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Key Takeaways
- zk.money hides balances, amounts and recipients for payments inside the Aztec Network, though deposits from Ethereum still reveal the sender and amount.
- Each deposit, payment and withdrawal is capped below $2,500, with a shared $50,000 daily deposit allowance, and DAI is the only currency used inside the wallet.
- The wallet launches before a fix for a critical flaw in the network’s V5 proof system, and the network’s documentation warns it has not been fully audited.
Aztec Labs is bringing back zk.money, a self-custodial wallet that hides payment amounts, balances, and recipients for transfers made on the Aztec Network. The relaunch gives Ethereum users another option for shielding financial activity that would otherwise sit fully visible on a public blockchain.
What zk.money Hides, and What It Doesn’t
On Ethereum, anyone who knows a wallet address can see its balance and trace its past transfers, a level of exposure that can reveal a business’s payments to suppliers or an individual’s full spending history.
zk.money moves payments onto the Aztec Network, a system connected to Ethereum that conceals balances, amounts, and the parties involved once funds are inside it.
Users will be able to deposit the dollar-pegged stablecoins DAI, USDC and USDT from Ethereum. USDC and USDT are converted into DAI on the way in, leaving DAI as the only currency used inside the wallet itself.
Deposits are not fully private: Aztec’s own documentation states that a deposit from Ethereum reveals the sender and the amount, even though the recipient on Aztec can remain hidden. Privacy applies to activity within the system, not to the initial transfer that funds it.
People can request payment by sharing a link or by sending funds to a readable name, such as an address ending in “.zk.money,” rather than a long wallet string. Aztec Labs said the wallet is self-custodial, meaning its operators cannot spend or freeze funds held within it.
Why Aztec Labs Chose DAI
Aztec Labs CEO Joe Andrews said the wallet reflects a basic premise about everyday payments.
“On-chain transactions between two individuals shouldn’t mean publishing your financial history to the world.”
Andrews said the company chose DAI as the wallet’s internal currency because it considers DAI the most decentralized of the major stablecoins currently used on Ethereum, and said support for other assets could follow later.
Strict Limits During an Early Rollout
The relaunch carries firm caps while the system remains new. Each deposit, payment, and withdrawal must stay below $2,500, and all users share a $50,000 daily deposit allowance that replenishes over time.
Aztec’s documentation describes the caps as a safeguard for the early rollout and says raising them would require deploying a new contract. Andrews said the company plans to raise the limits as confidence in the system grows and after a later software version goes live.
A deposit costs 35 cents plus Ethereum network fees, and a withdrawal costs 20 cents. Users receive 100 sponsored transactions a day inside zk.money, though payments must wait if the contract covering network fees runs low or cannot cover the prevailing fee at that moment.
The wallet also screens Ethereum addresses used for deposits and withdrawals against a sanctions policy, and a sealed server co-signs operations inside the system, though Aztec’s documentation states that server cannot spend a user’s funds independently.
A Second Attempt After a 2024 Shutdown
The original zk.money launched in 2021 and closed in 2024. Aztec Labs said the earlier version served more than 75,000 wallets and processed over $100 million in payments before it was discontinued.
The underlying Aztec Network remains in an early Alpha phase, and its own documentation warns that the software has not been fully audited and that critical bugs remain possible. Contributors disclosed a critical flaw in the network’s V5 proof system in August and said a fix was planned for a subsequent version.
Andrews said zk.money will launch before that fix ships, with a separate system called Oxide checking payments for errors tied to the underlying flaw in the meantime. Users will be able to migrate to the updated network once the fix is complete.
Ethereum’s own developers are separately weighing changes for a planned 2027 upgrade that could let privacy-focused applications handle transaction approvals and fees with less reliance on outside services, though those proposals remain under consideration rather than confirmed for inclusion.
