Introduction
Paraloom is an open privacy Layer 2 for Solana, validated on commodity hardware.
What is Paraloom?
Paraloom is an open privacy Layer 2 for Solana. SOL bridges into a shielded pool, transfers move privately inside it, and withdrawals settle back to Solana — anchored by Groth16 zero-knowledge proofs over BLS12-381. The validator network is intentionally designed for commodity hardware: laptops, home PCs, single-board computers running a verify-only role.
The on-chain Anchor program holds the pool merkle root, the nullifier set, and the validator registry — replay protection and validator stake are enforced on Solana itself.
Two primitives
Private payments
Shielded pool with Groth16 proofs. Range-proven u64 values, Poseidon commitments, expiration-bound withdrawals.
Private compute (alpha)
WASM jobs verified by the same BFT cohort. Encrypted I/O via AES-256-GCM, ownership-proof bound output notes.
Why commodity hardware?
A Groth16 proof verifies in roughly ten milliseconds on a single CPU core. Validators are verify-only — proof generation stays with the user. That's small enough that any laptop, server-room leftover, or single-board computer can carry the role. No GPUs, no specialized silicon, no co-location.
Economic model
Withdrawal fees do not flow to a founder account. They are credited to the validator that led verification, on-chain, in the ValidatorAccount.pending_rewards field. Validators pull their earnings out via claim_rewards. This is the structural difference from privacy products that route fees to a single recipient: there is no founder cut to remove.
The four on-chain instructions that wire the loop (in programs/paraloom/src/lib.rs):
register_validator— anyone meetingMIN_VALIDATOR_STAKE(1 SOL) joins the validator setdistribute_fee— creditspending_rewardson the leader'sValidatorAccountclaim_rewards— validator withdraws accumulated earnings to their own walletslash_validator— burns 1–100% of stake for protocol violations, recorded intimes_slashed
The validator-quorum daemon that automatically calls distribute_fee after consensus is tracked in #164 and ships with the v0.6.0 milestone. Until then, fee distribution is a manual on-chain instruction; the underlying mechanism is unchanged.
What's anchored on Solana
Solana bridge
BridgeState.merkle_root, nullifier PDAs, replay protection via expiration_slot, all enforced by the Anchor program.
Validator registry
Validator registration, 1-SOL minimum stake, reputation tracking, slashing for equivocation and persistent unavailability.
BFT consensus
7-of-10 default threshold, configurable per network. Reputation-gated voting; slashing evidence recorded in protocol.
MPC trusted setup
BGM17 phase-2 ceremony with verifiable transcript. Mainnet activation gates on its completion.
Status
v0.5.0-rc5 — pre-mainnet. Audit pending. MPC ceremony in progress.
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Lines of Rust | ~33,000 |
| Tests passing | 407 |
| Commits | 246 |
| Proof verify time | ~10 ms / proof |
| Proof size | 192 bytes |
| Default BFT threshold | 7 of 10 |
| Coordinator HA | active / passive failover, < 30s RTO |
| License | MIT |
Where to go next
- Quick start — get a node running on devnet
- Architecture — system layers and module structure
- Validator guide — run a validator on a laptop
- MPC ceremony — contribute to the trusted setup
- Solana bridge — on-chain program reference