Key Takeaways

• Elusiv offers complete privacy to users during transactions
• Elusiv’s app works differently from crypto mixers
• Pros and cons of Elusiv’s service

Elusiv, a crypto privacy protocol, announced  the launch of its private token swap tool for Solana. The platform is meant to provide complete anonymity to users who wish to trade their tokens without revealing personal information.

How It Works

To gain the intended anonymity, users need to connect their wallets and top up their “private balance” with any amount they desire.

When a user intends to initiate a trade, the private swap functionality of the app encrypts the user’s public key while also generating a temporary key. The temporary key is then used within the transaction, effectively completely masking the identity of the trader.

“This enables users to swap assets with complete privacy, as token pairs and amounts can never link to a user’s wallet address. This increases users’ security, hides trading strategies and protects those making frequent swaps or exchanging large quantities,” Elusiv said .

Elusiv had been working on the private swap functionality for over a year. The company finally managed to launch the functionality on a web-based app that supports the transfers of solana (SOL), USD Coin (USDC), tether (USDT), bonk (BONK), and samoyedcoin (SAMO) to private wallets.

Elusiv’s co-founder Julian Deschler also said  that the company is considering expanding its functionality to other tokens.

Deschler also made sure to point the difference between Elusiv’s new function and how crypto mixers work.

“We utilize a combination of cryptographic schemes, most notably zk-SNARKs to bring privacy guarantees to users. Mixers, on the other hand, present notable differences in their privacy assurances, programmability, and foundational structure.”

Pros & Cons

On the one hand, crypto trading came with a promise of complete anonymity. The term Decentralized Finance (DeFi) refers to being able to trade and commence commerce without banks and governments having access to the information regarding the persons involved nor the amounts transferred.

So, in that sense, Elusiv’s private swap functionality delivers on that promise. Users can use the functionality to trade SOL, USDT, or SAMO without any stakeholders learning about their identity.

Moreover, Elusiv can benefit from Solana’s plan to diminish transfer fees.

But, just like everything, such functionality is a double-edged sword of sorts. Hiding a wallet’s/trader’s identity attracts unwanted activity. Some may use it to swap tokens in return for illicit services and products.

Moreover, temporary wallet keys and user anonymity has proven to result in scams in which users may lose substantial amounts of tokens with little to no chance of getting them back.

In one instance, Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, issued a warning on Twitter regarding scammers who utilized fabricated wallet keys to fool users into sending tokens to the wrong wallet. Hence, temporary keys may open the door to more such risks.