Speed and automated audits
The V6 upgrade to the Ethereum layer 2 uses a 24/7 AI audit harness that found critical vulnerabilities in Aztec’s cryptographic libraries. Zac Williamson uses formal verification to increase confidence in the V6 upgrade. Because the Stage 2 rollup features sequencers that stake assets, face slashing, and vote on upgrades with no security council, the network remains decentralized. The network supports the launch of the zk.money neobank, a private AI inference marketplace, and an anonymous social network backed by Ethereum bonds, which I find effective because it doubled proving speed and brought transaction confirmations down to about 12 seconds.
| Feature | Spec |
|---|---|
| Transaction confirmation | ~12 seconds |
| Audit frequency | 24/7 |
| Governance | Sequencer stake/vote |
| Privacy architecture | UTXO-style |
Privacy controls for Lazarus Group avoidance
The privacy design in Tierra works like Bitcoin’s UTXOs to prevent a dusted note from tainting the rest of an account. Because private value on the network works this way, dusting an Aztec account with a tainted note cannot contaminate the rest of its funds. The "serial numbers" on private notes let users prove their funds do not overlap with a list tied to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. This method allows users to prove that their funds are not tied to hacks, providing a way to ensure funds are clean. This privacy pools-style design lets users prove their funds have no link to flagged deposits from groups like Lazarus without revealing anything else, which makes the "serial numbers" on private notes useful for avoiding North Korean ties. I think the Zcash-style turnstile used to contain a hidden double-spend is a smart addition. Users can use per-account view keys to share transactions with the IRS without a global auditor key, so programmable privacy and compliance can live on a single chain.
Programmable privacy
Zac Williamson believes privacy wins only when a product cannot exist without it. This philosophy drives the development of tools like the zk.money neobank and the anonymous social network.
