Author: @0xMavWisdom

In the wake of Tornado Cash, the privacy track is in the midst of a crisis of confidence. Recently, Aztec Network, a Layer 2 scaling network using the UTXO model and proof of privacy, announced the closing of a $100 million Series B round of funding led by a16z crypto with participation from A Capital and others. Aztec Network has previously raised nearly $17 million in a Series A round led by Paradigm. With the funding, Aztec co-founder Andrews said the money will be used primarily to hire more engineers to build the network globally.

Aztec is a zero-knowledge Rollup built with a privacy-first architecture, allowing users to access Layer 1 applications they want to use with full privacy protection. Its product system is based on the underlying PLONK proof system, enabling anonymous transactions between accounts and privacy interactions with the DeFi project through the gateway contract graft. Aztec has also recently launched Noir, a programming language that makes it easier and more convenient for developers to build applications with zero-knowledge proofs on Ether.

DeFi Llama data shows that the current Azetc TVL is around $11 million. There are currently no plans for Aztec to issue Tokens in the near future, but it is also considered a promising high-value airdrop similar to Arbitrum, ZkSync and others. However, third-party compliance tools on exchanges such as FTX have previously frozen accounts transferring funds from privacy protocols such as Aztec, so users should be careful about the security associated with their interactions.

This article will cover the key projects on the Aztec ecosystem.

One of Aztec’s highlights, Aztec Connect, went live on July 7th, a set of private rollup tools connecting the Ethernet DeFi protocol with Aztec’s ability to support privacy DeFi with the help of a three-part (Layer 1 DeFi protocol, Aztec Connect SDK and Aztec Connect Bridge contract). Aztec Connect extends the functionality of Zk.money by adding the functionality of a blue-chip DeFi partner, which allows private access to protocols on the ethereum mainnet through bulk transactions with other Zk.money users, making it easier for ethereum projects to integrate with Aztec. Aztec Connect acts as a proxy service for DeFi, allowing anyone to deposit to the Aztec network, interact with Ether DeFi, and rely on Layer 1 trusted contracts, liquidity. The current Aztec Connect ecosystem includes the leading Ethernet DeFi protocols, including Aave, Curve, Lido, Compound, and Liquity, among others.

Zk.money

Zk.Money is the first dAPP of Aztec Network, released in March 2021. The older version of Zk.money only enabled simple transfer payments, allowing funds within it to be sent to another Aztec account or withdrawn to Layer 1 completely privately, but only supported a small number of assets such as ETH, DAI and renBTC, and a transaction limit of 5 ETH or 10,000 DAI at a time. Users sending zkETH or DAI to a username (@name) on Zk.money will receive zkETH or DAI for the recipient, while sending zkETH or DAI to any ethereum address outside of Zk.money will result in the wallet receiving regular ETH or DAI. Zk.money officially claims to have over 75,000 registered users, over 225,000 transactions and $80 million in total transactions since its launch, while being 96% cheaper than existing privacy transfer protocols.

The new version of Zk.Money adds a privacy DeFi feature while retaining the original transfer payment function, so users’ funds can be used to interact with mainstream DeFi protocols in full privacy, such as using ETH or DAI to lend on AAVE, pledging ETH for rewards on LIDO, depositing DAI into Yearn vaults for passive income, etc. However, Zk.Money currently only supports DeFi-Earn functionality, and Trade functionality is still under development.

ZKPay

ZKPay is a fast withdrawal bridge designed for Aztec privacy payments. Asset access on the Aztec network can take up to 6 hours, but on ZKPay it only takes a few seconds. With the v2.0.0 update, ZKPay already supports transfers of major assets such as ETH, DAI, USDT, USDC, etc. In addition to the main Ethernet network, ZKPay also supports transfers from Polygon network. Like Zk.Money, ZKPay also sets a transaction limit of 5 ETH or 10,000 DAI. The swap feature of ZKPay is currently in beta testing and access to it is limited to VIP members. ZKPay team created ZK badge, which can be Minted by making 0.1 ETH deposit in V1 or 0.1 ETH deposit in V2 and making at least 3 deposits. The team says that in the future they will offer discounts to ZKPay users with ZK badges when using ZKPay.

Trelis

Trelis is an unmanaged ethereum payments integration, currently in beta, which can be experienced in beta mode by using payment links, Trelis API and WooCommerce Plugin, with a transaction limit of 100 USDC and support for all major ethereum wallets. Currently TrelisTrelis supports payment links for USDC and ETH generated Token. Trelis’ prominent feature, Gasless Payments, allows users (senders) to pay without paying for gas, and merchants (receivers) to pre-purchase Trelis Gas points and Trelis to pay for gas on behalf of users, but this feature is limited to payments in USDC.

Also note that if the price of gas spikes, then the USDC transaction will revert to a standard transaction and the customer will have to pay for the gas; if the total amount of gas due exceeds 5% of the transaction amount, Trelis will revert the Gasless transaction to a standard transaction. Trelis will charge a 10% gas service fee for this feature and the cost of Gasless payments will be approximately 1.9 times the standard payment.

Nucleo

In November, Nucleo has closed a $4 million seed round led by Bain Capital and 6th Man Ventures. Nucleo is a privacy multi-signature infrastructure for organizations to develop privacy transactions, privacy DeFi, privacy chips and more. Public transparency is beneficial, but it also has the potential to expose individuals and organizations to legal, strategic, and operational vulnerabilities in many areas, and Nucleo is dedicated to solving this problem. With Nucleo, individuals, communities and organizations can enjoy privacy while remaining audit friendly Nucleo’s work with Aztec is a great way to help individuals, communities and organizations enjoy privacy while remaining audit friendly. In addition to its partnership with Aztec, Nucleo has also partnered with Aleo and Espresso. Currently Nucleo has only launched multi-signature features and will be rolling out DeFi, Fundraise, and privacy cross-chain transactions in the future. Nucleo is currently in beta testing and users need to join the waitlist if they want to join the test.

As with most privacy tracks, the Aztec ecosystem is in its infancy, with few native projects, and is currently focused on integrating DeFi protocols with the main network, with the goal of achieving privacy interactions with all protocols and smart contracts on the main network.

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