RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Revised 2020 GHOST Whitepaper Explained
The Particl-derived architecture that actually launched.
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
After the PIVX controversy, GHOST published a revised architecture describing a Particl-derived blockchain with 120-second blocks, 8 MB blocks, RingCT, stealth addresses, Bulletproofs, Dandelion++, Ghost Veterans, cold staking, and community governance. This is the architecture the launched mainnet implemented.
What changed
| Original proposal | Revised architecture |
|---|---|
| PIVX-related | Particl-derived |
| 60-second blocks | 120-second blocks |
| 2 MB blocks | 8 MB blocks |
| Masternodes | Ghost Veterans |
| zk-SNARK/Sapling framing | RingCT + Bulletproofs |
The privacy stack
- ›RingCT for sender and amount privacy
- ›Stealth addresses for recipient privacy
- ›Bulletproofs for zero-knowledge range proofs
- ›Dandelion++ for network propagation privacy
Governance and participation
Cold staking let holders delegate staking without exposing spending keys. Ghost Veterans replaced conventional masternodes with a 20,000 GHOST threshold and active staking requirement.
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-07Particl source repositoryPRIMARYongoing · source code · supports: GHOST codebase ancestryhttps://github.com/particl