On-chain privateness protocol RAILGUN is launching a ‘Non-public Proof of Innocence’ (PPOI) instrument, permitting DeFi customers to stay nameless whereas proving they don’t seem to be interacting with malicious actors.
This instrument is designed to permit customers to cryptographically show that their tokens are legitimately sourced, with out having to disclose any details about their steadiness or show keys.
The PPOI goals to attain this end result by utilizing zero-knowledge (zk) expertise, RAILGUN worker Alan Scott informed Blockworks.
In accordance with DeFiLlama, RAILGUN is at the moment one of many largest privateness protocols with a complete worth (TVL) of $32.6 million, second solely to Twister Money.
With PPOI, customers can use zk expertise to show their steadiness shouldn’t be a part of identified malicious transactions, but additionally not reveal any details about themselves, Scott stated.
Learn extra: Aleo blockchain provides zPass, a ZK protocol for verifying identities
“This fashion they are often assured that they’re solely offering anonymity to different customers who’re unlikely to be a part of that listing,” Scott stated. “That is actually cool as a result of it provides you certainty concerning the counterparty and total systemic threat with out having to deanonymize your self or one other participant.”
The idea that makes PPOI doable shouldn’t be new. Vitalik Buterin beforehand co-authored a paper on Privateness Swimming pools, wherein he delved into doable methods a blockchain might stay non-public and nonetheless adjust to authorities laws.
The PPOI instrument helps this imaginative and prescient on the protocol stage, Scott explains. PPOI makes use of a knowledge supply that appears at shields from a public handle and determines whether or not or not this cash comes from an undesirable supply, akin to a hack or an exploit.
“Customers don’t work together instantly with the info supply. The info supply then collects an exclusion listing of shields,” Scott stated.
Shields that aren’t included within the exclusion listing or are usually not pending a call can be added to a PPOI accumulator. It additionally accumulates transactions which have occurred within the system and accumulates them in a transaction accumulator.
“An accumulator is a technique of summarizing a set of values as a single worth (root), the place every of the person values might be proven to belong to the set that the abstract worth (root) represents. If that is completed in a zk-proof, one thing might be proven to be a part of the set with out revealing what particular person worth throughout the set it was,” Scott stated.
Because of this when a transaction is made, a person can simply generate a zk proof to show that their transactions happened in a authorized, reputable method.
“Funds held within the PPOI accumulator are blinded (encrypted) in order that solely the sender and recipient of the funds can see if they’re within the accumulator, in order that no exterior observer can acquire information on Railgun transactions,” explains Scott out. “For the reason that recipient of unshields is public data, anybody can verify whether or not the unshield is a part of the PPOI accumulator and subsequently confirmed.”