Sunsetting Aztec ConnectA giant leap toward fully programmable encrypted blockchains

Today we’re announcing the sunset of Aztec Connect, our privacy infrastructure that served as the encryption layer for Ethereum.

One week from today, deposits into the Aztec Connect contract both from zk.money and other front-ends like zkpay.finance will be disabled.

Users will continue being able to withdraw with no fees for one year.

Our sequencer will slowly reduce the frequency of rollup blocks for withdrawal, with a final sunset date approximately one year from now: March 21st, 2024. Here are the critical dates:

13th — 21st March: Aztec Connect normal functionality21st March 2023 at 2PM UTC: Deposits disabledOne-year withdrawal window (March 13th, 2023 — March 21st, 2024)March 21st, 2024: Last Aztec rollup sent from Aztec sequencerMarch 21st, 2024 onwards: users will have to run withdrawal software or rely on community-run sequencers

▶️ Head to zk.money today to begin withdrawing funds.

What’s Next

As of March 21st, 2024–approximately one year from now–Aztec will no longer run a sequencer. That means the current system will no longer publish rollup blocks processing Aztec Connect transactions, contract permissions will be renounced, and all rollup functionality will be ceased.

At that point, withdrawals will be highly technical. While we remain optimistic that a community-operated sequencer will be functional, everyday users will have to rely on that infrastructure or run their own sequencers to withdraw.

Thus, while withdrawals will always be possible, they will become significantly more burdensome after March 21st, 2024. We therefore recommend users withdraw funds as soon as possible.

▶️ Head to zk.money today to begin withdrawing funds.

Open sourcing Aztec Connect

As of today, Aztec has fully open sourced the entire Aztec Connect protocol complete with scaling upgrades and a new secure SDK.

▶️ See the open source Aztec Connect repo here.

We encourage the Aztec community to fork, deploy, and operate a new version of the system. We’d love to see an independently-operated Aztec Connect and are ready to fund it. Head to our open-source repo and docs to learn more about running an Aztec Connect fork.

The second wave of our grants program is coming up in April, and we look forward to funding community-run infrastructure then. In the meantime, keep in touch on our Twitter and Discord server.

Aztec’s Vision

At Aztec, our goal has always been to develop a truly decentralized general-purpose encrypted blockchain with the security of Ethereum.

While Ethereum has created a world computer that can read and write to public state, Aztec aims to fulfill the vision by adding the ability to read and write to private state.

In our mission to achieve that vision, we’ve taken a step-wise, incremental approach to the development of encrypted transactions on Ethereum.

The first attempt at on-chain privacy using a zkRollup was Aztec 1. Aztec 1 was slow, inefficient, costly, and limited in its functionality to basic private transfers.

Our latest effort was a set of privacy infrastructure and tools for Ethereum called Aztec Connect. It not only extended privacy functionality on Ethereum beyond simple payments and toward arbitrary smart contract interactions, it hinted at the cost savings that encrypted rollups are ultimately able to achieve through transaction batching.

Aztec Connect was a critical step in our mission to build a fully programmable encrypted blockchain. Not only did it provide critical feedback, it proved to us the battle-worthiness of our sequencer and rollup contracts.

The immense research invested into Aztec Connect will be usable and indeed critical to the development of our next-generation blockchain. Having an encrypted rollup live and in production gives us confidence in our shift to focusing on a fully programmable version.

The Future is Noir

As we move forward, our mid- and long-term focus will be solely directed towards the development of two major products, which are mutually compatible and interlinked:

Noir, the universal language of zero knowledgeOur next-generation encrypted blockchain

Noir continues to gain new features by the day, with the Noir tooling team publishing regular releases. We are convinced Noir is the simplest, most powerful way to write programs in zero-knowledge.

▶️ Install Noir today and go from 0 to programming in zkSNARKs in less than an hour.

With additional resources at their disposal, the Noir team will only grow its functionality. Not only is Noir useful today as a generalized programming language for zk development — capable of using multiple proving backends and verifying to any EVM chain — a modified version of Noir will be the smart contract language for Aztec’s next-gen blockchain.

Expect more Noir features and a full set of specifications for Aztec’s next-gen blockchain in the first half of 2023.

Onward

The Aztec community has been a vital part of the development and success of Aztec Connect, and we are incredibly grateful for the 100,000+ users who have used Aztec Connect for private DeFi. It has long been obvious that privacy in a blockchain context is an absolute necessity, and Aztec Connect further validated that thesis.

It’s undeniable that Aztec Connect was an important stepping stone towards realizing our ultimate goal. It’s now time for us to focus fully on that goal: a decentralized general-use encrypted blockchain.

