Exchange Ranking
Top Exchanges
24h Volume Ranking
Popularity Ranking
Exchange BTC Balance
Proof of Reserves
Decentralized Exchanges
Funding Rate
Funding Heatmap
Liquidation Data
Max Pain
Long/Short Ratio
Whale L/S Ratio
Binance/Okex/Huobi L/S
Bitfinex Margin L/S
ETF Tracker
Solana ETF
XRP ETF
Hong Kong ETF
Bitcoin Treasuries
Crypto Reversal
Ethereum Reserves
HyperLiquid Wallet Analysis
Hyperliquid Whale Watch
Large Transactions
On-chain Movement
Bitcoin ROI
Stablecoin Market Cap
Options Analysis
News
Articles
Economic Calendar
Features
Wallet
Contract Calculator
Security
Collections
Watchlist
Following
ETH The Ethereum Foundation launches zkAPI, using zero-knowledge proof to achieve privacy protection.
On October 1, the Ethereum Foundation and the Open Anonymity Project jointly launched the zkAPI system. At present, the system has been officially launched on the Ethereum main network. Users can deposit ETH, USDC or other supporting assets into online vaults and authorize the use of APIs through zero-knowledge certificates.
The core concept of the system is to cut off the connection between payer and user. In traditional API models, API keys are usually tied to accounts and payment methods, which means that service providers may trace a user's historical AI prompts or request records back to the same user. ZkAPI completes transaction verification without revealing the specific source of funds by generating short-term valid consumption vouchers.
zkAPI: Separating AI usage from payment identity
Users first deposit funds into the Ethereum smart contract vault. Its balance will be expressed privately rather than publicly exposed every time an API request is initiated. When a user needs to access a service, their device generates a zero-knowledge certificate proving that they have sufficient balances and have not spent the same amount of money repeatedly.
The zkAPI server then verifies the certificate and issues a short-term API key with a clear consumption limit. After that, the user's prompt words (Prompts) can be sent directly from the device to the AI service provider.
The key is that the payment server cannot see the specific prompt content, and the AI service provider cannot know which Ethereum deposit provided financial support for the request.
AI is only the first application scenario
The Ethereum Foundation pointed out that AI reasoning was chosen as an initial focus because prompt words may contain highly sensitive information. However, the application scope of zkAPI is not limited to the AI field.
The same underlying infrastructure is expected to handle scenarios such as blockchain RPC calls, image and video generation, VPN bandwidth allocation, and machine-to-machine (M2M) payments in the future, allowing service providers to charge for the number of requests without having to rely on a persistent account system.
This release also fits into Ethereum's broader privacy promotion plan, which aims to achieve private reading, private transactions and identity protection through zero-knowledge cryptography.
Current limitations
Despite progress, certain limitations remain. The zkAPI only hides the payment relationship and does not completely conceal all the details of the request. AI service providers can still see the prompt words themselves and may obtain network information such as IP addresses. In addition, if the prompt contains duplicate writing patterns or personal details, different conversations may still be related.
