# A Snarky Exponential Function

Simulating real numbers using finite field arithmetic

In Coda, we use the proof-of-stake protocol Ouroboros for consensus. Naturally since this is Coda, that means we have to check proofs-of-stake inside a SNARK.

Fig. 2: The minimum dominating set of a graph

A proof-of-stake for a person with some amount of stake aa in Ouroboros is a random number ss between 0 and 1 (which one provably has generated fairly) such that ss is less than some threshold depending on aa. Concretely, that threshold is 1−(1/2)aT1 – (1/2)^{\frac{a}{T}} where TT is the total amount of stake in the system.

It’s important to use a threshold of this form because it means that the density of blocks over time does not depend on the distribution of stake.

If you know anything about SNARKs, you know that inside of a SNARK all we can do is arithmetic (that is, addition and multiplication) in a finite field FpF_p. It’s not at all clear how we can compute a fractional number raised to a fractional power!

We’ll go through a very cool technique for computing such a thing. All the code for doing what we’ll talk about is implemented using snarky and can be found here.

The technique will go as follows:

1. We’ll use Taylor series to approximately reduce the problem to doing arithmetic with real numbers.
2. We’ll approximate the arithmetic of real numbers using the arithmetic of rational numbers.
3. We’ll then approximate the arithmetic of rational numbers using integer arithmetic.
4. Finally, we’ll simulate integer arithmetic using finite field arithmetic.

## Taylor series

First we need a way to reduce the problem of computing an exponentiation to multiplications and additions in a finite field. As a first step, calculus lets us reduce exponentiation to multiplication and addition over the real numbers (a field, but not a finite one) using a Taylor series.

Specifically, we know that

1−(1/2)x=−log⁡(1/2)x−(log⁡(1/2)x)22!−(log⁡(1/2)x)33!−…=log⁡(2)x−(log⁡(2)x)22!+(log⁡(2)x)33!−…\begin{aligned} 1 – (1/2)^x &= -\log(1/2) x – \frac{(\log(1/2) x)^2}{2!} – \frac{(\log(1/2) x)^3}{3!} – \dots \\ &= \log(2) x – \frac{(\log(2) x)^2}{2!} + \frac{(\log(2) x)^3}{3!} – \dots \end{aligned}

We can truncate this Taylor series to get polynomials TnT_n

Tn=log⁡(2)x−(log⁡(2)x)22!+⋯+(log⁡(2)x)nn!=log⁡(2)x−log⁡(2)22!x2+⋯+log⁡(2)nn!xn\begin{aligned} T_n &= \log(2) x – \frac{(\log(2) x)^2}{2!} + \dots + \frac{(\log(2) x)^n}{n!} \\ &= \log(2) x – \frac{\log(2)^2}{2!} x^2 + \dots + \frac{\log(2)^n}{n!} x^n \end{aligned}

by taking the first nn terms. The Taylor polynomials nearly compute 1−(1/2)x1 – (1/2)^x, but with some error that gets smaller as you take more and more terms. You can see this in the image of the actual function (in blue) along with the first few Taylor polynomials (in black).

It turns out there’s a handy formula which lets us figure out how many terms we need to take to make sure we get the first kk bits of the output correct, so we can just use that and truncate at the appropriate point for the amount of precision that we want.

## From reals to rationals

Multiplication and addition are continuous, which means if you change the inputs by only a little bit, the outputs change by only a little bit.

Explicitly, if instead of computing x1+x2x_1 + x_2, we compute a1+a2a_1 + a_2 where aia_i is xix_i plus some small error eie_i, we have a1+a2=(x1+e1)+(x2+e2)=(x1+x2)+(e1+e2)a_1 + a_2 = (x_1 + e_1) + (x_2 + e_2) = (x_1 + x_2) + (e_1 + e_2) so the result is close to x1+x2x_1 + x_2 (since e1+e2e_1 + e_2 is small).

Similarly for multiplication we have a1a2=(x1+e1)(x2+e2)=x1x2+e1x1+e2x2+e1e2a1 a2 = (x1 + e1)(x2 + e2) = x1 x2 + e1 x1 + e2 x2 + e1 e2. If e1,e2e1, e2 are small enough compared to x1x_1 and x2x_2, then e1x1+e2x2+e1e2e1 x1 + e2 x2 + e1 e2 will be small as well, and so a1a2a1 a2 will be close to x1x2x1 x2.

