Communications in Cryptology IACR CiC

Baloo: Algebraic Lookup Arguments

Authors

Arantxa Zapico, Ariel Gabizon, Dmitry Khovratovich, Mary Maller, Carla Ràfols
Arantxa Zapico ORCID
Ethereum Foundation, Singapore
arantxa dot zapico at ethereum dot org
Ariel Gabizon
Aztec Labs, UK
Dmitry Khovratovich ORCID
Ethereum Foundation, Singapore
Mary Maller
Ethereum Foundation, Singapore
PQ Shield, UK
Carla Ràfols ORCID
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain

Abstract

We present Baloo, a protocol for lookup tables where the prover work is linear on the number of lookups and independent of the table size. Baloo is built over previous lookup arguments, and the framework for SNARKs from Ràfols and Zapico (CRYPTO 21). Our protocol supports commit-and-prove expansions: the prover selects the subtable containing the elements used in the lookup, that is unknown to the verifier, commits to it and later proves its relation with the committed elements. This feature makes Baloo especially suitable for proving input-output relations on hash functions, and in particular to instantiate the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

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History
Submitted: 2024-10-09
Accepted: 2025-03-11
Published: 2025-07-07
How to cite

Arantxa Zapico, Ariel Gabizon, Dmitry Khovratovich, Mary Maller, and Carla Ràfols, Baloo: Algebraic Lookup Arguments. IACR Communications in Cryptology, vol. 2, no. 2, Jul 07, 2025, doi: 10.62056/ae890l5vt.

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