ZIP-0811: Q-Chain — Quasar Finality Block Standard

Abstract

ZIP-0811 mirrors Hanzo HIP-0079 into Zoo Network. Q-Chain is the compact finality-block log for the Quasar consensus engine on Zoo Network. Each Q-Block carries a few hundred bytes of header + roots (anchored to Z-Chain per ZIP-0810) plus a single ~3.3 KB Pulsar-M-65 threshold signature (ZIP-0812). Per-block bandwidth is O(1) in committee size; adding validators makes Z-Chain heavier, not Q-Chain.

The full Q-Block wire schema, the canonical transcript-binding function (TupleHash256 over 23 axes with customisation PULSAR-M-Q-BLOCK-V1), and the 11-clause acceptance rule live in HIP-0079. ZIP-0811 pins the Zoo-side facts.

Mirrored profile

ProfileID:           0x04  (ProfileZooStrictPQ)
ProfileName:         ZOO_STRICT_PQ
HashSuiteID:         SHA3_NIST                (0x01)
IdentitySchemeID:    ML_DSA_65                (0x42)
FinalitySchemeID:    PULSAR_M_65              (0x52)
HighValueSchemeID:   PULSAR_M_87              (0x53)
ProofPolicyID:       STARK_FRI_SHA3_PQ        (0x10)
AllowedBackends:     SP1_COMPRESSED_STARK, RISC0_SUCCINCT_STARK,
                     P3Q_PLONKY3_STARK_FRI, STONE_CAIRO_STARK_CPP,
                     STWO_CIRCLE_STARK
MinSoundnessBits:    128
MinHashOutputBits:   384
RequireTransparent:  true
ForbidPairings:      true
ForbidKZG:           true
ForbidTrustedSetup:  true
ForbidClassicalSNARKs: true
ForbidDevProofs:     true
ForbidFallbacks:     true

ProfileZooStrictPQ = 0x04. The profile hash is pinned at Zoo genesis and bound into Certificate.TranscriptHash() so a flipped byte breaks signature verification, not a string-equality check.

Production defaults (Zoo Network)

parameter	value
`version`	`0x0001`
`proof_system_id`	`0x10` (STARK_FRI_SHA3_PQ)
`hash_suite_id`	`0x01` (SHA3_NIST)
`sig_scheme_id`	`0x52` (Pulsar-M-65)
committee size `n`	64
BFT fault bound `f`	21
threshold `t`	43-of-64
epoch length	network-configurable; start 1h

High-value Zoo operations (conservation-bond redemption, ZRC-721 wildlife-NFT royalty disbursement at scale, DAO treasury moves under ZIP-0018) MAY upgrade sig_scheme_id to 0x53 Pulsar-M-87 for the duration of the operation. Devnet / CI may use 0x51 Pulsar-M-44; Zoo Network refuses 0x51.

Zoo-specific bindings

Wire encoder reused from luxfi/consensus/pkg/wire/qblock.go — one canonical encoder across Lux and Zoo, no Zoo-specific fork.
Driver reused from luxfi/consensus/protocol/quasar/; Zoo's Quasar driver runs the same WitnessSet.Run pipeline.
VM. Q-Chain VM for Zoo lives at zooai/node/chains/quasarvm (planned location); implements the 11-clause acceptance rule against the latest accepted Z-Chain EpochCommitment (ZIP-0810).
Test vectors cross-validate against luxfi/consensus/qblock-vectors/ modulo the ProfileID byte.

Compliance

A Zoo node MUST reject any Q-Block whose proof_system_id is a forbidden marker (0x80 / 0x81), whose hash_suite_id is not 0x01 SHA3_NIST, or whose sig_scheme_id is not in the configured network allowlist. Rejection MUST happen before threshold-signature verification.

A Q-Block carrying full validator ML-DSA-65 pubkeys, per-validator ML-DSA signatures, full DKG ceremony messages, per-validator attestation blobs, or non-epoch-boundary Z-Chain proof bytes violates the spec and MUST be rejected.

Governance

Zoo Labs Foundation owns this ZIP via the canonical zips.zoo.ngo process. Activation requires sibling activation of ZIP-0809 / 0810 / 0812.

References

HIP-0079 — canonical spec.
ZIP-0809 / 0810 / 0812 — sibling Zoo mirrors.
LP-170 — Lux-side mirror.
luxfi/consensus/pkg/wire/qblock.go — shared wire reference.
luxfi/consensus/protocol/quasar/round_digest.go — transcript binding.

Q-Chain — Quasar Finality Block Standard (Zoo mirror of HIP-0079)