There come times when there are a lot of things to do in a chain. For example, DeFi Summer in 2020, the NFT boom in 2021, the dawn of the memecoin trenches a few years ago.
Privacy apps also benefit from a moment like this.
We’re seeing a lot of advances in privacy at the network level recently, but it’s the application layer that’s particularly teeming right now, and the wave of new releases here is converting possibilities into practicalities.
In short, they make privacy easier and more nonchalant. This is good news for our industry and for people around the world. But it also means that we are back in an environment where the pace of new projects can be difficult to keep up with!
For example, this list is by no means exhaustive, but here are a few fresh drops that caught my eye over the past couple of weeks…
anon.wei
anon.wei is a new experimental platform for Ross (aka z0r0z)the solo developer behind the Z ecosystem that I featured in my recent Trinity Independent Video.
The bottom line is that it allows you to hedge ETH on Ethereum, Base, or Robinhood Chain, send it privately, withdraw any part of it later, and optionally pay people by their .wei names, which I’ve already gone over.
The platform may look simple and it doesn’t have many repositories yet, but it is built to last, as the entire application, frontend included, lives on-chain via ERC-8244 (a proposed standard for serving web pages directly from smart contracts). Deposits/withdrawals always appear on the channel; however, details of private transfers remain hidden.
— (@)
zk.money
Aztec Labs relaunched zk.money on September 29a few years after abandoning the original version to create Aztec Network, its privacy-focused Ethereum L2.
This one is a self-custodial wallet in which you claim a tag like yourname.zk.moneydeposit DAI, USDC, or USDT (the latter two are converted to DAI), and viewers cannot see your balance, how much you send, or to whom.
That said, the restart is early and accelerating. For now, each deposit, payment, and withdrawal is capped at less than $2,500, so expect to start small if you’re getting started.
— (@)
Zcash Names
Zcash protected addresses are long, this is where Zcash Names comes into play. The service has just started (still in early access) and maps a readable name like abc.zcash Or xyz.zec to yours.
This way, people can pay you without copying and pasting a wall of characters while your balance and history remains private. At the very least, this is a great way to increase the use of protected addresses.
The names are recorded in regular protected Zcash transactions rather than on some companies’ servers, and anyone can run an indexer to check namespace. Just make sure you’re logged in zcashnames.cominasmuch as unrelated register uses an almost identical name!
— (@)
Umbra v2
Solana also gets in on the action. Shadowthe privacy layer powered by Arcium which open to the public in March, deployed its v2 on October 13.
Connect your existing Solana wallet, move supported tokens to a private crypto balance and send or trade from there, with transfers settled below 5 seconds and exchange in about 15, depending on the team.
Do you like this article?
Subscribe to Bankless or log in
Remember here that on- and off-ramps remain public, with deposits showing what came in and from where, and withdrawals showing where the funds landed.
— (@)
Ghost accounts
Starknet revealed Ghost accounts on October 13, and the channel’s application layer wasted no time putting them to work.
In simple terms, this primitive presents applications with a separate pseudonymous address funded by your protected account. STRK20 balance.
On October 14, The roadStarknet’s popular concentrated liquidity DEX, added a Public/private switch for trading and LPing in private mode via these special accounts. One day later, Opus followed suit, allowing you to post collateral and borrow its stablecoin CASH from a Trove (i.e. your lending position) that is not linked to your main wallet.
Just be aware that trades and positions in a ghost account remain publicthis system therefore offers dissociation rather than invisibility. You will also need a wallet that supports the new STRK20 methods.
— (@)
Off market
Polymarket wallets are an open book, making savvy traders easy targets for copycats. StarkWare Off marketopen since October 14, is built to remove this connection.
Here you deposit USDC into Starknet’s shared privacy pool, the same one behind the ghost accounts, and each new position gets a new Polygon wallet (derived from your signature) that trades on Polymarket’s real order books. They are exactly the same markets, at exactly the same odds.
That said, these staking wallets are still publicly traded, so unusual size or timing could give you away. For now, deposits are also capped at $1,000, and a compliance company holds a master viewing key for reviewed legal requests.
— (@)
zkAPI
How about a little privacy for your AI tab? As some of you may remember, the Ethereum Foundation and the Open Anonymity Project launched zkAPI October 1st.
The goal of this experimental system is to allow people to separate what they pay for AI from what they ask of AI.
In other words, with zkAPI, you deposit ETH or USDC into a vault on Ethereum once, then use zero-knowledge proofs to create temporary dollar-capped API keys for AI models. without revealing which deposit pays. You can try it in your browser via OA Cat.
Keep in mind, however, that the template provider can still see your prompts and your IP address and question times are not hidden. Still, it’s great to see EF moving forward here, and there’s surely more to come.
— (@)
Of course, all these versions are brand new. Some have limits and small anonymity sets at the moment, and undiscovered bugs cannot be ruled out.
Still, even if you don’t jump into one of these apps right away, the wave they’re riding is major, and it’s good to have them on your radar to better understand the pulse of our industry. Or in case you need their services for your onchain toolkit.
About the Author
