MERKI

Project

Later ideas

Ideas beyond the first MERKI release: many-time keys, cheaper verification, message signing and modules, each with the trade-off it brings.

Many signatures per published key

A Merkle tree over many one-time keys (the XMSS idea) lets one published root cover thousands of signatures. It would make off-chain message signing possible and remove the next-key field, at the cost of a larger signature and state that must be tracked even more carefully.

Cheaper verification

  • A larger Winternitz parameter (w = 256) halves the signature size and raises the hashing work per chain.
  • A succinct proof that a signature verifies could replace the data, if a proof system with acceptable assumptions is used.

Modules

A modular account standard (ERC-7579) would let the keyhold check live as a validator module inside other smart accounts, instead of being an account of its own.