Vitalik Buterin proposes solution for confidential NFT transmission

The use of stealth addresses will ensure data privacy for token holders

09.08.2022 - 08:55

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2 min

What’s new? Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared the idea of implementing stealth addresses for ERC-721 (the main standard for non-fungible tokens). In his view, this is an easier approach to add privacy to the NFT ecosystem than those previously proposed (Merkle trees or zk-SNARKs ).

Idea: stealth addresses for ERC721s.A low-tech approach to add a significant amount of privacy to the NFT ecosystem.So you would be able to eg. send an NFT to vitalik.eth without anyone except me (the new owner) being able to see who the new owner is.https://t.co/UdqK6NAYjn— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 8, 2022

A stealth address is a private one-time address that can be used to hide the public address of a token recipient in a blockchain transaction.

A Merkle tree is a data structure (in the form of a tree) within which all elements of information are connected to each other. This structure allows optimizing the process of presenting data in a decentralized network using hashing.

zk-SNARK (a zero-knowledge proof) is a cryptographic protocol that can be used to conceal the source, amount, and recipient of a payment. Herewith, it allows proof that the payment has passed and that the correct number of tokens is in the recipient’s account.

What are the advantages of the offer? When implementing this idea, the user will be able to send an NFT to an address, for example, vitalik.eth without anyone being able to see the new owner of the token except the new owner himself. This will add privacy to the NFT ecosystem. Buterin also stressed that this method has great potential and it may not be long before the market sees this feature.

Earlier, Buterin criticized corporate attempts to create metaverse, saying that they would go anywhere. He added that right now we do not even know a definition of the metaverse, and it is too early to talk about what people really want from it.

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