Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin made headlines on Monday after his latest on-chain move. Buterin’s transfer of $1 million worth of Ethereum to the Railgun privacy protocol has caught the attention of the community and reignited the debate over the use of privacy tools.
Vitalik Moves 400 Ethereum to Privacy Protocol
Online reports revealed on Monday that Vitalik Buterin has transferred over $1 million back to Railgun. The project is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) privacy protocol that uses Zero-Knowledge (ZK) cryptography to enable private use of DeFi and smart contracts.
According to on-chain analytics firm SpotOnChain, Buterin sent 400 ETH, worth about $1.054 million, to the privacy protocol earlier today. Prior to the transaction, he made a test transfer of 0.0998 ETH, worth $2,629.
His most recent transfer to Railgun was one of several times he used the privacy tool. According to the report, Buterin sent 662 ETH, worth $1.91 million, to the protocol in the past 10 months.
Vitalik Buterin's transfers to Railgun. Source: SpotOnChain on X
Earlier this year, Buterin transferred 100 ETH to Railgun, sparking controversy online. Some community members questioned the reasons behind the transfer and criticized his desire to have a private address.
However, many users have supported Buterin’s use of privacy tools as his every move on the chain is scrutinized and speculated about. At the time, he addressed the criticism by saying, “Privacy is normal,” and explaining that Railgun is an effective tool for protecting users’ privacy.
Furthermore, he stressed that the project uses the Privacy Pools protocol, which he has been researching for years, which “makes it extremely difficult for bad actors to join the pool without compromising users’ privacy.”
Railgun addresses misconceptions
Buterin’s recent move has reignited the privacy debate, with some questioning why Railgun is “good” while Tornado Cash is “bad.” To address this, Bill, Railgun contributor and CEO of MetaMask’s seed phrase recovery team, cleared up some misconceptions about the privacy protocol.
As explained in X, Railgun shouldn’t be called a mixer because it’s not. It’s a “privacy-enabled address system” and works like other wallets where a private key controls the tokens.
invoice It has been explained. Railgun’s privacy comes from using a private address instead of mixing tokens:
Privacy comes from using this address, not mixing or moving tokens. Here, Vitalik is just sending tokens from his public address to his private address. He doesn’t need to withdraw tokens to gain privacy, he can leave them in his private address forever or do other things on-chain like swaps with them, and we, as keen wallet watchers, would be none the wiser.
As a result, he felt it would be more accurate to refer to the protocol as a “privacy system.” Another community member questioned the purpose of a privacy system, arguing that “the whole point of crypto” is to see it “live on the blockchain when it’s deployed.”
invoice Directed This is done by making it clear that all Railgun transactions are valid Ethereum transactions based on the network’s rules. The difference is that these transactions contain identifiable information hidden.
He described the process as “public DeFi but private wallet,” emphasizing that when people use a smart contract with Railgun, they “can still see what’s happening in the contract,” but their actions are private.
Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $2,580 in the weekly chart. Source: ETHUSDT on TradingView
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