Original | Odaily Planet Daily ( @OdailyChina )
Author | Dingdang ( @XiaMiPP )
On May 2, Aztec, a privacy and scalability solution based on ZK Rollup, announced that its public testnet was officially launched. The network uses zero-knowledge proof technology to achieve efficient privacy transactions and provide DApp developers with a secure and anonymous decentralized application development environment, marking a key step for Aztec in the Ethereum privacy ecosystem.
Subsequently, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik actively interacted with Aztec on the X platform: Privacy has always been the real Alpha. This statement is not only a high recognition of Aztecs technology, but also a continuation of his five-year friendship with Aztec, adding a heavyweight endorsement to the launch of the public beta network.
Vitalik and Aztec: Co-creation of technology and resonance of ideas
Vitalks relationship with Aztec can be traced back to 2020. At that time, he joined Aztecs AZTEC CRS (Trusted Setup Ceremony) as the first participant (Participant #0), laying the foundation of trust for the zero-knowledge proof system. Vitalik not only participated in person, but also developed a Python implementation to run the ceremony, showing a strong interest in Aztec technology. In March of the same year, he praised Aztecs ZK ZK Rollup innovation on the X platform, believing that its design that combines privacy protection and Layer 2 scalability is a major breakthrough in the Ethereum ecosystem.
In October 2021, Vitalik further participated in Aztec Labs $17 million Series A financing as a personal investor, joining hands with top institutions such as a16z and Paradigm to inject strong capital momentum into the project. In April 2025, Vitalik released the Ethereum privacy roadmap, emphasizing the importance of private payments and anonymous on-chain activities, which is highly consistent with projects such as Aztecs StealthNote (anonymous reporting platform).
Technical core: PLONK leads the privacy track
Aztec was developed by Aztec Labs and was founded in 2018. The core team brings together top talents from crypto pioneers such as the Ethereum Foundation and ConsenSys. The core of its technology lies in the privacy-first ZK-Rollup architecture, which implements data encryption through zero-knowledge proof, not only ensuring transaction privacy, but also reducing gas fees to 1/80 to 1/100 of traditional Ethereum transactions . In addition, Aztec launched the Noir programming language, which greatly simplifies the development process of privacy smart contracts and provides DApp developers with intuitive and powerful tools.
Among the technological innovations, Aztec s original PLONK proof system is particularly eye-catching . As an efficient and flexible zero-knowledge proof protocol, PLONK, with its superior computing performance and versatility, not only supports Aztecs privacy transactions, but is also widely adopted by mainstream ZK projects such as StarkNet and zkSync, becoming a benchmark technology in the privacy track. Compared with traditional ZK-SNARKs, PLONKs breakthroughs in computing efficiency and developer friendliness have significantly lowered the development threshold for privacy applications, opening up a new path for privacy expansion in the Ethereum ecosystem. PLONKs universal trusted setup (Trusted Setup) was participated in by community leaders such as Vitalik Buterin, further consolidating its security and credibility, making it known as the technical cornerstone of the privacy track, with an influence far exceeding the Aztec project itself.
Note: Trusted setup, as an inherent backdoor in zero-knowledge proof schemes, has always been the focus of technical optimization. Traditional trusted setup relies on multiple parties to participate in key generation. If it is not set up properly, it may cause system security to be compromised. Aztec has significantly optimized this link through the innovative design of PLONK. Its universal trusted setup allows a single setup to support multiple circuits, reducing the reliance on repeated ceremonies and greatly improving efficiency and security.
Shutdown controversy: a sudden strategic shift
Since its establishment, Aztec has completed four rounds of financing, with the B round raising $100 million and a total of $119 million. Three months later, on March 13, 2023, when the afterglow of the successful financing had not yet subsided, Aztec suddenly announced that it would gradually shut down the privacy bridge Aztec Connect and disable the front-end fund deposit functions such as zk.money . Users can withdraw funds for free within one year. In May 2024, Aztec officially gave up the ownership of zk.money.
At that time, the privacy transfer protocol zk.money and the privacy bridge Aztec Connect were two flagship products launched by Aztec. Relying on zk.money and Aztec Connect, users can freely transfer money without exposing their own information (address, funds, etc.), and safely access multiple mainstream DeFi protocols such as Lido, Element, Aave, Compound, Uniswap, etc., attracting more than 100,000 interactive users.
The sudden announcement of the shutdown caught many users off guard and sparked intensive discussions in the crypto community. Although some people are exploring the reasons for Aztecs transformation and speculate that regulatory pressure is the main reason behind it, Aztec officials have denied this statement, emphasizing that it is a strategic adjustment based on commercial considerations. From an analytical point of view, Aztec may indeed want to focus its resources on a more long-term value direction - building a full-stack privacy solution rather than being limited to DeFi bridging services. In August 2024, Aztec launched Devnet and launched an early developer incentive program to attract developers to deploy privacy applications, showing its determination to transform to a broader ecosystem.
But the broader discussion is still focused on the wool party. As a star project in the ZK track, coupled with the support of top crypto capital such as a16z and Paradigm, Aztec was once a popular target for airdrop expectations. Users paid high Ethereum Gas fees to participate in the interaction (the cost of a single transaction was sometimes as high as tens or even hundreds of dollars at the time). Many users believe that with the closure of zk.money and Aztec Connect, the interaction costs they paid in the past to ambush the projects airdrop will be wasted. Indeed, although Aztec thanked the community for its support in the announcement, it did not clarify how to quantify user contributions.
Today, the Aztec Network public beta network is online, providing developers with an ideal platform to test the Noir programming language and privacy features, helping to build secure and anonymous DApps. Aztec also launched a $150,000 funding program to encourage developers to explore interoperability with other Layer 2 networks, demonstrating its commitment to an open ecosystem. Currently, the public beta network is mainly for technical developers, and ordinary users have no direct opportunity to participate, but following Aztecs X account, Discord community and official website is the best way to get the latest news.
For community users, whether Aztec can convert the contributions of early users (such as zk.money and Aztec Connect interactors) into actual incentives remains a core concern. Although the official has not yet responded clearly, the launch of the public beta network has undoubtedly injected new impetus into Aztecs decentralized vision and added unlimited possibilities to the future of Ethereums privacy ecosystem.
