Assets you shield on Ethereum will be able to move into private apps on Aztec, with the same privacy guarantees our users expect.
Today we’re announcing that 0xbow will deploy Privacy Pools on Aztec.
Privacy Pools already lets you hold, send, swap and earn yield on Ethereum assets in private. What it can’t do yet is follow you out of the pool. Deploying on Aztec changes that. Assets shielded through Privacy Pools will be able to bridge privately from Ethereum into Aztec apps and DeFi, where activity, identity and balances stay private. A balance you shielded on Ethereum could be lent, traded or spent on Aztec without you exposing it along the way.
“We’ve been big fans of Aztec from day 1. Privacy Pools and Aztec are aligned in our vision and philosophy; this partnership takes that one step further and we’re excited to bring our protocols together,” said Ameen Soleimani, Co-founder of Privacy Pools. “We look forward to building together and strengthening the Aztec ecosystem with unstoppable private money.”
Where Privacy Pools stands today
Privacy Pools is our protocol for compliant, private transactions on Ethereum. You deposit into a shared pool, and the Association Set Provider we run screens the deposit. Once it’s approved, you can send, swap and earn yield inside the pool. A transfer reveals no sender, recipient or amount.
In practice, your balance and payment history stop being readable by anyone who knows your address, and you never have to leave Ethereum to get there. Screening happens on the way in, so the privacy comes with compliance instead of replacing it.
One rule sits under all of it: no global viewing keys and no backdoors. You hold your own keys. You can exit at any time. You decide what to disclose, through receipts and viewing keys, and who gets to see it.
The pool has an edge
Today, that privacy stops at the edge of the pool. Sending, swapping and earning yield all work in private. Anything else, whether a loan, a trade on another venue or a payment through another app, means going back to transparent transactions.
Private assets need private places to go. Aztec is where we’re taking them.
Why Aztec
On Aztec, a private interaction stays private across an entire chain of contract calls. A balance can pass through a loan, a trade or a payment, composed across several contracts, without publishing the amount or the counterparty at each step. The parts of an app that deal with who holds what, who pays whom and how much run as private functions on the user’s device. Whatever the app needs in the open stays in public functions.
That is the environment we want shielded assets to land in. Aztec also holds the same line we do: compliant privacy for users, with no special viewing keys and no backdoors.
“Privacy shouldn’t depend on permission, and that includes the route an asset takes onto the network,” said Zac Williamson, Co-founder & CEO of the Aztec Foundation. “Privacy Pools showed that screening and privacy can coexist without anyone holding a key to the user’s funds. Aztec takes the same position and we’re excited to see the apps that are unlocked with more permissionless, private and compliant Ethereum assets.”
The trip from Ethereum is getting faster too. With the recent Aztec Tierra release, client-side proofs take as little as 1 second on a native device, a 2x speedup over the previous network. Ethereum-to-Aztec message delivery dropped from an average of 2 minutes to as low as 12 seconds.
What builders get
Deploying a contract on Aztec is permissionless. Sequencing is decentralized in the base protocol across more than 3,000 validators, so no operator decides which apps go live or who can use them.
With Privacy Pools on Aztec, developers will be able to add Ethereum assets to the private apps they build. A team working on payments, trading or DeFi starts with assets people already hold. You will be able to write a lending market, an exchange or a payment app that keeps balances and counterparties private. Because contracts on Aztec compose, another team can build on yours without asking you either.
One checkpoint, no custody
Privacy Pools does have a gate, and it’s worth being exact about where it sits. Our Association Set Provider screens deposits and decides which ones belong in the approved set. It never holds your funds or your keys, it can’t freeze a balance, and it can’t stop you from exiting. A deposit that isn’t approved can still be withdrawn, just not privately.
Moving to Aztec doesn’t add a second gate. Builders won’t need our permission to use these assets in their apps, and no operator gets a view into what happens there. Disclosure stays in the holder’s hands. You can share proof of a single payment or your full account history with a third party you choose. That fits the model Aztec apps are built on: private, with selective disclosure at the app or user level.
What’s next
We’re exploring the design and scope of the implementation now. 0xbow and Aztec contributors will publish technical details, and updates will follow as the work takes shape.
Follow Privacy Pools and Aztec on X for updates.
About Privacy Pools
Privacy Pools is a protocol built by 0xbow that lets users shield assets and withdraw them with no onchain link to the deposit, using zero-knowledge proofs of membership in an approved set of deposits. Learn more at privacypools.com.
About Aztec
Aztec is the leading platform for unstoppable private apps. A decentralized Ethereum Layer 2 combining fully programmable privacy with decentralized infrastructure, Aztec enables developers to build freely and users to transact, interact, and participate without surrendering their privacy. Learn more at aztec.network.