mratsim

constantine

Nim2020–2026

mratsim / constantine

constantine

Constantine: modular, high-performance, zero-dependency cryptography stack for verifiable computation, proof systems and blockchain protocols.

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6Distinct people

18Mentions

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502GitHub stars

REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

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What it is

Constantine: modular, high-performance, zero-dependency cryptography stack for verifiable computation, proof systems and blockchain protocols.

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Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

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Also in these discussions

mratsim/arraymancer · linked in 2 of the same discussions

Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 12:45:45 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year18 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2020-04-22 15:55:41 UTC to 2026-05-26 15:31:04 UTC.

* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges

UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
Period	Start (UTC)	End (exclusive, UTC)	Mentions	Submissions	Comments
2020	2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	5	0	5
2021	2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2	0	2
2022	2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
2023	2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	4	1	3
2024	2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	6	1	5
2025	2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0	0
2026 (partial)	2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC	1	0	1

What Hacker News says

5 sources

mratsim·Jul 2, 2020

> Syntax wise Nim it is a step back. It's hard to read and understand while any C/C++ dev will have next to no effort reading through D code. And of course while D is C ABI compliant it interoperates with C++ well too. On the other hand, people coming from Python, Ruby, Pascal, Ada will appreciate the minimal amount of sigils. > I seriously doubt that Nim or any other language in this regard has better metaprogramming than D. Can you write an Embedded DSL + compiler running at compile-time in D - https://github.com/numforge/laser/tree/master/laser/lux_comp... Can you write a cryptographic library with hex conversion to big integer and modular arithmetic running at compile-time in D? - https://github.com/mratsim/constantine/blob/master/constanti... Can you generate a state machine that lowers down to optimized computed gotos with no dynami

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c allocation suitable for multithreading runtimes and embedded devices and able to display the actual graph at compiletime? - https://github.com/mratsim/Synthesis Can you describe x86 opcodes in a declarative way for a JIT assembler and do all the rex/modrm/sib computation at compile-time? - https://github.com/mratsim/photon-jit/blob/master/photon_jit... And the same thing for an emulator? - https://github.com/mratsim/glyph/blob/master/glyph/snes/opco... Can you implement async as a library? Can you emulate classes with ADTs to solve the expression problem, avoid cache misses and multithreading problem due to OOP and the double indirection due to the visitor pattern? - https://github.com/mratsim/trace-of-radiance/blob/master/tra... > Nim might have a speed overhead in certain tasks but that depends on a benchmark. Besides, does Nim have anything similar to NumPy which is actually faster? D does. It does: - https://github.com/mratsim/Arraymancer With CPU, OpenCL and Cuda backends (in differing state of maturity) and it's being used for data analysis for example ancestry prediction: - http://home.chpc.utah.edu/~u6000771/somalier-ancestry.html You can even run a neural network and see its training live: - https://github.com/Vindaar/NeuralNetworkLiveDemo AFAIK D doesn't have any plotting library while Nim has plot.ly integration and a ggplot2 port in pure Nim: - https://github.com/brentp/nim-plotly - https://github.com/Vindaar/ggplotnim And lastly nim can easily call Python: - https://github.com/yglukhov/nimpy or be called from Python: - https://github.com/Pebaz/nimporter

In Ray Tracing in Nim

mratsim·Jun 22, 2020

OCaml, with D, are probably the languages that feel the most similar to Nim. Regarding Haskell, you can do category theory[1] if you want or do integer operations within the type system like dependently typed languages[2], including BigInt computation at compile-time[3]. Regarding speed, Haskell and OCaml are sometimes as fast as C, Nim is always as fast as C. [1]: https://github.com/unicredit/emmy#algebraic-structures [2]: https://github.com/mratsim/constantine/blob/0400187f/constan... [3]: https://github.com/mratsim/constantine/blob/0400187f/constan...

In NimConf 2020 Videos

mratsim·Apr 22, 2020

Constant-time division is super slow for sure but it's not needed for cryptography. Modulo is also similarly slow but rarely needed as well. For example in elliptic curve cryptography it's only needed at the very beginning of a computation when hashing to the elliptic curve or when producing a secret key from a random input key material. In terms of speed, LLVM iXYZ wide-integer code is usually faster for basic operations (modular addition, substraction, multiplication) the big slowness is for modular inversion where constant-time inversion is about 20x slower than GMP inversion. Source: https://github.com/herumi/mcl#how-to-build-without-gmp this code has GMP backend, LLVM i254 / LLVM i381 backend, or it's own JIT compiler that uses the MULX, ADCX and ADOX instructions. Plain bigint in general, including GMP are bottlenecked by memory all

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ocation and the iXXX from LLVM are purely stack-based. Regarding constant-time, I know that there have been petition to provide a constant-time flag to LLVM but no guarantees so far. Unfortunately you have to take an after the fact verification approach today unless you dropdown to assembly (see https://github.com/mratsim/constantine/wiki/Constant-time-ar... on a couple of constant-time verifiers available)

In The new Clang _ExtInt feature provides exact bitwidth integer types

mratsim·Apr 22, 2020

I have an in-depth look on constant-time and the security implications of not being constant-time here: https://github.com/mratsim/constantine/wiki/Constant-time-ar...

In The new Clang _ExtInt feature provides exact bitwidth integer types

mratsim·Apr 22, 2020

Cryptography. Want to do finite field computation on a 254-bit integer? Now you can (BN254, very popular for zero-knowledge proofs) 381-bit? you're covered. It's very perf critical and the field modulus bitsize and values are known at compile-time. (example in my library where I basically add to implement the same machinery: https://github.com/mratsim/constantine/blob/ff9dec48/constan...)

In The new Clang _ExtInt feature provides exact bitwidth integer types