To all our partners: thank you for betting on Aztec. We’re excited to bring you a fully-featured Noir and local devnet for our encrypted blockchain by the end of 2023. Onward!

Join the Aztec Community

We’re always on the lookout for talented engineers and applied cryptographers. If joining our mission to bring scalable privacy to Ethereum excites you, check out our open roles.

And continue the conversation with us on Discord or Twitter.

Building on Aztec

Interested in contributing to the universal zk language?

Aztec Grants will re-open in April to fund Noir infrastructure and applications. Come contribute to the most modular zk language — compatible with multiple crypto back-ends including Gnark and Halo2, and verifiable on any EVM chain.

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Fungible Points. Some programs may opt to create fungibility in their existing points-based program. Crypto-enthusiast customers can convert points to crypto for liquidity or investment purposes. Financial institutions like SoFi and Venmo have launched crypto rewards credit cards or enabled conversion of points to crypto.Tangential Token Offering. Brands can explore a complementary token offering made up of NFT collectibles that offer real-world utility beyond the digital token itself. These offerings can integrate with existing loyalty management solutions and gamify the program to create new ways of engaging and incentivizing customers, especially the younger, digital-savvy base. Starbucks Odyssey members can earn NFTs marketed as digital collectible stamps and unlock access to new experiences. They chose Polygon as their primary blockchain platform, a Layer 2 scaling solution built on top of the Ethereum blockchain.

On-Chain Loyalty Points. Companies with no loyalty program or those looking to revamp their existing loyalty management solution can issue fungible loyalty tokens/points on the blockchain. This is useful for partner-heavy programs that require optimal cross-program token tracking, settlement, and reconciliation.

The airline company Emirates leveraged Loyyal to tokenize cross-party transactions on the blockchain.

Native Crypto Token. At the far end of the spectrum is a pure Web3 play centered around native crypto tokens that can be rewarded, bought, and traded in currency markets. Companies should be cautious with this approach. The complexity of this model is exponentially greater than the other plays, involving high regulatory scrutiny and complex tokenomics to drive token demand and traction across all sides of the ecosystem. Catastrophic token collapses have had serious reputational and financial consequences, such as the FTX Token fallout and subsequent FTX bankruptcy.

Most companies experimenting in this space have stuck to the first two options, with a few venturing into on-chain points tokenization to realize cross-program settlement efficiencies. Some native Web3 businesses operating under more crypto-friendly regulatory regimes launched a native crypto token as part of a broader ecosystem strategy that requires loyalty utility and incentives. One example is the Basic Attention Token (BAT), which is funded by advertisers and earned by users and creators for participating in an ad ecosystem.

Partner Ecosystem. A third and critical dimension to think through is to align the partner ecosystem with the brand’s loyalty partnership strategy. Would the company’s objectives be better met through closed networks of one-to-one or one-to-many partnerships, with fungible tokens being minted and used within that network as a form of reward or payment?

For example, a financial institution can help power a closed loyalty network. The business can offer merchant-funded loyalty tokens to customers at point-of-sale across a preprogrammed network of merchants and partners.

An example of a more open ecosystem strategy is a brand issuing a tangential, collectable NFT offering and choosing a public blockchain for minting these NFTs. If the brand chooses, it could enable customers to transfer or sell these NFTs on marketplaces. Partners can also leverage token gating to engage with certain NFT holders.

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Token Utility. As we outlined earlier, the success of any Web3 loyalty offering will entail pairing utility to issued tokens. The utility spectrum can span physical, social, or pure digital utility. Physical utility involves coupling access to real products and services to the digital asset, such as an NFT that grants access to a redeemable product. Tokens can also have social utility in the form of access to community events, VIP benefits, or exclusive brand voting rights. Digital utility extends privileges and access to the digital world in the form of metaverse events, virtual meetups with brand ambassadors, or in-game use of tokens.

Loyalty utility can span all three worlds, where companies can use NFTs as a form of engagement and retention. The utility can be gamified as well. For example, if a customer collects three rare NFTs, they can burn them to mint one exclusive NFT that gives them access to priority shipping for one year. Exhibit 9 provides examples of utility applications for NFTs along this spectrum.

the concept of @minttrees.lens leans heavily into rewarding users/customers and loyalty.

On #lens I’ve seen 3 types of loyalty programs so far
1 (my favourite) people sharing awesome content every post, comment and mirror
2 airdrops / raffles for follow and/or collect (eg @ryanfox.lens , @chaoticmonk.lens , @jessyjeanne.lens , @marcus.lens , …)
3 @buttrfly.lens ( lenster.xyz/posts/0x0f85-0x11f2 )