Friday, April 25, 2025

Aztec launches StealthNote app giving privateness to company whistleblowers

Builders behind the Ethereum layer 2 Aztec Community have launched a whistleblowing platform referred to as StealthNote that enables employees to vent about their employer with out revealing themselves.

StealthNote makes use of zero-knowledge proofs to show that posts on its platform are written by somebody with entry to an e-mail tackle of the corporate that they’re reviewing.

Aztec Labs developer Saleel Pichen wrote in an April 14 X publish that StealthNote creates a zero-knowledge proof of a Google JSON Net Token, which is used to authenticate customers and permits the platform to show a poster owns “an e-mail from an organization area with out revealing any private data.”

Two of the most recent posts on StealthNote from personnel at Aztec Labs and Cornell College. Supply: StealthNote.xyz

In keeping with Aztec’s documentation, the privateness answer had been in growth since a minimum of Oct. 22, whereas the primary take a look at publish from Aztec occurred about three months in the past.

Staff from Ethereum Basis, StarkWare and Scroll in addition to Columbia and Cornell universities have made posts on StealthNote, primarily sharing greetings and voicing their assist for privateness options.

“Let’s make privateness cool once more,” a employee from Nim Community wrote.

ZK-proofs wanted greater than ever, says Buterin

ZK-proofs have grow to be an more and more used privateness answer within the web age as considerations over information safety and authorities surveillance proceed to develop.

The considerations have been raised in an April 14 weblog publish by Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin, who criticized the idea that governments are typically well-intentioned with regards to sacrificing privateness for a extra “clear society.”

Associated: Vitalik Buterin unveils roadmap for Ethereum privateness

He championed ZK-proofs as an answer to mitigate this trade-off, highlighting the expertise’s skill to offer “fine-grained management of who can see what data.”

Associated: Vitalik Buterin unveils roadmap for Ethereum privateness

The privacy-focused Aztec Community launched on Ethereum in February 2020.

The agency raised $100 million in Collection B funding led by the tech-focused enterprise capital agency Andreessen “a16z” Horowitz in December 2022, with A Capital and King River additionally contributing.

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