Why Private Accounts?
A common question we hear about Nocturne is why the protocol was designed as a “private account.” Why not another design? In this post, we distill past approaches to onchain privacy and the motivation behind the Nocturne design philosophy.Setting the StageTo understand the motivation behind private accounts, we need to look to the past. There have been 2 major types of onchain privacy products we’ve seen so far—alternative L1/L2s and mixers. Both categories garnered significant interest but h...
Why Private Accounts?
A common question we hear about Nocturne is why the protocol was designed as a “private account.” Why not another design? In this post, we distill past approaches to onchain privacy and the motivation behind the Nocturne design philosophy.Setting the StageTo understand the motivation behind private accounts, we need to look to the past. There have been 2 major types of onchain privacy products we’ve seen so far—alternative L1/L2s and mixers. Both categories garnered significant interest but h...
Stealth Addresses & Shielded Pools
Revisiting The Anonymous Payments ProblemIn the first part of this two-part blog post, we introduced the problem of anonymous payments, EIP-5564, and some of the outstanding UX challenges with stealth EOAs. To recap, in order to pay someone without revealing them as the recipient, we need a system that enables the generation of many unlinkable “one-time addresses” belonging to the recipient. EIP-5564 enables exactly this, where the stealth addresses are Ethereum EOAs. The core problem with us...
Stealth Addresses & Shielded Pools
Revisiting The Anonymous Payments ProblemIn the first part of this two-part blog post, we introduced the problem of anonymous payments, EIP-5564, and some of the outstanding UX challenges with stealth EOAs. To recap, in order to pay someone without revealing them as the recipient, we need a system that enables the generation of many unlinkable “one-time addresses” belonging to the recipient. EIP-5564 enables exactly this, where the stealth addresses are Ethereum EOAs. The core problem with us...
Private Payments and Stealth Addresses
IntroductionIt is no question today that privacy on Ethereum is still one of the largest remaining challenges. Several attempts have been made to enable different kinds of privacy, including network layer privacy, confidential token transfers, and private smart contracts. Surprisingly, however, we still lack a truly usable solution for one of the seemingly most simple problems—receiving payments anonymously. Today, we outline the problem space of anonymous payments, how stealth addresses help...
Private Payments and Stealth Addresses
IntroductionIt is no question today that privacy on Ethereum is still one of the largest remaining challenges. Several attempts have been made to enable different kinds of privacy, including network layer privacy, confidential token transfers, and private smart contracts. Surprisingly, however, we still lack a truly usable solution for one of the seemingly most simple problems—receiving payments anonymously. Today, we outline the problem space of anonymous payments, how stealth addresses help...
Introducing Nocturne
For crypto to reach its next stage of growth, it must be used less as a means of speculation and evolve to become more like money—a reliable medium of exchange and store of wealth. If crypto is to reach a more money-like state, privacy is not just a nice-to-have. Everyone should be able to receive payroll on-chain without revealing their salaries, make purchases without divulging spending habits, and store their assets on-chain without disclosing their net worth. Despite the necessity, privac...
Introducing Nocturne
For crypto to reach its next stage of growth, it must be used less as a means of speculation and evolve to become more like money—a reliable medium of exchange and store of wealth. If crypto is to reach a more money-like state, privacy is not just a nice-to-have. Everyone should be able to receive payroll on-chain without revealing their salaries, make purchases without divulging spending habits, and store their assets on-chain without disclosing their net worth. Despite the necessity, privac...
