Taurus Releases Open Source Privacy Tech for Stablecoins, Starts With Circle’s USDC

Taurus, the Swiss crypto custody technology firm that counts Deutsche Bank among its customers, is rolling out a zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) privacy layer for stablecoins, starting with Circle’s USDC.

Taurus’s zero-knowledge carapace for stablecoins, a way of secretly sharing details about private data using mathematical proofs, was built on the privacy-centric Aztec Network. It continues work done on ZKP privacy enhancements for security tokens aimed at banks and financial institutions, released by Taurus earlier this year.

Unlike everyday stablecoin transactions, the application of ZKP tech means balances and transfers are encrypted and only readable by authorized parties such as issuers and regulators. This prevents unauthorized parties from monitoring wallets, reverse-engineering investment strategies, or physically targeting high-value users, according to a press release on Thursday.

Stablecoins are one of the hottest areas within crypto right now. A landmark bill establishing a legal framework for the issuance and oversight of stablecoins was recently passed by the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, stablecoin supply has surged past $250 billion, a 1200% growth since 2020.

The ZKP technology, which is open source, brings on-chain privacy to both the cash-leg and the security-leg of digital transactions, Taurus said.

“We showed that it’s possible to protect the privacy and security of stablecoin users while retaining the features of industry-standard stablecoins,” said Jean-Philippe Aumasson, chief security officer at Taurus in a statement. “This addresses concerns that we’ve repeatedly heard from banks looking at issuing stablecoins, central banks, and regulators.”