Consensys / anonymous-zether

A private payment system for Ethereum-based blockchains, with no trusted setup.
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Use in Conjunction with EY Nightfall #3

Closed 1blockologist closed 5 years ago

1blockologist commented 5 years ago

Hello, this release is great for anonymous Ether transactions but does not encrypt token transfers or - more abstractly - smart contract execution. EY Nightfall encrypts token transfers to a degree, but does not encrypt Ether transactions.

EY Nightfall can encrypt Ether transactions by merely creating wrapped Ether, WETH and using it as an ERC20 token.

This would still be a hurdle as these additional steps make it tricky for adoption, as just funding the initial addresses with Ether for gas could expose a lot. And doing that funding with this Zether seems to be a high barrier too.

A one and done solution would be great. Just food for thought, feel free to close this issue, or promote a discussion.

benediamond commented 5 years ago

hey @1blockologist, thanks for your comment. As written, Anonymous Zether is designed to privately transfer ERC20 tokens. It could also adapted to privately transfer Ether, either through the "wrapped Ether approach" you mention or by modifying the contract directly. We do not currently support transferring non-fungible (ERC721) tokens.

Nightfall appears to support both ERC20 and ERC721 transfers, though there may be other tradeoffs (trusted setup, performance, etc.).

The gas linkability issue is present whether you're transferring ERC20 or Ether, as Bünz et. al. point out. However, if you want to use Anonymous Zether inside a Quorum consortium, you won't have this issue (gas is free).

Thanks again for your thoughts. As supporting ERC721s is not currently on our roadmap, I'll go ahead and close this.