Carrot

Carrot (Cryptonote Address on Rerandomizable-RingCT-Output Transactions) is an upcoming upgrade for Monero's FCMP++ protocol. It’s designed to bring new privacy features like forward secrecy and outgoing view keys, while remaining compatible with existing Monero addresses. Another key protocol being developed alongside Carrot is Jamtis, and Carrot is designed to be indistinguishable from Jamtis on the blockchain.

What is Carrot?

Carrot is an addressing protocol that helps improve the privacy and usability of Monero transactions. It builds upon Monero’s existing privacy mechanisms by adding new features such as forward secrecy, outgoing view keys, and better protection against certain types of attacks. At the same time, it maintains backward compatibility with existing Monero addresses.

How Does Carrot + Monero Work?

Carrot builds on Monero’s core privacy features, like Cryptonote addresses and RingCT (Ring Confidential Transactions), by improving how transaction details are handled:

  • Privacy for the future: Carrot makes transactions safe from even future attackers who might have advanced technology (like quantum computers) that can break traditional cryptography.
  • Janus Attack Protection: A Janus attack tries to link two addresses to the same wallet. Carrot includes special protections to prevent this kind of attack.
  • Better transaction handling: Carrot addresses some of the weaknesses in Monero’s older transaction models, especially issues where certain transactions could accidentally burn funds due to duplicated output keys (burning bug).

Carrot is designed to be indistinguishable from Jamtis on-chain, which is important for Monero’s privacy and fungibility.

What Makes Carrot Useful?

  1. Enhanced Privacy: It makes it much harder for anyone, including attackers with advanced technology, to figure out who is involved in a transaction or to link transactions to specific addresses.

  2. Protection from Known Attacks: Carrot helps defend against known vulnerabilities in Monero’s older address protocols, like the burning bug and Janus attack.

  3. Forward Secrecy: Carrot protects past transaction details even if someone manages to break Monero’s cryptography in the future. If you used Carrot, they wouldn’t be able to see the details of those transactions.

  4. Backward Compatibility: Carrot works with both old and new Monero addresses, so users won’t need to worry about breaking compatibility when it rolls out.

Who Can Use It?

Carrot will be available for both new and existing Monero wallets. However, only wallets generated with Carrot’s new key hierarchy will get some of the more advanced features (like enhanced forward secrecy). Existing Monero wallets will still benefit from many of Carrot’s upgrades without needing to make any changes.

How to Start Using It?

Carrot is not yet live—it is part of the upcoming FCMP++ upgrade to Monero. You can track its development on GitHub. Advanced users and developers can follow its progress and learn more about the technical specifications here.

For those looking to learn more about Monero, Carrot, and the future of privacy on the Monero blockchain, stay tuned to updates from the Monero development community.