SoquObscura Confidential Transactions¶
Status: research (deployment not scheduled)
SoquObscura is Soqucoin's lattice-based confidential-asset system, in research. Its deployment (DEPLOYMENT_SOQUOBSCURA) is not scheduled on any network and is subject to the second external audit phase before any activation. It supersedes both Lattice-BP++ and the LatticeFold+ path. The performance figures below are research-prototype measurements, not production guarantees. Soundness work is not complete: the range-proof construction is still under review and no production prover exists yet, so nothing here should be read as a shipped privacy guarantee. Patent pending: U.S. Provisional Application No. 64/131,585, filed August 11, 2026 (SOQ-P010).
SoquObscura hides transaction amounts on a quantum-safe chain while still letting every validator confirm that no coins were created or destroyed. It is the successor to two earlier research directions, Lattice-BP++ and LatticeFold+, and consolidates their goals into a single construction with block-level aggregation.
What it proves¶
A confidential transaction replaces the visible amount with a lattice commitment and carries proofs that keep the ledger sound without revealing values:
- Range proof: the committed amount is within a valid, non-negative range.
- Balance proof: inputs equal outputs plus fees, so no value is created or destroyed.
- Verifiable encryption (VE): where required, the committed value is recoverable by an authorized party, proven correct without disclosing it.
Construction¶
SoquObscura is built on published lattice proof systems rather than a bespoke scheme:
| Layer | Basis |
|---|---|
| Commitments | ABDLOP lattice commitments |
| Proof system | LNP22 (Lyubashevsky, Nguyen, Plancon, CRYPTO 2022), generated via LaZer |
| Block aggregation | LaBRADOR (Beullens, Seiler, CRYPTO 2023) |
| Hardness | Module lattices (same family as ML-DSA-44) |
The reference proof toolkit is LaZer (IBM Research, CCS 2024, MIT license), which implements both LNP22 and LaBRADOR. Building on a published, independently studied construction is a deliberate choice: it gives the soundness argument an academic basis rather than resting on a one-off design.
Exactness architecture
Lattice proofs carry a small amount of approximate slack. SoquObscura confines that slack to non-consensus-critical margins and enforces the boundary with compile-time static assertions, so the consensus-critical checks remain exact and identical on every node.
Block-level aggregation¶
Per-transaction proofs are large. LaBRADOR aggregates a block's confidential-transaction proofs into a single succinct pack proof, so a validator's per-block cost stays roughly constant as confidential-transaction volume grows.
Consensus integration¶
OP_SOQUOBSCURA_RANGEPROOF = 0xfa (witness version 4). EvalScript does not verify a SoquObscura CT; DEPLOYMENT_SOQUOBSCURA is NOT_SCHEDULED on every network.
Confidential transactions are opt-in and coexist with standard transparent transactions on the same chain.
Research-prototype measurements¶
Measured on a Xeon reference machine. These are prototype numbers for the operations that exist today, not activation-ready guarantees.
| Relation | Prove | Verify | Proof size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Range | 42.3 ms | 20.7 ms | 17,862 B |
| Balance | 53.8 ms | 29.2 ms | 20,584 B |
| Verifiable encryption | 99.3 ms | 52.0 ms | 22,534 B |
A full reference transaction (two range proofs, one balance proof, four verifiable-encryption proofs) measures 146,444 bytes, about 536 ms to prove and about 279 ms to verify. Permanent on-chain commitments are 1,739 bytes each.
Relationship to earlier work¶
SoquObscura supersedes Lattice-BP++ (SOQ-P002), which established the lattice-commitment and range-proof direction but had incomplete soundness enforcement, and LatticeFold+, an earlier batch-verification research track. Both are deprecated, retained as reference, and not active on any network.