Privacy-oriented blockchain platform Aztec is preparing to shut down Aztec Connect, the network’s privacy infrastructure that serves as a cryptographic layer for Ethereum.
Aztec Network Official announced The upcoming closure of Aztec Connect, which will disable Aztec Connect deposits from frontends such as zk.money and zkpay.finance on March 17th.
According to Aztec’s blog post, users can withdraw funds from Aztec Connect without any fees for one year. “Withdrawals can be made at any time, but after March 21, 2024 it will be significantly more taxing,” said Aztec, recommending users to withdraw their funds as soon as possible.ever since launch In July 2022, Aztec Connect will have over 100,000 users, the announcement said.
After March 2024, Aztec will no longer run sequencers. This means that the current system will no longer issue rollup blocks to process Aztec Connect transactions. “Contract permissions have been waived and all rollup functionality has been suspended,” the announcement said.
Aztec has fully open-sourced the entire Aztec Connect protocol, encouraging the Aztec community to fork, deploy and operate new versions of the system. “We would love to see Aztec Connect operate independently and we are ready to fund it,” he said.
According to the announcement, the closure of Aztec Connect marks a milestone in the development of a decentralized general-purpose cryptographic blockchain. Prior to launching Aztec Connect in July 2022, Aztec first experimented with zkRollup on Aztec 1, but found it to be “slow, inefficient, and expensive” and had “basic functionality.” was restricted to “private transfers”.
Aztec emphasizes that the research done at Aztec Connect is both usable and important for the development of the next generation of blockchains, providing the basis for a fully programmable version of the cryptographic rollup. and added:
“There is no denying that Aztec Connect was a key stepping stone in realizing our ultimate goal. Now is the time to fully focus on our goal of a decentralized, universal cryptographic blockchain.”
After the closure of Aztec Connect, Aztec will focus on developing a universal zero-knowledge language and next-generation cryptographic blockchain known as Noir.
Related: Crypto Projects Respond To Dubai’s Privacy Coin Ban
The news comes as ConsenSys prepares to release its Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) rollup on the public testnet on March 28th. The launch builds on his four-plus years of research and could potentially enable faster transactions, higher throughput, and better security for payments. on the Ethereum blockchain.
