Every Crowd Hides You Differently
From Bitcoin CoinJoin to zero-knowledge proofs, every serious approach to financial privacy bets on a different crowd to disappear into.
Zero-knowledge
Private Relay Connections: Zero-Knowledge Solutions for Nostr
Nostr relays see everything - who connects, what they fetch, how often they post. Zero-knowledge cryptography can fix all three problems: Semaphore-based authentication hides which whitelisted user is connecting, private information retrieval hides which notes you're fetching, and Privacy Pass enables rate limiting without identity linkage.
Proving You Belong Without Saying Who You Are
Zero-knowledge proofs let Nostr users prove they're trusted without revealing their identity, enabling anonymous rate-limiting and reputation-gated relay access.
Computing on Secrets
Services no longer need to see data to compute on it. Cryptographic and hardware primitives make that contract a deployed reality.
The Gossip Vulnerability: Why NIP-17's "Deniable" Messages Aren't
NIP-17 promises deniable messaging with its three-layer design: an unsigned "rumor," a signed "seal," and an ephemeral "gift wrap." However, this setup has a hidden vulnerability. The signed seal allows recipients to prove that a message was sent by the claimed author, even without revealing the content. This creates a perfect scenario for gossip attacks, where the mere proof of communication can damage reputations. As we explore NIP-17, we find that the rumor, despite being unsigned, is not as deniable as it seems, making it a potential risk for exposure.
The Key Inside the Ciphertext: A Full Introduction to PIPEs v2
PIPEs v2 turns spend conditions into key-recovery conditions, letting Bitcoin enforce proof-gated authorization through ordinary Schnorr signatures and extraordinary off-chain cryptography.
The Praxeology of Privacy ~ Chapter 16: Zero-Knowledge Proofs
Zero-knowledge proofs enable verification without disclosure. SNARKs, STARKs, and Bulletproofs make different tradeoffs. Deployed in Zcash and rollups; broader adoption developing.
The ZK Proof Landscape: From Academic Cryptography to Sovereign Infrastructure
ZK proofs spent four decades as mathematical curiosities. Between 2016 and 2024, proving times dropped from minutes to milliseconds. By March 2026, the benchmark landscape on a standardized SHA-256 circuit (~22,000 constraints) looks like this:
Proof of Personhood Is a Trap
Most proof-of-personhood schemes claim to defend the human internet from bots. In practice, they smuggle a border regime into everyday computing, and they fail to solve the problem they were invented to solve.