Paper 2025/294
Neo: Lattice-based folding scheme for CCS over small fields and pay-per-bit commitments
Abstract
This paper introduces Neo, a new lattice-based folding scheme for CCS, an NP-complete relation that generalizes R1CS, Plonkish, and AIR. Neo's folding scheme can be viewed as adapting the folding scheme in HyperNova (CRYPTO'24), which assumes elliptic-curve based linearly homomorphic commitments, to the lattice setting. Unlike HyperNova, Neo can use “small” prime fields (e.g., over the Goldilocks prime). Additionally, Neo provides plausible post-quantum security.
Prior to Neo, folding schemes in the lattice setting, notably LatticeFold (ePrint 2024/257), worked with constraint systems defined over a cyclotomic polynomial ring. This structure allows packing a fixed batch of constraint systems over a small prime field into a single constraint system over a polynomial ring. However, it introduces significant overheads, both for committing to witnesses (e.g., the commitment scheme cannot take advantage of bit-width of values), and within the folding protocol itself (e.g., the sum-check protocol is run over cyclotomic polynomial rings). Additionally, the required ring structure places restrictions on the choice of primes (e.g., LatticeFold is not compatible with the Goldilocks field).
Neo addresses these problems, by drawing inspiration from both HyperNova and LatticeFold. A key contribution is a folding-friendly instantiation of Ajtai's commitments, with "pay-per-bit" commitment costs i.e., the commitment costs scale with the bit-width of the scalars (e.g., committing to a vector of bits is
Metadata
- Available format(s)
-
PDF
- Category
- Cryptographic protocols
- Publication info
- Preprint.
- Keywords
- Foldinglatticeproof systemssmall fieldscommitmentsCCS
- Contact author(s)
-
wdnguyen @ cs stanford edu
srinath @ microsoft com - History
- 2025-02-20: approved
- 2025-02-20: received
- See all versions
- Short URL
- https://ia.cr/2025/294
- License
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CC BY
BibTeX
@misc{cryptoeprint:2025/294, author = {Wilson Nguyen and Srinath Setty}, title = {Neo: Lattice-based folding scheme for {CCS} over small fields and pay-per-bit commitments}, howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2025/294}, year = {2025}, url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/294} }