derived an upper bound on the probability that the fraction of compromised paths, α, is greater than some threshold 1α1​. This new upper bound is non-asymptotic, i.e., for mixnets of any size n sampled from the population of N nodes, and much simpler to compute numerically than previously considered asymptotic bounds. Initial results of comparing this upper bound with simulations suggest that the bound is “practical”, i.e., can be much smaller than the trivial bound of 1, and can be used in optimization of mixnets. The summary of this work is provided in this [document](https://www.notion.so/Analysis-of-failures-in-the-mix-network-feeef349720842759c59785af71c7c59#391563b4471041aca2a690bf76620690), and the detailed analysis can be found in the [Overleaf document](https://www.overleaf.com/project/64ff35bb625e39b2cad298e5). Further simulations and work on the algorithm are currently in progress.

content/nomos/updates/Athens Offsite Notes.md

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+---
+title: Athens Offsite Notes
+tags:
+  - nomos-updates
+  - athens-all-hands
+date: 2024-04-15
+lastmod: 2024-04-15
+draft: false
+description: Nomos Offsite Notes
+---
+### `Research`
+
+The Nomos team has attended several meetings with different teams and internally. Most of these have been in terms of finding the right solutions for the Coordination layer, including but not limited to:
+
+- Proof aggregation techniques
+- ZK commitment schemes
+- CL Inter-zone communication
+- Bridges
+
+Based on these discussions, we have compiled a preliminary version of the [Coordination Layer Specification](https://www.notion.so/CL-Specification-9a60bd41167d426abb0cd07a01aab905). There are still unknowns in this line of work, but we are of a unified mind that we are on the right track.
+
+### `Engineering`
+
+At Nomos, there are some needs that could be covered by Vac. To be more precise: understanding on what Vac provides that could be helpful, understanding what is required for Vac to start on that support, a plan/pipeline for both teams to interact. Some of the proposals:
+
+DST:
+
+- At the moment, the most prominent project is the analysis of the Nomos mixnet.
+- This will serve as the first project interaction as it is also the highest priority.
+- Ongoing conversations on what is needed are already in place.
+
+QA:
+
+- Nomos node is in high need of a testing plan. But no real bandwidth for it.
+- Vac has specialized people with the experience and the workforce.
+- Cryptarchia and NomosDA would be the focus. But this is gonna be delayed until seen how the mixnet collaboration goes.
+- As part of this **specifications** will be reviewed by the Vac team so they can be improved. Eventually specifications will be forked and served as part of Vac too.
+
+## `Comms`
+
+##### `Key Market Trends / Research
+
+Privacy Concerns:
+
+- Building our case for privacy our protection and viability of the project. We need to define the terms of privacy and create that shield. Privacy is necessary for personal items to be possible, health, business, institutions. 
+
+Technical Narratives:
+
+- Litenodes. Rules without a ruler
+- Data Availability Sampling 
+- Restaking
+
+Decentralisation 
+
+- We can be more decentralised than any other blockchain ever. 
+
+##### `Technical Milestones
+
+Product Development
+
+- 1st Milestone: Dark paper release, with a potential litepaper version.
+- 2nd Milestone: Testnet
+
+##### `Growth Plan 
+
+Target Audience: 
+
+- Degens: Refine for those who care and believers.
+- Institutions: Long term
+- Developers/Contributors
+- Node Operators: Long term.
+
+Movement Building (Community) - Educational Initiatives: 
+
+- Roles for incentivising culture, memes.
+- Ambassador program
+- Developer Outreach
+
+Incentive Programs 
+
+- Logos NFTs
+- When we have zones we can get them to deploy during hackathons?