Privacy in crypto used to be for cypherpunks and shady DEX whales. Now it’s a structural requirement.
Aztec, Railgun, and Monero each tackle it differently — like three cousins at a family reunion who all hate each other, but are united by one thing: not wanting to be watched.
A thread🧵
2/ Aztec: Ethereum L2 with encrypted smart contracts.
Think Ethereum, but the logic’s in a ski mask. Aztec uses zk-SNARKs + a clever PXE system to run private logic off-chain, then posts proofs to Ethereum.
It’s privacy not as a feature — but as a programmable default.
3/ Noir is Aztec’s language for writing encrypted logic.
Dev-friendly (sort of), but not for the faint of math. Imagine Solidity with a spy complex.
Aztec 3 is still in testnet but building fast, moving from “zk toys” to full-blown privacy infra. No token yet, but the signs are there.
4/ Railgun: Privacy bolt-on for existing DeFi. No new chain. No new L2. Just Uniswap, but with the lights off.
Shielded addresses + zk magic + relayers = privacy without rewriting the app stack. Already live on multiple chains and actually being used.
5/ Railgun’s vibe? Practical paranoia.
It plays nice with compliance (see: Proof of Innocence) and lets you prove you’re not a villain without doxxing your wallet. But like all mixers, effectiveness scales with usage — small pools, small cover.
6/ Monero: The OG.
Privacy is the default. No opt-in. No smart contracts. Just ring sigs, stealth addresses, and a Proof-of-Work chain that doesn’t care about your L2 drama.
Hard to integrate. Impossible to ignore. The cockroach of crypto privacy.
7/ TL;DR
Aztec: Privacy as programmable logic
Railgun: Privacy as middleware
Monero: Privacy as gospel
None are perfect. All are necessary. Because if privacy dies in crypto, the rest will just look like TradFi with worse UX.
Privacy isn’t a feature. It’s a fight.
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