Celebrating 5 Years of Ghost Privacy: A Milestone, A Mission, and a Look Ahead (June 2025)
June 22nd marks the five year anniversary of Ghost’s genesis block. It’s hard to overstate what this means for a project that started with no VC funding, no corporate sponsors, and no centralized control — just a belief that privacy is a human right, and that financial freedom cannot exist without it.
Since our launch, we’ve built one of the most resilient privacy ecosystems in the space. From RingCT and increased ring sizes, to GhostVault, GSTVPN, SHELTR, AGVR, Ghost Pirate, and wGHOST, the network has grown not only in size but in purpose. Each tool, each integration, each fork represents a vote of confidence in a future where privacy is still worth protecting.
But anniversaries aren’t just about celebration. They’re about reflection. And more importantly, they’re about direction.
Ghost’s Mission Is Evolving
Five years ago, we set out to make privacy accessible for everyday people. Today, that goal is more important than ever. Surveillance is no longer an abstract fear. It’s the default. Governments, corporations, and now even AI models scrape, trace, and triangulate everything they can. This isn’t paranoia. It’s the world we live in.
Ghost’s future is focused on doing more with less. Leaner infrastructure. Sharper tools. Deeper integrations. And most importantly, smarter privacy protocols.
Dandelion++: Reintroducing Network-Level Privacy
One of the most exciting technical initiatives underway is the reintegration of Dandelion++, a critical privacy layer designed to obscure the origin of transactions at the network layer. In the original implementation, transactions are broadcast through a two phase process (stem and fluff) to prevent IP address leakage and traceability. However, we’re not simply turning Dandelion++ back on. We’re rethinking it.
We’re currently researching several major improvements to the protocol:
- Timing Variability: Introducing randomized timing offsets in the stem phase to reduce statistical correlation attacks.
- Adaptive PageRank Progression (APRP): An improved forwarding algorithm that prioritizes nodes based on dynamic network behavior and path anonymity, not just static topology.
- Onion-Routing Concepts: Incorporating basic onion style encryption within the stem path to further reduce visibility across hops.
- Overlay Anon Network Compatibility: Optional routing over Tor or I2P, giving users the flexibility to choose their preferred level of anonymity.
These enhancements are not easy to implement. They require new research, rigorous testing, and careful integration into the Ghost protocol stack. Be that as it may, they are underway and they represent the kind of high impact development Ghost is built for.
Bulletproofs++: Scaling Zero-Knowledge Proofs
A core technical focus is the development of Bulletproofs++, our next generation range proof protocol that further shrinks proof sizes and speeds up verification without altering security assumptions. Building on the original Bulletproofs and Monero’s integration of Bulletproofs+, Ghost is pursuing both proven optimizations and novel enhancements:
Optimizations based on the underlying protocol
- Weighted Inner-Product Argument: Modern Bulletproofs+ replaces the original inner-product proof with a weighted argument that eliminates extra blinding factors. This removes three field elements per proof, trimming about 96 bytes from each range proof under the existing 128-bit security level of our elliptic curve implementation.
- Multi-Output Aggregation and δ Calibration: By aggregating proofs for multiple outputs into one batch and tuning the delta term to account for cross-output constraints, we can achieve an up to 80 percent reduction in proof data for multi-output transactions.
- Batch Verification: In Monero, their nodes verify many proofs in a single multi-exponentiation pass. This batch check cuts CPU load on full nodes and light clients, making node sync times significantly faster.
- Fixed Range Specialization: Modern integrations of Bulletproofs+ hardcode a 64-bit range circuit with compile time generator tables. This specialization removes unnecessary generality and yields minor space and time savings compared to a variable-range implementation.
- Performance Gains: Research shows that there is roughly a 20% faster proof generation and 10 to 15% faster verification for Bulletproofs+ versus the original Bulletproofs protocol in practical tests.
Ghost’s Cutting-Edge Innovations
- Adaptive Generators: We are experimenting with dynamically selecting Pedersen base points per proof rather than using a static set. By tailoring the generator vector to the specific transaction collapsing unused positions or grouping common outputs, we can reduce proof dimension and eliminate redundant curve points. This customization shrinks proof sizes and enables precomputed multi exponentiation strategies delivering faster verifications with lower CPU overhead, all without compromising security.
- Circuit Customization: Beyond the 64-bit binary circuit, Ghost is researching larger-base decompositions for common transaction patterns. Using higher radices could cut constraint count and proof transcripts further.
- Parallel Inner-Product Optimization: Ghost’s implementation will explore parallel multi-exponentiation and CPU-level concurrency optimizations for inner-product proof generation and verification, aiming to slash prover and verifier time in high-volume scenarios.
These optimizations lay the foundation for Bulletproofs++. We’re taking proven advances and our own experiments to deliver proofs that are smaller, faster and built for real world use. With Bulletproofs++ now rolling we’ll move on to refundable anonymous channels and the next wave of network level privacy.
Scoped Linkability and Refundable Anonymous Channels
We are evolving Ghost’s signature layer to support on-chain refundable channels. Today we use MLSAG for multi input privacy. To enable true anonymous refunds we will upgrade to DLSAG. DLSAG adds scoped linkability so that only the two channel participants see the key-image reuse that prevents double spends. Everyone else sees each deposit, update, or refund as an independent private transaction.
With this upgrade we can build subscription style or time locked channels on chain. Users deposit funds into a stealth output, exchange signed DLSAG state updates off-chain, and if a counterparty vanishes they broadcast a pre-signed refund on chain. The single key image per channel prevents double spends but never reveals linkages outside the channel. No extra metadata leaks. No trusted intermediary. Just anonymous, refundable on-chain payments.
Ghost Chat
Ghost Chat is a lightweight locally encrypted messaging client using AES-256-CBC encryption. It runs entirely on your device, so no messages or metadata ever leave your control. Every chat is peer-to-peer and shielded from prying eyes.
Beyond private messaging, Ghost Chat bundles a toolbox of privacy-first features:
- Password generator for creating strong secrets
- Network scanner for mapping devices and services
- Port scanner for testing open interfaces
- WIFI analyzer to monitor signal strength and security
- Ghost blockchain stats so you can track activity in real time
- SHELTR wallet integration for seamless on-chain transfers
- And more tools to come
Each feature is built to run offline or locally, with all data encrypted at rest. No external servers, no hidden trackers, no metadata leaks. Ghost Chat is the first step toward a full privacy toolkit that grows with the Ghost ecosystem.
We are very excited to release this deliverable very soon! Please stay tuned for cross-platform support and deeper integrations as we continue to expand what Ghost can do for your privacy!
Thank you for standing with us for five strong years. Here’s to the next five!
— The Ghost Team
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