Summary
An article explaining how Rate Limiting Nullifiers (RLN) enable gasless L2 transactions — removing the need for users to hold native tokens to interact with the network. Covers the ZK proof mechanism, the multi-prover architecture, and the deny-list/decentralized-slashing model. The RLN prover milestone is complete, the whitepaper is delivered, and the multi-message-id feature is now fully implemented across all modules.
Audience
Primary: ZK/cryptography engineers and L2 developers interested in novel fee models and spam prevention. Secondary: DApp developers looking for gasless UX patterns, DeFi researchers studying economic models.
Key Angles
- The problem: gas fees as a UX barrier and how RLN offers an alternative
- How RLN proofs work — membership sets, nullifiers, rate limiting via ZK
- Multi-burn RLN: now complete — burning multiple IDs in a single proof for higher throughput, implemented across all modules, examples, and documentation
- The gasless L2 architecture: prover modules, shared databases, aggregator nodes
- Deny list abstraction and decentralized slashing model (aggregator + slashing node code in progress)
- RLN membership allocation service going public — repo prepared at logos-lez-rln, decoupling payment from registration
- Batch Groth16 proving (~2.5x speedup) from storage/AnonComms collaboration on partial proof generation
- Practical integration path for developers
Sources
Specs & Code
- RLN v1 spec:
rfc-index/docs/ift-ts/raw/32/rln-v1.md - RLN v2 spec:
rfc-index/docs/ift-ts/raw/rln-v2.md - Multi-message-ID burn RLN spec:
rfc-index/docs/ift-ts/raw/multi-message_id-burn-rln.md - ZeroKit API spec:
rfc-index/docs/ift-ts/raw/zerokit-api.md - RLN prover shared DB PR (milestone achieved): status-network-monorepo#127
- Multi-burn complete implementation (all modules, examples, docs): zerokit#375
- RLN aggregator node + slashing node: status-network-monorepo#139
- Gasless L2 RFC PR: rfc-index#286
- RLN membership allocation (public repo): logos-lez-rln — reworked auth between registry, merkle tree, and tokens
Research & Writing
- Gasless L2 whitepaper (Overleaf — internal): https://www.overleaf.com/project/692fda5d2d807ddc704fd353
- Speeding up RLN proofs forum post: https://forum.vac.dev/t/speeding-up-rln-proofs/663
- Partial Groth16 proof generation for RLN: zerokit#373 (storage team collaboration)
- Concurrent proof generation optimization: nim-libp2p#2069
Context
- AnonComms FURPS — RLN:
roadmap/content/anoncomms/furps/rln.md - AnonComms FURPS — ZeroKit RLN:
roadmap/content/anoncomms/furps/zerokit-rln.md - AnonComms milestone (delivered): https://github.com/logos-co/anoncomms-pm/milestone/4
- New milestone: Extend gasless L2 with multi-burn RLN and decentralized slashing
Notes
- Multi-burn is now shipped, not preview — update tone accordingly.
- The membership allocation service going public is a developer-facing milestone worth highlighting.
- Batch Groth16 proving (~2.5x speedup) from the storage team’s collaboration shows cross-team synergy — good narrative.
- LEZ interaction with time-based conditions for payment streams is an open research question — AnonComms is currently going through LEZ tutorial and writing up timestamp/block context exposure analysis.
- Slashing node + aggregator node still in progress — frame as the enforcement layer being built.