Highlights

  • New PIR scheme: LeanPIR. Keewoo designed a new GPU-friendly scheme that outperforms insPIRe across all dimensions: ~30 ms server runtime for a 32 GB database, sub-second preprocessing (down from ~10 s), and <100 KB communication. It supersedes the earlier insPIRe GPU work and is being integrated into our Ethereum balance retrieval demo.

  • VIA spec approaching v1. Turan’s VIA spec implementation is progressing well, covering VIA, VIA-B, and VIA-CB variants with reusable lattice primitives. The /primitives module is designed to be shared across all ReSPIRe-esque implementations.

  • Arti bootstrapping breakthrough. A Brotli-compressed ~3 MB bundle now replaces fetching thousands of micro-descriptors — a fundamentally different and much faster approach than the standard Tor bootstrap method. Working demo at tor-js-gateway.voltrevo.com, docs at voltrevo.github.io/arti.

  • Ethrex collaboration for UBT. Kicked off a collaboration with Ethrex for client diversity on the UBT front, complementing ongoing work with Geth’s Stateless team.

  • Presenting at Stateless Summit on PIR and TorJS.

Progress by Workstream

PIR for Ethereum State

  • LeanPIR scheme designed — ~30 ms for 32 GB, sub-second preprocessing, <100 KB communication
  • Harmony integrated into the PIR benchmarks
  • VIA spec v1 nearing completion via PAP-2.1 grant
  • PIR demo built: sidecar pattern with GPU-accelerated insPIRe for real-time ETH balance queries (cold start data from Google BigQuery, 100–300 account updates simulated per block)
  • Design post receiving feedback, targeting publication before April 1
  • Confirmed with Ling Ren (UIUC): doubly-stateless PIR is the right priority; pre-processed schemes (Plinko, RMS) best reserved for immutable archival data

TorJS / Embedded Arti

  • Brotli-compressed ~3 MB bootstrap bundle replaces standard micro-descriptor fetching — fundamentally faster cold start
  • Giving JavaScript direct socket access (bypassing WebSocket) matches raw Rust Arti performance in Node.js
  • ~15,000 lines of WASM compatibility code under review for upstream merge with Tor Project
  • Q2 scope shaping up: Ethereum-sandboxed anonymous network (WebRTC transport as first milestone), wallet SDK integrations, messenger app support

Verifiable UBT

  • Ethrex collaboration kicked off for client diversity
  • UBT state checker UI developed
  • Geth integration waiting on Stateless team bug fixes and performance improvements

Looking Ahead to Q2

Q2 plan is being finalized (March 31). Key themes:

  1. PIR productionization — sharded design with LeanPIR, VIA, and RMS/Harmony as initial engines; GPU acceleration collaboration
  2. Arti integrations — Ethereum-sandboxed anonymous network, WebRTC transport, wallet SDK adoption
  3. UBT shadow chain — running provably MPT-equivalent shadow chain
  4. Initial sync with Ling Ren’s group: Ling provided valuable feedback on the sharded design and the Ethereum use case, and we discussed potential collaboration