Aztec To Sunset Privacy Protocol

Aztec, a team working on privacy-focused scaling solutions for Ethereum, plans to sunset the Aztec Connect Layer 2 network.

Aztec said it will disable the deposit contract for its Connect product on March 21, preventing users from transferring assets onto the network. The rollup will continue operating for 12 months to facilitate user withdrawals before its sequencer is retired on March 21, 2024.

The team is urging users to withdraw their assets before March 2024, noting that users will “have to run withdrawal software or rely on community-run sequencers” after the deadline.

“While withdrawals will always be possible, they will become significantly more burdensome after March 21st, 2024,” Aztec said.

Connect’s total value locked peaked above $17M on Tuesday, according to L2Beat. Aztec said more than 100,000 unique wallets have executed transactions on the network.

Codebase Released

Aztec also open-sourced the entire codebase for Connect and encouraged community members to fork, deploy, or develop a new version of the rollup. “We’d love to see an independently-operated Aztec Connect and are ready to fund it,” it said.

Connect and other rollups work by bundling together transactions on Layer 2 networks and submitting them to the Ethereum mainnet for finalization.

Connect is a zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup, meaning it is powered by ZK proofs. ZK-rollups offer greater speed and privacy than rival designs but typically suffer from poor compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) — meaning developers must make significant changes to port their code between the Ethereum mainnet and Layer 2.

Aztec Launches Private DeFi Platform on Ethereum

With Aztec’s zk.money DeFi aggregator, DeFi apps like Lido and Curve can be used privately.

The Defiant

Aztec plans to focus on its next ZK-rollup solution.

The team is also working on a “universal language of zero knowledge” called Noir, describing Noir as the simplest way to write ZK-powered programs. Aztec said Noir is EVM compatible and will be the native smart contract language for its next rollup product.

The ZK-rollup sector is becoming increasingly competitive, with Polygon, Matter Labs, Scroll, and Consensys all aiming to deploy ZK-rollups featuring EVM compatibility in the coming months.