# Snapshot of the AZTEC Ceremony

> AZTEC’s global Multi-Party Computation (MPC) setup ceremony will create an open source asset for the community — a ‘common reference string’ (CRS).

Canonical: https://aztec.network/blog/snapshot-of-the-aztec-ceremony  
Type: Article  
Reviewed: 19 October 2026  
Publisher: Aztec Foundation

Published: 16 September 2023  
Category: Aztec Network

> **Historical article.** This post is about Aztec's 2019-2020 'Ignition' trusted-setup ceremony, which completed in January 2020. It is unrelated to the current Ignition network phase. For live network status, see https://aztec.network/roadmap

## Why are we Running a Ceremony?

AZTEC’s global Multi-Party Computation (MPC) setup ceremony will create an **open source asset for the community**— a ‘common reference string’ (CRS). The [AZTEC network](/) will use it to allow **efficient private payments, income and swaps** in our privacy network.

But it will be useful as the basis for *all sorts of future cryptosystems* — including universal SNARKs.

In order to create this CRS, we need your help. We’re inviting participants across the world to participate in our ceremony. [Sign up here](https://eepurl.com/gzM6FH)

These early MPCs are a piece of blockchain history, and we want you to be there.

## A Global Shuffle

If hundreds of people take part and someone misbehaves, isn’t that a problem?

No — and here’s why.

In our ceremony, each participant will create randomness — the foundation on which the security of our proofs is based. Their job is then to inject that randomness into the transcript, and destroy the raw random number they used to do it.

A good analogy is a group of people shuffling a deck of cards. Each person shuffles the deck (in AZTEC’s ceremony, that’s the process of adding randomness into the transcript), and then hands on the pack to the next participant.

![Photo by Jack Hamilton on Unsplash](/api/media/file/blog-0378f5cf1a-0-utic-u-xtutqr-kv-1400x933.webp)

To unshuffle the entire process, an attacker would need to know the randomness of *every single participant.*Knowing 199 out of 200 does not get the attacker to unshuffling the deck — i.e. to breaking the cryptosystem.

That means that if just one participant behaves honestly and disposes their waste, the CRS is secure.

That’s why we’re making this a global event— to make it impossible for every party to collude with everyone else.

## Taking Part is Easy

Our ceremony begins in October, and we want you to take part.

It couldn’t be simpler — just download and run our Docker client. This will automatically perform the computation for you.

![The view from the Terminal](/api/media/file/blog-cb1242d06f-0-whrlzfa-hl-s0-1400x1177.webp)

The computation will take 2–4 hours to complete (per participant), depending on your computer performance.

The whole ceremony is expected to run for 30 days.

## Watch it Live

*[EDIT: The watch live and sign-up links wereas removed since it's not active any longer.]*

Read our [announcement article](https://medium.com/aztec-protocol/aztec-announcing-our-ignition-ceremony-757850264cfe) and [Basic](https://medium.com/aztec-protocol/aztec-how-the-ceremony-works-5c23a54e2dd9) / [Advanced](https://medium.com/aztec-protocol/aztec-how-the-ceremony-works-9f021cf190d0) explanations.

Join the discussion: [Discord](https://discordapp.com/invite/Z2kyTTu) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/aztecprotocol) | [Telegram](https://t.me/aztecprotocol)

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Markdown representation of https://aztec.network/blog/snapshot-of-the-aztec-ceremony. Published by Aztec Foundation.