Original | Odaily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Ding Dong (@XiaMiPP)
On May 2nd, Aztec, a privacy and scaling solution based on ZK Rollup, announced the official launch of its public testnet. The network uses zero-knowledge proof technology to achieve efficient private transactions and provide a secure, anonymous decentralized application development environment for DApp developers, marking a key step in Ethereum's privacy ecosystem.
Subsequently, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik actively interacted with Aztec on the X platform, stating: "Privacy has always been true Alpha." This statement not only highly recognizes Aztec's technology but also continues their five-year communication, adding heavyweight endorsement to the public testnet launch.
Vitalik and Aztec: Technical Collaboration and Conceptual Resonance
The connection between Vitalik and Aztec can be traced back to 2020. At that time, he joined Aztec's "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 personally participated but also developed a Python implementation to run the ceremony, demonstrating his strong interest in Aztec's technology. In March of the same year, he praised Aztec's "ZK ZK Rollup" innovation on the X platform, believing its design combining privacy protection and Layer 2 scalability was 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, alongside top institutions like a16z and Paradigm, injecting strong capital momentum into the project. In April 2025, Vitalik released Ethereum's privacy roadmap, emphasizing the importance of private payments and anonymous on-chain activities, which highly aligns with Aztec's projects like StealthNote (anonymous reporting platform).
Technical Core: PLONK Leading the Privacy Track
Developed by Aztec Labs, founded in 2018, the core team gathers top talents from Ethereum Foundation, ConsenSys, and other crypto pioneer organizations. Its technical core is a privacy-first ZK-Rollup architecture that encrypts data through zero-knowledge proofs, not only guaranteeing transaction privacy but also reducing gas fees to 1/80 to 1/100 of traditional Ethereum transactions. Additionally, Aztec introduced the Noir programming language, significantly simplifying the development process of privacy smart contracts and providing intuitive and powerful tools for DApp developers.
In technological innovation, Aztec's original PLONK proof system is particularly outstanding. As an efficient and flexible zero-knowledge proof protocol, PLONK's superior computational performance and universality not only support Aztec's private transactions but are also widely adopted by mainstream ZK projects like StarkNet and zkSync, becoming a benchmark technology in the privacy track. Compared to traditional ZK-SNARKs, PLONK's breakthroughs in computational efficiency and developer-friendliness significantly lower the development threshold for privacy applications, opening up a new path for Ethereum's privacy expansion. PLONK's universal trusted setup, participated in by community leaders like Vitalik Buterin, further consolidates its security and credibility, making it known as the "technical foundation" of the privacy track, with influence far beyond the Aztec project itself.
Note: Trusted setup, as an inherent "backdoor" in zero-knowledge proof solutions, has always been a focus of technical optimization. Traditional trusted setup relies on multi-party key generation, which could compromise system security if not set up properly. Aztec significantly optimizes this process through PLONK's innovative design, allowing a single setup to support multiple circuits, reducing dependence on repeated ceremonies and greatly improving efficiency and security.
Shutdown Controversy: Sudden Strategic Shift
Since its establishment, Aztec has completed four rounds of financing, with Series B raising $100 million, totaling $119 million. However, on March 13, 2023, just three months after successful financing, Aztec suddenly announced a gradual shutdown of its privacy bridge Aztec Connect and disabled fund deposit functions for front-ends like zk.money, allowing free withdrawals within a year. In May 2024, Aztec officially relinquished ownership of zk.money.
At the time, the privacy transfer protocol zk.money and privacy bridge Aztec Connect were Aztec's two flagship products. Through zk.money and Aztec Connect, users could transfer funds without exposing their information (address, funds, etc.) and safely access multiple mainstream DeFi protocols like Lido, Element, Aave, Compound, and Uniswap, attracting over 100,000 interactive users.
The sudden shutdown announcement caught many users off guard, sparking intense discussions in the crypto community. While some speculated regulatory pressure as the main reason, Aztec officially denied this, emphasizing it was a strategic adjustment based on business considerations. Analysis suggests Aztec might want to focus resources on more long-term valuable directions—building a comprehensive privacy solution rather than being limited to DeFi bridging services. In August 2024, Aztec launched Devnet and an early developer incentive program to attract developers to deploy privacy applications, showing its determination to transform towards a broader ecosystem.
Broader discussions remained concentrated within the "airdrop community". As a star project in the ZK track, backed by top crypto capitals like a16z and Paradigm, Aztec was once a hot airdrop expectation target. Users paid high Ethereum gas fees for interactions (sometimes costing tens or even hundreds of dollars per transaction). Many users feel that with the shutdown of zk.money and Aztec Connect, their interaction costs for potentially ambushing the project's airdrop will be in vain. Indeed, while Aztec thanked community support in its announcement, it did not clearly quantify user contributions.
Now, the Aztec Network public testnet is online, providing developers an ideal platform to test the Noir programming language and privacy features, helping build secure, anonymous DApps. Aztec simultaneously launched a $150,000 grant program, encouraging developers to explore interoperability with other Layer 2 networks, demonstrating its commitment to an open ecosystem. Currently, the public testnet is primarily for technical developers, with no direct participation opportunity for ordinary users, but following Aztec's X account, Discord community, and official website are the best ways to get the latest updates.
For community users, whether Aztec can convert early users' (such as zk.money and Aztec Connect interactors) contributions into actual incentives remains a core focus. Although the official has not yet responded clearly, the public testnet launch undoubtedly injects new momentum into Aztec's decentralized vision and adds infinite possibilities for Ethereum's privacy ecosystem's future.
