Block-wide Signature Aggregation via SNARKs

The current state of CPU/GPU requirements for various provers remains undefined, necessitating further research and data collection. Analyzing the benchmarks from the Flock paper, one can infer that a 10-thread CPU prover is capable of processing approximately 338,000 SHA256 compressions each second. This extrapolation suggests that such a setup could handle roughly 482 signature verifications per second based on specific parameters (h=36 d=4 a=13 k=15 w=4). Given this rate, proving a block consisting of around 10,000 signatures would take about 20 seconds. However, these calculations are preliminary and based on the assumption that the verification processes use a single SHA256 circuit as their batching unit.

For our project's purposes, transitioning to a SPHINCS verifier circuit as the batching unit could deviate from these initial estimates. The performance impact—whether positive or negative—of this change has yet to be assessed due to a lack of relevant testing with such circuits in existing studies like the Flock paper. More comprehensive testing and data collection are crucial to establish a solid foundation for accurate projections of CPU/GPU capabilities in handling more complex or different cryptographic verification circuits. This area of inquiry forms the current focus of ongoing research efforts.