# Message Encoding Optimization - Progress Log

## Milestone 1: Analysis & Baseline

### Phase 1: Baseline Measurement
**Status**: Complete
**Started**: 2026-01-29T11:35:00Z
**Completed**: 2026-01-29T15:45:00Z

#### Tasks
- [x] Task 1: Create encoding benchmark infrastructure (Completed: 968c641)
- [x] Task 2: Benchmark RichMessage JSON encoding (Completed: 7e1a46b)
- [x] Task 3: Benchmark EncryptedMessage JSON encoding (Completed: 7e1a46b)
- [x] Task 4: Benchmark Protocol wrapper JSON encoding (Completed: 7e1a46b)
- [x] Task 5: Measure ant-quic transport overhead (Completed: 3d5f477)
- [x] Task 6: Create size overhead visualization (Completed: b6018de)
- [x] Task 7: Benchmark serialization performance (Completed: 1d7e256)
- [x] Task 8: Document baseline findings (Completed: 1d7e256)

#### Key Findings
- Triple JSON encoding: 2.45x size bloat (8KB → 20KB)
- Performance: 444µs per 8KB message (53x slower than target)
- Bincode: 7-16x faster serialization, 2-3x faster deserialization
- Redundant encryption: ChaCha20 + ML-KEM-768 (ant-quic sufficient)
- Expected improvement: 17-36x faster + 58% size reduction
