Celebrating Success: Prover Incentives II Retrospective

Aleo's Testnet Beta network is a significant step forward in harnessing the power of ZK crypto. Thanks to our community of provers, we've validated the new coinbase puzzle and expanded the possibilities of proving. Now, we're thrilled to share the results of our second Prover Incentives Program.

The Challenge and Aleo’s Solution

In Aleo’s architecture, applications run off-chain while zkSNARKs (zero-knowledge proofs) are published on-chain, verifying the correctness of executions while preserving privacy. This design ensures efficiency and scalability, but generating these proofs is computationally intensive.

Aleo's innovative approach allows users to outsource proof generation to third-party proving services equipped with advanced computational resources. To incentivize these services, Aleo introduced AleoBFT, a hybrid consensus algorithm that combines proof-of-stake for instant block finality with a proof-of-work-style "coinbase puzzle." This puzzle rewards the development of faster zkSNARK proving techniques, driving continuous innovation.

Prover Incentives II: The Journey

Prover Incentives II aimed to inspire developers to advance zero-knowledge technology. The program ran from July 1-15th, targeting provers on Testnet Beta, with the Aleo Network Foundation offering 1 million credits to participants. The objective was to validate the coinbase reward mechanism and the underlying puzzle.

Celebrating the Results

The response to Prover Incentives II was phenomenal! To calculate the incentive credits for each participant:

1. Identify Eligible Participants: List participants with over 1,000 credits.

2. Calculate Total Credits: Sum the credits of all eligible participants.

3. Calculate Percentage Share: For each participant, divide their credits by the total credits.

4. Determine Incentive Credits: Multiply each participant's percentage share by 1 million.

Here are the top performers who showcased exceptional skill in zk proving:

The Impact and Future

AleoBFT is setting a new standard for blockchain consensus mechanisms with its unique blend of proof-of-stake finality and proof-of-work incentives. By accelerating zkSNARK proving, we are reducing costs and latency for program execution, benefiting all Aleo users.

What’s Next?

While Prover Incentives II has concluded, the journey is far from over. We encourage everyone to join our community on Discord and follow us on Twitter for the latest updates on future incentive programs and our progress towards the mainnet launch.

Usage of Aleo Credits

It’s important to keep in mind that:

• Credits earned during this incentive period will be distributed after the mainnet launch.

• Aleo credits are to be used as a payment mechanism for services on the Aleo mainnet.

• They are not investments or investment vehicles and should not be treated as such; their value lies in their utility for mainnet functionality.

By claiming your rewards, you represent, warrant, and acknowledge that you are:

• Not acquiring Aleo Credits as an investment and have no expectation of economic benefit or profit as a holder of Aleo Credits.

• Not relying on Aleo or any of its employees or representatives in any way.

• Not acquiring any equity or other ownership interest in Aleo by virtue of owning Aleo Credits.

• Not misrepresenting Aleo Credits as an investment or an opportunity to obtain an economic benefit or profit.

Thank you for supporting Aleo's testnet and helping validate our protocol and infrastructure ahead of the mainnet launch. We appreciate the folks who have dedicated their time, energy, and computing power to ensuring that the network is as efficient and secure as possible.

For more details, check out our official announcement. Let’s continue to push the boundaries and innovate together!