What this means is that instead of computing the Taylor polynomial

log⁡(2)x−log⁡(2)22!x2+⋯+log⁡(2)nn!xn\log(2) x – \frac{\log(2)^2}{2!} x^2 + \dots + \frac{\log(2)^n}{n!} x^n

using real numbers like log⁡(2)\log(2) (which is irrational), we can approximate each coefficient log⁡(2)k/k!\log(2)^k / k! with a nearby rational number and compute using those instead! By continuity, we’re guaranteed that the result will be close to the actual value (and we can quantify exactly how close if we want to).

## From rationals to integers

There are a few ways to approximate rational arithmetic using integer arithmetic, some of which are more efficient than others.

The first is to use arbitrary rational numbers and simulate rational arithmetic exactly. We know that

ab+cd=ad+bcbd\frac{a}{b} + \frac{c}{d} = \frac{a d + b c}{b d}

so if we represent rationals using pairs of integers, we can simulate rational arithmetic perfectly. However, there is a bit of an issue with this approach, which is that the integers involved get really huge really quickly when you add numbers together. For example, 1/2+1/3+⋯+1/n1/2 + 1/3 + \dots + 1/n has n!n! as its denominator, which is a large number.

That’s a problem for us inside the SNARK, because we’re working with a finite field and want to make sure there is no overflow.

A better approach is to use rational numbers whose denominator is a power of two. These numbers are called dyadic rationals and are basically the same thing as floating point numbers.

Here, addition can be simulated using integers as follows. A rational number a2k\frac{a}{2^k} is represented as the pair (a,k)(a, k). Say k≤mk \leq m. For addition, we have

a2k+b2m=2m−ka+b2m\frac{a}{2^k} + \frac{b}{2^m} = \frac{2^{m – k} a + b}{2^m}

so the denominator of a sum is the max of the denominators of the inputs. That means that the denominators don’t get huge when you add a bunch of numbers (they will stay as big as the largest input to the sum).

Moreover, any rational number can be approximated by a number of this form (it’s just the binary expansion of that number).

## From integers to a finite field

To recap, we’ve done the following.

1. We approximated our exponential 1−(1/2)x1 – (1/2)^x by arithmetic over the reals using Taylor polynomials.
2. We approximated real arithmetic by rational arithmetic using continuity.
3. We approximated rational arithmetic by the arithmetic of dyadic-rationals/floats, again using continuity. Moreover, we saw that floating point arithmetic can easily be simulated exactly using integer arithmetic.

Now our final step is to simulate integer arithmetic using the arithmetic of our prime order field Fp\mathbb{F}_p. But this step is actually the easiest! As long as we are careful about numbers not overflowing, it’s the same thing. That is, if we know ahead of time that a+b<pa + b < p, then we can safely compute a+bmod pa + b \mod p, knowing that the result will be the same as over the integers. The same is true for multiplication. So as long as we don’t do too many multiplications, the integers representing the dyadic rationals we’re computing with won’t get too big, and so we will be okay. And if we don’t take too many terms of the Taylor series, this will be the case.

## Conclusion

Let’s survey the net result of all this approximation: We have a very efficient way of approximately computing an exponential function on fractional inputs inside of a SNARK, in such a way that we can have concrete bounds on the error of the approximation. Pretty cool! This enables us to use a threshold function for Ouroboros that guarantees a constant density of blocks regardless of the distribution of stake.

Mina is the world’s lightest blockchain, powered by participants. Rather than apply brute computing force, Mina uses advanced cryptography and recursive zk-SNARKs to design an entire blockchain that is about 22kb, the size of a couple of tweets. It is the first layer-1 to enable efficient implementation and easy programmability of zero knowledge smart contracts (zkApps). With its unique privacy features and ability to connect to any website, Mina is building a private gateway between the real world and crypto—and the secure, democratic future we all deserve. Mina is stewarded by the Mina Foundation, a public benefit corporation headquartered in the United States.

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