Sarang: research funding for 2020 Q1

Hello! Dr. Sarang Noether here, ready to continue full-time research, development, and analysis in privacy-focused cryptography and applications. You can read my previous monthly reports for October and November to see what I've been up to recently.

This funding request covers the period from January through March 2020. There's plenty to do.

• Protocol research. Most work will likely focus on continuing updates to security models, proofs, and preprints for CLSAG, DLSAG, and Triptych. Additionally, I am working to add multisignature support for Triptych and RingCT 3.0 to extend functionality.
• Graph-theoretic analysis. This research is ongoing with colleague Surae Noether, with a lot of new code and math to review relating to blockchain analysis.

There is always plenty to do that arises unexpectedly. Expect code review, the usual updates and changes, outreach, literature review, proof-of-concept code and testing, documentation, and more.

I work hard to provide value in my research for the value provided here. As before, this request is for the equivalent of 10415 USD monthly, my assessment of fair market compensation for an independent Ph.D. researcher in the United States. Therefore, using a 14-day EMA of 49.46 USD/XMR from Kraken with a 10% buffer to account for recent volatility, the request total is 695 XMR. Further, note that this request will be paid in full as soon as it is funded, in order to reduce the effects of price fluctuations and ensure that contributed value is the value that reaches me.

Questions, comments, and feedback about this request are welcome.