How Railgun Is Making Privacy the New Standard
Secured Spotlight Premiere
For the very first episode of Trustblock’s new AMA series, Secured Spotlights, we turned the focus toward one of Web3’s most pressing needs—privacy. Our guest was Railgun, a project that’s pushing the boundaries on privacy in a space built on radical transparency. Hosted by Miz (Trustblock team member and founder of OpenSense on YouTube), with co-host Bilel (Trustblock’s CGO), the session peeled back the layers on Railgun’s tech, mission, and what it all means for the future of the decentralized world.
According to recent research by Blockworks, privacy may well be the “sleeping giant” that unlocks everything from trillions in institutional capital to everyday user adoption and AI-driven financial services. Without a solid privacy stack, the openness that defines blockchain could actually scare away big players and casual users alike.
Why Privacy Is the Missing Link
In traditional finance, confidentiality is a given—nobody expects to share their entire transaction history with the world just by making a payment. In crypto, that’s not the case yet, and it’s holding back serious growth. Institutions demand it, users crave it, and emerging technologies like AI will need it for safe, personalized experiences. Without privacy, true mainstream adoption of Web3 remains a distant dream.
Quick Highlights:
- Institutional Uptake: Finance heavyweights won’t dive into DeFi without privacy tools that meet compliance standards.
- AI Integration: Future AI agents will handle sensitive tasks—from personal emails to medical info—and this data needs to be kept secret from prying eyes.
- User Adoption: Everyday folks aren’t interested in making all their financial details public. Privacy is table stakes if we want them on board.
Blockworks Research breaks down the crypto privacy stack into three layers—Applications, Infrastructure, and Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs). Railgun sits right in that mix, bridging the gap so developers can build privacy into their DeFi apps from the ground up.
Inside the AMA: Railgun’s Take on Privacy and Security
Date: December 4, 2024 10AM UTC + 0
Host: Miz (Trustblock)
Co-Host: Bilel (Trustblock)
Guest: Alan (Railgun Co-Founder)
The first Secured Spotlight AMA kicked off with Miz and Bilel introducing the Trustblock platform and the goals of this new series. The spotlight soon turned to Railgun’s impressive security track record: at least seven audits over two years, all accessible through Trustblock. The message was clear: in a world where a single vulnerability can mean irreversible damage, building slow and steady is the only sensible approach.
Redefining On-Chain Privacy
How is Railgun different from older privacy solutions like mixers? Instead of just breaking transaction trails, Railgun integrates privacy directly into the user’s ongoing interaction with DeFi. Through zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs), it allows tokens—ERC20s, NFTs, stablecoins—to be stored and moved without exposing user activity. DeFi lending, swaps, and yield farming can all happen under a privacy shield.
Instead of asking users to trust a single anonymity set or a complex workaround, Railgun gives them what Alan calls an “incognito mode” for DeFi. This continuous privacy means no awkward compromise between playing in the DeFi sandbox and keeping your financial life private.
Security: A Never-Ending Task
Railgun’s decision to work with multiple respected auditing firms—Zokyo, ABDK, Hacken—emphasizes that security is never a one-and-done deal. Audits are continuous checkpoints that force teams to re-evaluate assumptions, patch vulnerabilities, and strengthen their protocols. As Alan put it:
“Zokyo has really been the go-to for continual sanity checks of the protocol because they know it really intimately.”
This long-term relationship with Zokyo ensures that Railgun’s complex architecture receives consistent, deep-level scrutiny, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities slipping through the cracks. And with Trustblock’s platform, users can easily check a project’s evolving security posture—something that’s vital when billions of dollars are at stake.
Tools for Developers, Benefits for Everyone
Railgun doesn’t just cater to end-users; it empowers developers as well. Its SDK makes privacy integration straightforward, helping devs build out sophisticated private features—like private on-ramps or payroll systems—without reinventing the wheel.
As more privacy-focused projects like Nillion come online, we’re seeing the emergence of a privacy tech ecosystem that can adapt to various use cases. Think automated private transactions, complex private lending schemes, and more, all supported by a suite of proven cryptographic tools.
Looking Ahead: Privacy as the Engine of Web3 Growth
The AMA made it clear: privacy isn’t just about hiding balances or obscuring transaction trails. It’s the foundation that will let DeFi truly scale to match global finance. It’s the key that will allow AI to manage sensitive tasks without selling users down the river. And it’s what will finally convince regular people that crypto is safe and practical for everyday use.
As Alan noted, it’s not enough to bolt on privacy at the end. It needs to be part of the architecture, enabling protocols to remain transparent at a high level (so we can trust them) while protecting the details (so we can trust ourselves).
Wrapping Up
Railgun’s story shows that privacy can coexist with openness, trust, and security. Rather than undermining the crypto ethos, it completes it. When privacy and transparency live side-by-side—verifiable at the protocol level, private at the user level—Web3 finally looks ready to take off.
Railgun on Trustblock: Security at a Glance
Project: Railgun
Category: Privacy Protocol for DeFi
Trustblock Profile: Check out Railgun’s security profile and audits
Security Highlights:
- Seven audits published on Trustblock
- Trusted auditor partners including Zokyo, ABDK, and Hacken
- Built-in zk-SNARKs for private DeFi interactions
Railgun profile on Trustblock
Explore the Trustblock Railgun profile to see exactly how they’re raising the bar on security and privacy. In a space where code is law and trust is hard-earned, that kind of visibility makes all the difference.
Stay in the Loop:
The conversation has started. Join in, learn more, and help shape a Web3 where privacy isn’t a question mark, but a given.
What’s Next: The Secured Spotlights series continues December 11, 2024, with Hinkal Protocol. Keep following Trustblock for more interviews that shine a light on projects pushing the envelope in Web3 security and privacy.