Skip to content

PITCH.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
61 lines (43 loc) · 3.02 KB

PITCH.md

File metadata and controls

61 lines (43 loc) · 3.02 KB
Raw

PITCH — 2-minute video script (Sereno)

Target: ≤ 2:00. Name the hackathon in the first seconds; show the working demo; end with the repo.

Second-by-second script

0:00 – 0:10 — Cold open

"This is Sereno, built during the MLH Midnight Hackathon, July 2026 — a shielded remittance corridor that regulators can actually live with."

On screen: Sereno + MLH Midnight Hackathon 2026. Sereno = the night watchman who called “y sereno” at midnight in Buenos Aires.

0:10 – 0:30 — Problem

"Latin American remittances force a bad choice: formal rails with total surveillance, or informal rails with zero compliance. Families shouldn't publish their finances to send money home, and regulators shouldn't accept a black box."

0:30 – 1:10 — Live demo: shield and transfer

"Sereno is private in the middle and accountable at the edges. I shield funds — the deposit amount is public. Then I transfer to a recipient. The chain sees a commitment and a nullifier — no public amount, no linkable parties. The auditor alone can decrypt an in-circuit ElGamal ciphertext of that amount. Zerocash notes, on Midnight Compact."

On screen: CLI shield → transfer → ledger (commitments, nullifiers, TVL; no public per-transfer amounts).

1:10 – 1:40 — Live demo: selective disclosure

"When a request lands, the note owner runs discloseToAuditor and proves in-circuit that their commitment opens to this exact amount — on ledger, under that request only. Accountable privacy, not a backdoor."

1:40 – 1:55 — Why Midnight

"Compact gives us commitments, Merkle trees, and private witnesses as first-class primitives, with client-side proving."

1:55 – 2:00 — Close

"Sereno: send money home, keep your privacy, keep the regulator satisfied. Repo is public — thanks!"

Judging criteria bullets

Technology

  1. Zerocash-style note lifecycle in one Compact contract.
  2. Selective disclosure as a ZK circuit + continuous ElGamal to auditor on transfer.
  3. Client-side proving against a local proof server.

Originality

  1. Boundary design: public edges, private interior, dual auditor lanes.
  2. Privacy Pools-style accountability on Midnight.
  3. Sereno metaphor = Midnight + night watchman (auditor).

Execution

  1. CLI: deploy, shield, transfer, unshield, disclose on preprod once funded.
  2. Value conservation and double-spend prevention in-circuit.
  3. Scope cut (CLI, note registry) to ship cryptographic core.

Completion

  1. MVP circuits implemented: shield, transfer, unshield, discloseToAuditor, ElGamal lane.
  2. Documented runbook (SETUP.md).
  3. Roadmap honest: native shielded coins, splits — not hand-waved as done.

Documentation

  1. README architecture + visibility table matching the contract.
  2. SETUP.md Windows/WSL2 runbook.
  3. Argentine Ley 27.739 / PSAV / UIF context without overclaiming approval.

Business Value

  1. LatAm remittances: surveillance vs informality.
  2. VASP reporting need → cryptographic answer path.
  3. Same architecture for payroll / B2B / aid.