Use the private routes
Shield from Private and withdraw to Private, and there is no amount on-chain to match a deposit to a withdrawal.
PRIVACY EXPLAINEDDecide what
Decide what
the world sees.
Privacy isn’t all or nothing. Pick exactly how much of each payment the world gets to see, one payment at a time.
Compare all three modesTRY THE PRIVACY MODESOne example. Three perspectives.
••••••zkUSD
FROMAlice
TOBob
Public observer’s view · illustrative only
What stays visible?
- Transfer amount
- Hidden
- Sender & recipient
- Public
- Balance
- Hidden
- Amount in & out
- Public
Amounts and balances are encrypted on-chain with Solana’s native confidential transfers. Great for payroll and invoices, where the other side already knows you.
01COMPARE THE MODES
What can an observer see?
One token, three ways to move it. Each mode is enforced by the protocol itself, not by a setting someone can quietly change.
| Information | Standard | Private | Shielded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transfer amount | Public | Encrypted | Hidden |
| Sender & recipient | Public | Visible | Unlinkable |
| Balance | Public | Encrypted | Private notes |
| Amount moving in & out | Public | Public, to and from Standard | Hidden, to and from Private¹ |
| Compliance | Public ledger | Built-in auditor key² | Zero-knowledge proofs |
| DeFi | Works everywhere | Switch to Standard | Withdraw first |
¹ Shield from your Private balance, or withdraw to one, and the amount never appears on-chain: a proof across two curves ties the encrypted transfer to the shielded notes.
² Private amounts are encrypted to the sender, the recipient and the mint’s auditor key, which is what makes the Private mode ready for payroll and business payments.
02IN AND OUT
Hidden links.
Hidden amounts.
Inside the pool, nobody can tell which deposit a withdrawal came from. Move in from your Private balance and back out to one, and the amounts stay hidden too: the chain sees a private transfer, not a number.
Deposit
Amount stays encrypted
Private notes
Zero-knowledge proofs, no links
Withdrawal
Amount stays encrypted
03GET THE MOST FROM IT
Privacy that compounds.
Round numbers blend in
Moving in or out through Standard? Round amounts like $20 or $100 look like everyone else’s.
Let it sit
The longer money stays in the pool and the more people use it, the bigger the crowd every note hides in.
Bring your own wallet
Sign with a wallet you control and every signature, including the one your shielded keys come from, stays on your device.
04HOW IT STAYS HONEST
Built so nobody
has to be trusted.
- Your keys, your device
- Private and shielded keys are derived from a signature your wallet makes, held in memory for the session and never stored or sent anywhere. Proofs are generated in your browser.
- The relayer can’t cheat
- The relayer submits shielded transactions and pays their network fees, so your wallet never appears on them. The proof binds the recipient and the fee, so the relayer cannot redirect a payment or take a cent more than it quoted.
- The chain checks everything
- Every shielded move is verified on-chain by the pool program before a single token moves, and every note can be spent exactly once.
- Compliance, built in
- Private transfers carry an amount encrypted to the mint’s auditor key, so the Private mode fits payroll, invoices and business payments out of the box.
05COMMON QUESTIONS
A little
clarity.
How private is Shielded, in practice?
The proof hides which deposit any withdrawal came from, and with the private routes the amounts are hidden too. Every note in the pool is a possible source for every withdrawal, so the crowd grows with every user.
What does Private mode hide?
Amounts and balances, encrypted on-chain with Solana’s native confidential transfers. Sender and recipient stay visible, which makes it ideal for payroll and invoices, where the other side already knows you. Use Shielded when the relationship itself is the private part.
Can a reserve check reveal my private balance?
The reserve checker reads public mint, configuration, and vault accounts. It does not request wallet keys or read confidential balances. Aggregate token supply is public by design.
What does the backing cover?
Every zkUSD, in every mode, is backed one-for-one by USDC in the vault, and the vault checks it on every wrap and redeem. See the live reserves.