1. Introduction
In part 7 we introduced the MLSAG ring signature scheme. Among other things, it safeguarded the anonymity of the signer. In part 8 we discussed the notions of Pedersen Commitments and Confidential Transactions. They were used to mask transaction amounts without compromising the proper bookkeeping of balances on the network. In this part, we combine the two in a new structure known as ring Confidential Transaction or ringCT.
It turns out that combining both concepts in a single mathematical construct requires additional work. In the first section, we explain why outright combination of the aforementioned concepts fails to preserve the anonymity of the sender.
In the second section we remedy the situation by introducing the notion of a non-zero commitment. This will form the basis of Monero’s ringCT scheme.
The last section goes over the mechanics of how a Monero transaction is created and includes references to relevant parts of the code base. We introduce two variants of ringCT, namely ringCT Type Full and ringCT Type Simple. We finally conclude with a breakdown of the components of a real-life Monero transaction.