FCMP++ Optimization Competition

Guy Fawkes 2025.05.30 2 min read

Officially announcing a contest to optimize two libraries used in Monero’s proposed upgrade to FCMP++: helioselene and ec-divisors. Read all contest rules and details here.

The winner for helioselene will receive 100 XMR, and the winner for ec-divisors will receive 250 XMR. This Monero will be paid out from the Monero General Fund.

The contest will open for submissions Monday, April 28th and will stop accepting submissions Monday, June 30th.

Why

helioselene is a library implementing two curves, “Helios” and “Selene,” which form a curve cycle towering Ed25519. Using a “tower cycle” over Ed25519 allows Monero to re-use the existing anonymity set while upgrading to FCMP++. This library is a critical component used in all aspects of FCMP++. Optimizing this library will therefore benefit all user-facing components of FCMP++ (daemon sync, wallet sync, and transaction construction).

ec-divisors is a library implementing the calculation of divisors of elliptic curve points. These lead to efficient verification of scalar multiplications, as posited by Liam Eagen. FCMP++ uses EC Divisors to improve efficiency generally. This competition is focused on optimizing divisor construction, which affects transaction construction.

Who can participate

We will accept submissions from anyone (including anonymous users) provided that the submission meets all competition rules. If you have experience optimizing cryptographic libraries and/or are interested in contributing to Monero, here is as good of a chance as any!