FAQ

Aleo is a ZK L1.

In other words, it is a blockchain that leverages zero-knowledge proof technology to enable default privacy for programmability and transactions with unlimited scalability.
Aleo stands for: Autonomous Ledger Executions Off-chain

A good conceptual reference for point can be:
. ZCash for private transactions (but limited programmability)
. Ethereum for programmability (but limited to no privacy)

Aleo has three key properties:
1. Privacy with Programmability.
a. Privacy by default setting increases privacy for all users. Native programmability with privacy allows developers to integrate privacy into applications without having to go through the hassle of building a private application-specific chain.

2. Avoiding Re-Execution.
a. Efficiency and scalability are achieved through off-chain execution that are mathematically guaranteed through zero-knowledge proofs and through this, the need for redundant re-execution that transparent-default blockchains suffer from is avoided. Off-chain execution leads
to less redundant computation, as all nodes don’t execute the same transaction. Since proofs are generally smaller than the program being run, both verifying and communicating it is faster. This also reduces storage burden as proofs require less storage space than the related
transaction data. While it’s fairly quick to generate proofs for simple transfers, proof generation for larger, more complex circuits is still quite slow and computationally intense. It’s an active area of research to reduce this friction.

3. Unlimited runtime.
a. There is no notion of gas. Off-chain execution doesn’t consume the chain’s resources in the same way as on-chain execution. The time it takes validators to verify a program proof is not directly linked to the program’s runtime, which means a program could (in theory) run for
months and in the end boil down to a small proof that’s quick to verify. Unlimited runtime enables more complex computations to be done on blockchains, such as linear regressions.

snarkOS is a decentralized operating system for zero-knowledge applications. This code forms the backbone of Aleo network, which verifies transactions and stores the encrypted state applications in a publicly-verifiable manner.

Aleo validators are infrastructure service providers who secure the network through AleoBFT, a Proof of Stake based consensus mechanism that leverages the latest state-of-the-art consensus research, Bullshark, and its directed acyclic graph (DAG) Narwhal-style memory pool.