What is Namada?
Namada is a proof-of-stake L1 protocol for interchain asset-agnostic privacy. It’s a Cosmos Zone that allows all deposited assets to benefit from the same anonymity set, improving privacy for all. It provides interoperability with fast-finality chains via IBC and Ethereum via a trustless two-way bridge. The protocol’s most innovative features include asset-agnostic shielded transfers, shared shielded set, fast ZKP generation on edge devices, low transaction latency and near-zero fees, IBC compatibility and a trustless Ethereum bridge, and privacy as a public good.
Background
Anoma Foundation released Namada in 2023.
How it Works
Namada’s reference implementation is built in Rust by Heliax, a development organization in the Anoma ecosystem. It’s the first fractal instance of Anoma. It aims to provide an architecture that is homogeneous while offering heterogeneous security. It also has a governance mechanism that provides a formal mechanism for deciding on future protocol changes or versions.
Namada allows users to transfer fungible and non-fungible tokens with Zcash-like privacy, including native and non-native tokens. It does this by deploying novel zk-SNARKs and enabling all assets to share the same shielded set. It also allows for fast ZKP generation on edge devices and supports Visa-like speed with finality. It is IBC compatible and interoperates with Ethereum via a custom trustless Ethereum bridge. Lastly, it incentivizes users to hold shielded assets, thereby contributing to the shared shielded set via the latest update of the MASP circuit, including the novel Convert Circuit.
Key Takeaways
- Namada is a proof-of-stake Layer 1 protocol that provides interchain asset-agnostic privacy. It allows all deposited assets to benefit from the same anonymity set, thereby improving privacy.
- It supports interoperability with fast-finality chains via IBC and Ethereum via a trustless two-way bridge.
- Namada provides fast Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) generation on edge devices, low transaction latency, and near-zero fees.
- The protocol’s most innovative features include asset-agnostic shielded transfers, a shared shielded set, and privacy as a public good.
- Namada’s governance mechanism provides a formal process for deciding on future protocol changes or versions.
