Overview
What is RAILGUN?
RAILGUN is a privacy system built directly on-chain for Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, and Arbitrum. It uses Zero-Knowledge (ZK) cryptography to enable private use of smart contracts and DeFi, all without leaving the security of the user’s preferred chain. RAILGUN refers only to the set of smart contracts that underpin the backend privacy infrastructure. Independent wallet providers can then choose to integrate the RAILGUN protocol, head here to pick a list of wallet providers.
As RAILGUN is simply on-chain smart contract logic, privacy is achieved without a separate Layer-2 validator set or a vulnerable bridge. This provides 2 main advantages:
Security & Decentralization - Fewer questions on validator set and no bridge risk. RAILGUN is as secure as the EVM chain it's deployed on.
Full Ecosystem - Rather than an isolated ecosystem on a standalone privacy chain, RAILGUN users have access to all the economic activity on Ethereum and benefit from the rich history of existing dApps and builders.
The user experience is similar to using a public wallet like MetaMask to interact with Ethereum/EVM chains in terms of liquidity and DeFi, just with the added ability to transact privately.
RAILGUN has 2 main components:
RAILGUN integrated wallets - EVM wallets built by separate independent community developers through which users can use the RAIGLUN protocol. A list can be found here.
Developer Tools - TypeScript SDKs for building RAILGUN privacy into existing/new wallets or a privacy enabled dApp. Head to the developer guide to start building with RAILGUN.
RAILGUN’s code is verified and publicly viewable, and its repository can be found here.
Benefits and use cases of RAILGUN
Complex DeFi transactions help make RAILGUN more private than other protocols with a comparable anonymity set. All transferring, swapping, lending, borrowing, and dApp calls increases the variations of interactions in RAILGUN. Read this article for more on how privacy works in the RAILGUN system.
Better privacy is achieved with RAILGUN with less liquidity and in a shorter timeframe than other privacy systems. Arbitrary dApp interactions within RAILGUN’s privacy system also incentivizes users to hold their assets for longer in RAILGUN as there is less reason to move funds out of RAILGUN.
Potential use cases:
Alpha Protection: Traders who want to keep their alpha secret can trade feely and maintain their hard-fought informational advantages
Private Payroll: Payroll services for companies that pay in cryptocurrency. Using public blockchains in their current state for payroll reveals each employee’s exact salary
Censorship Resistance: Censorship resistant donations to causes by citizens who live in countries with unfriendly or corrupt governments officials
Anonymized Analytics: Counteracts services like Nansen or Etherscan, where notable wallets are labelled or known, meaning that some large investors are personally identifiable
Compliance: Financial companies remaining compliant with data protection laws such as GDPR
RAILGUN is a revolutionary toolkit and is objectively the most uncompromising and complete privacy solution for DeFi. Private DeFi will enable new business possibilities for the cryptocurrency industry not possible on public blockchains. All other privacy solutions have some trade-offs, such as requiring users to trust custodial bridges or trade with fragmented/non-existent liquidity.
Developer Guide
If you're a developer looking for the SDK documentation. You can find it here.
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