3–2–1-go for Private DeFi on Ethereum!
The countdown to Aztec Connect’s mainnet launch has officially begun.
Ethereum users are about to access the full spectrum of Ethereum DeFi applications with Aztec’s ironclad privacy guarantees, starting with our launch integrations: liquid stake ETH on Lido and get fixed yields on Element with full privacy protection.
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wen launch?
June 9th, 2022. 3 weeks and 1 day.
Yes, 6/9. We’re doing it for the culture.
We have a full calendar of events planned leading up to launch — treat this as a handy guide to the content we’re releasing to educate you on Aztec Connect before it goes live.
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Internal and External Cryptography Audit
4 weeks to launch!
The Aztec Connect architecture is an extension of the cryptography systems underlying the original zk.money functionality used for private payments.
To support payments, we developed two custom circuits:
- The Join-Split Circuit: supports private transfers
- The Account Circuit: supports private account abstraction
Aztec Connect adds two circuits that work in conjunction with one another:
- The DeFi Deposit and Withdrawal Circuits: two circuits that together support depositing assets to L1 and returning them to Aztec’s zkRollup.
We’ve already completed a 4-month-long code freeze and internal audit examining the core cryptographic improvements to Aztec’s rollup.
It consisted of our 8-person cryptography team making every attempt to break our code, cryptographic assumptions, and core building blocks. In addition to an internal audit, we’ve had an external fuzzing audit executed by Sentnl, and we’re doubling down on open-source development and raising our Bug Bounty limits, to be announced shortly.
Upcoming blog: Bug Bounty Announcement.
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Third-Party Core Contract, and Bridge Interface Audits
3 weeks to launch ( you are here!)
We received comments on and patched minor vulnerabilities from an official third-party smart contract audit by Solidified.
Further, we’ve test-deployed mainnet contracts and are doing on-chain testing before the final release.
We have high confidence in the security of the Aztec rollup contracts on Ethereum but this is advanced, complex tech, and we urge all users to proceed with caution.
Upcoming blog: Aztec’s Audit and Security Approach and publication of Solidified audit.
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System Account Migration
2 weeks to launch!
When Aztec Connect launches, we will hard-fork the network, leading to the creation of a new state-tree. However, rather than starting with zero state, Aztec will retain existing encrypted accounts and aliases previously registered. This means existing users of zk.money will keep their aliases!
Note that for security reasons, funds will not be moved as part of the hard-fork. Users who want to use Aztec Connect–with its new cryptography and functionality–will have to withdraw and re-deposit funds.
In conjunction with starting a new state tree, we are deprecating the ability to create new accounts on the “old” zk.money. We will continue to support zk.money, backstopping daily rollups for one year from the launch of Aztec Connect — until June 9th, 2023.
Upcoming blog: zk.money Migration Guide
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Mainnet Deployment of Core Contracts and Bridges
1 week to launch!
Mainnet testing and the community’s eyes on code will give us confidence in the security of the Aztec rollup contracts and as a result, Aztec Connect’s Core Contracts will be re-deployed to Mainnet.
In this week-before-launch period, the contracts are live but we will not make the front-end public for users to submit transactions to Aztec’s rollup provider.
Our privacy-focused DeFi front-end zk.money will then enter final usability and bug testing, with a production beta deployment (“soft-launch”) for internal core team members and select community members targeted soon thereafter.
Bridge contracts — interfaces between our core mainnet contracts and Ethereum DeFi protocols — are deployed next.
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zk.money Production Deployment
t-minus 0!
Finally, if all goes well, we will remove the beta and zk.money will be deployed in production!
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Aztec Connect
We couldn’t have done this without you, our community, our investors, and the collective Aztec ecosystem. Aztec Connect is a powerful demonstration of what’s possible with Aztec Network.
If private payments with two zk circuits was a 1/100 product, Aztec Connect is a 10x leap ahead to 10/100 with just one additional circuit.
But the true 100/100 comes with arbitrary smart contracts in a natively private execution environment.
We can’t wait to unveil Aztec Connect to you, the next major step toward fulfilling our long-term mission.
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Build with Aztec Connect
Are you a developer who wants to bring privacy to your favorite DeFi protocol? If you build it, we’ll fund it.
Aztec Grants Program: https://airtable.com/shrvglCZ24jaH73oe
Connect Starter: https://github.com/AztecProtocol/aztec-connect-starter.
Help make privacy a no-brainer.
Join the Aztec Community
We’re always on the lookout for talented engineers and applied cryptographers.
If joining our mission to bring scalable privacy to Ethereum excites you — check out our open roles.
Know someone? Refer them and get up to $7,500 in referral bounties.
And continue the conversation with us on Discord or Twitter.
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Countdown to Aztec Connect was originally published in Aztec on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
