NetherMind's ZK engineering team presented a privacy solution for Stellar using zero-knowledge proofs and privacy pools with regulatory compliance, addressing the blockchain's transparency-by-design limitation while enabling opt-in privacy for users.
Nick from NetherMind's ZK engineering team presented a multi-phase privacy architecture for Stellar that combines zero-knowledge proofs with privacy pools and regulatory compliance. The solution addresses Stellar's transparency-by-design limitation by enabling private transactions while maintaining auditability for regulators. Phase one introduces association sets allowing users to prove funds came from lawful sources without revealing identities. Phase two adds view keys for auditor access, and phase three enables compliant in-pool transfers using recursive snarks. The approach balances individual privacy, regulatory oversight, and institutional adoption, contrasting with unregulated solutions like TornadoCash that faced sanctions.