Conceal and Reveal: The Evolution of Privacy Coin Technology

Privacy can assume many forms and occur on many levels. The technologies that blockchain architects originally envisioned for privacy coins are now being utilized by an array of crypto stakeholders, from enterprises to exchanges. What began as a means of transacting anonymously has spawned a burgeoning industry, built upon technologies designed to conceal, but which can also be programmed to reveal to a select few.

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zk-Snarks

zk-Snarks are best known for their use in privacy coin protocols such as Zcash. These “zero knowledge proofs” have far broader applications than simply masking the sender and receiver when transmitting crypto via a public ledger. A zero-knowledge proof allows one party to prove to another that a statement is true, without revealing any information about the statement itself.

To break this down into a simple analogy, imagine that Farmer Bob is selling some…