The Aztec privacy network has launched officially on the Ethereum blockchain on February 1.

It is identical to Zcash-based technology as it introduces private tokens where all amounts are cryptographically concealed.

The network is presently in exclusive deployment as it only supports zkDai, a private edition of Maker’s stable coin.

The company added that other zero-knowledge tokens are set to be released in the coming days, while total access to custom token creation will be given in two months.

Similar to Zcash (ZEC), the Aztec protocol makes use of Zk-SNARKs to verify encrypted transactions and when generating a transfer, proof of correctness is produced as the amount gets encrypted.

The system rides on Aztec’s Cryptography Engine smart contract, which can be used to verify the transactions.

The contract is established on a system of “notes,” which are normally used in a Bitcoin-like structure of inputs and outputs.

Like Zcash as well, Aztec had to conduct a trusted setup ceremony.

This is an important condition for all zk-SNARK implementations because it generates a set of common parameters to guarantee productive computation.

It is, however different from Zcash in a way, in the sense that Aztec does not conceal the money’s sender and recipient.

Future developments to allow smart contracts private

Aztec’s objective is to perform its “Triptych of privacy,” which would entirely conceal a certain portion of the Ethereum blockchain.

The next phase is to protect senders and recipients, while the last step is allowing smart contracts totally confidential.

Aztec’s CEO Thomas Walton-Pocock said that the focus is to deploy PLONK to ACE and this may happen early this year.

“PLONK is the superfast Universal SNARK created by AZTEC CTO Zac Williamson and AZTEC Chief Scientist Ariel Gabizon, which will ultimately enable private smart contracts to be completed with just one trusted setup.”