Everyone needs privacy.
PrivacyFi will eventually become a narrative in the bull run.
However, not many people truly understand how privacy protocols work.
š§µ on PrivacyFi protocol + what kind of project you should be looking out for.
ā¤ Current Problem:
DeFi requires privacy infrastructure to achieve mass adoption.
In TradFi, institutions don't need to disclose every transaction to everyone because some may contain sensitive information and require confidentiality.
The current state of privacy in DeFi is continuously growing to meet the demands of big players.
Since privacy should be a core component of enhancing the on-chain experience, let's first see how it works.
ā¤ Privacy System
There are several techs in the privacy area. Different projects use different tech to showcase their offerings.
I'll use RAILGUN @RAILGUN_Project as an example.
It utilizes the Zero-Knowledge (ZK) approach to create a privacy infrastructure protocol.
RAILGUN allows users and protocols to make transactions "shielded" (anonymous), which means:
ā¢ Users get to use current DeFi protocols privately
ā¢ Maintain the level of security on original chains (e.g. Ethereum)
ā¤ Use Case of Privacy Protocol
Privacy tech is intangible. Users can't really experience it.
This is why RAILGUN has a tool (SDK) for integration with other applications.
And Railway is the private DeFi wallet that utilizes ZK privacy on RAILGUN.
ā¤ Private DeFi Wallet
The main offering of Railway is anonymous transactions in your account.
You can swap, yield farm, and provide liquidity privately, directly in this wallet.
Beefy is already integrated to this wallet so you can yield farm privately.
In the future, users will be able to do more activities: private collateral based interactions e.g., trade derivatives, borrow, lend, mint stablecoins.
It will utilize RAILGUN v3 which helps reduces gas significantly
ā¤ How Private Wallet Works
You can think that it has two sub-accounts: Public and Private.
In Public mode, it acts as a regular ERC20 wallet which you can deposit tokens to this address (0x.....).
If you prefer to go private, you can simply click "Shield".
Your public tokens will be sent to Private Mode (or "shielded"), where nobody can see your transaction whether it is swap, yield farm, or provide liquidity.
ā¤ Privacy vs Compliance
It is the biggest concern if being private can get you in trouble.
Now several privacy protocols started to think of new solutions.
For RAILGUN, there is "Private Proofs of Innocence" (Private POI)
Private POI is a tool for RAILGUN users to maintain their privacy whilst proving that they have not interacted with malicious actors.
It helps users generate proofs that their funds are not part of a known list of malicious actors.
ā¤ Closing Thoughts
There are a lot of components in one privacy protocol.
I recommend you try it yourself, to understand and evaluate if there will be more users.
In my opinion, there will be constantly increasing demand in this area and it will be interesting to see.
This thread is used for educational purpose only and was made in collaboration with RAILGUN. NFA and DYOR.
I will keep everyone updated on developments in PrivacyFi.