Conversations about privacy, particularly in the crypto circle, will continue to pervade the scene. Perhaps, a byproduct of the underlying principle behind the workings of a blockchain, conversations about don't seem to be going away anytime soon and the RAILGUN project is aiming to sit at the centre of it.
EVM chains are typically associated with their underlying transparency but that comes with privacy concerns. The fact that every wallet you interact with can immediately know the content of your own wallet doesn't seem right.
Whenever conversations about privacy in crypto are brought up, people tend to veer their minds towards nefarious activities. However, no one bats an eyelid at the fact that there's some underlying level of privacy, even in the fiat system that no one actually sees as being wrong.
Imagine how uncomfortable it would be if whenever you pay for an item with your credit or debit card, the receiver is also granted access to see the content of your account. This is exactly what we have today in EVM chains and this is something that the RAILGUN project is focusing on.
If you want to know the content of someone else's fiat bank account, there's a process you must follow through law enforcement and all that. The RAILGUN project is simply saying that if you want to know how many crypto-related assets, including NFTS, I have in my wallet, you need to follow due process and I think that's only fair.
The NFT feature wasn't always a part of the RAILGUN project. In fact, it was only announced a couple of days ago that NFT shielding will be getting on board. Shielding, in RAILGUN terms, depicts a situation where an asset is moved from the public address into a Rail address and instantly becomes invisible to the public.
Mobile shield
I've often lamented the lack of mobile-based crypto applications. Considering how open-source the Android market is, for example, I wonder why we don't have enough mobile applications that grant us full access to crypto-related activities.
It's not like mobile phones are slouches like in the old days. Nowadays, even midrange devices come with upwards of 4GB RAM and decent enough chipsets to handle whatever crypto wallet you throw at them.
The RAILGUN project focused resources towards mobile applications and created a wallet that enables you to easily make swaps incognito. It is a seamless experience that belies the underlying sophisticated technology.
The video above simplifies the entire process that includes;
- Creating a wallet
- Funding your wallet
- How to easily make defi swaps privately
Arbitrum is on the way
At the end of the day, the goal is to bring privacy to the doorstep of EVM chain users. Arbitrum is a second-layer scalability solution to Ethereum and in future updates, we'll be seeing the Railway wallet adopting the chain.
At the time of writing, the RAILGUN project offers privacy features to users of Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Polygon network. The tutorial video above explains it but here's basically how it works.
- The Railway wallet houses all the networks and you can receive assets from either network(Ethereum, BSC or Polygon)
- You can then proceed to shield the said asset into your "0zk " Railway wallet. Shielding takes the asset out of the public's eye.
The incoming update will add Arbitrum to the list and enable its users to access true composable on-chain privacy.
Privacy shouldn't be a luxury
I have a feeling that this is just the beginning and we'll be seeing more networks plugging into the Railway wallet.
There will be private NFT sales and shielded marketplaces springing up in the near future.
Outside EVM chains, the need for privacy will start arising and even on Hive, there will be privacy features added for our own security.
For now, though, the focus is on EVM chains and RAILGUNis at the forefront of it. NFT transfers, coin swaps, coin transfer, Defi applications and many more will be shielded.
