RESEARCH ARTICLE
Ring Signatures in GHOST
Real signers, decoys, anonymity sets, and plausible deniability.
Editorial metadata · E-E-A-T
Author
The GHOST Archive Editorial Team
Editor
The GHOST Archive Editorial Team
Published
2024-01-01
Updated
2026-10-08
Last verified
2026-10-08
Direct answer
A ring signature lets a real signer authorize a transaction while hiding among decoy public keys, so an observer cannot trivially identify the true signer.
The mechanism
Flow diagram
REAL INPUT + DECOYS
↓
↓
↓
RING SIGNATURE
↓
↓
↓
VALID SIGNATURE
↓
↓
↓
OBSERVER CANNOT TRIVIALLY IDENTIFY REAL SIGNER
Key concepts
- ›Real signer — the actual input being spent.
- ›Decoy public keys — other chain outputs mixed in.
- ›Anonymity set — the set of plausible signers.
- ›Plausible deniability — no member can be proven the signer.
- ›Transaction unlinkability — inputs cannot be tied to a specific prior output.
Sources
- S-02Revised GHOST Whitepaper (June 2020)PRIMARY2020-06 · whitepaper · supports: Particl-derived architecture, RingCT, stealth addresses, Bulletproofs, Dandelion++https://github.com/ghost-coin
- S-03Updated GHOST Privacy Whitepaper (December 2024)PRIMARY2024-12 · whitepaper · supports: Current privacy stack, tokenomics, Ghost Veterans, governancehttps://github.com/ghost-coin