The next war of encrypted payments is not just a stable currency, but a private payment
Author:Iodine lawyerManquin Block Legal Services
RecentlyVitalik ButerinAboutZKPayments (zero knowledge payments)A group of discussions generated considerable interest in the ring of encrypted payments. One of them is very graphic:Today's block chain payments are essentially a glass house. It is sufficiently transparent so that every transaction can be verified; but it is also because it is too transparent, as the balance of the user, the history of the transaction, the money path, the service call record may be tracked by external observers over time。
This may be a mechanism of trust for DeFi; but it may be a psychological and operational obstacle for real commercial payments. An enterprise does not want supplier relationships, the frequency of payments, cash flows to be exposed to the open chain; nor does an individual user want their consumption habits, asset structureAl AgentCall the records and be slowly spelled out through the address relationship。
So Vitalik recently discussed the meaning of ZK Payments, not just as a technical concept, but as a reminder to the encrypted payment industry: If the chain payments are to move towards large-scale applications, they cannot only address the problem of “low-cost payouts” in stable currencies, but also a lower problem -How to pay without going into the glass house。That's where the news really deserves attention。
In the past few years, the most hot word for encrypted payment has been a stable currency. But if we continue to look forward, the next war of encrypted payments may not be just currency stabilization, but private payments。
Encryption payments are hot right now, but most projects are still on the first floor
In the past few years, the easyest story to tell is that of encrypted payment, which is the currency of stability. Cross-border payments, commercial settlementsWeb3ACCESS MONEY, FREELANCE PAYMENTS, B2B PAYMENTS FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE, STABILIZATION CURRENCY DOES PROVIDE A MUCH FASTER, CHEAPER AND MORE GLOBALIZED INSTRUMENT FOR FINANCIAL FLOWS THAN THE TRADITIONAL BANKING SYSTEM。
So many of the encrypted payment projects now go around a few questions: what are the stable currencies that support? How long will it take to get to the account? How much will it cost? Can we change the local currency at cost? Can we get a commercial? Can we get a bank card, a virtual card, a receipt, a money transfer, an exchange
These are important, but they address the first tier of payments:Whether, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how。
The problem is that once encrypted payments really start entering a more real business scene, it is not enough to address this layer. Because business payments are not simply a “transfer of money”. Each payment may be followed by supplier relationships, client structure, procurement frequency, business size, cash flow status, market layout and even strategic movements。
In the DeFi world, chain transparency is a mechanism of trust; but in the world of corporate payments, excessive transparency may be a business risk. If a company pays its suppliers at a chain address over a long period of time, external observers may identify through the address relationship which service providers it cooperates with; see changes in the scale of operations through the frequency of payments; see where it expands in markets through the flow of funds; and even speculate about its financial pressures through changes in balances。
For individual users, transparency on the chain is not entirely harmless. Although the address is not an identity card number, so long as it intersects with an exchange account, wallet login, NFT, social identity, DApp usage record, it can easily be broken into。
So, if it is merely a “chain transfer faster and cheaper”, it has not really entered the stage of mature commercial payments。The end of the payment is not a successful transfer, but a secure, compliant and manageable flow of funds。
AI Agent's going to make the issues of privacy of payment go up
the above image is taken from the cryptobriefing official webshot
Why did Vitalik put ZK Payments and AI Agent together this time? Because AI Agent is not an ordinary user。
Payments by ordinary users are limited in frequency, the scene is limited and many acts are isolated. But AI Agent is different. Future Agent may call models for users, purchase data, subscribe to tools, pay API fees, perform automation missions, and complete micro-settlements. In other words, AI Agent is not just talking, it's paying for people。
Once Agent started spending money on people, it became a high frequency, automatic and continuous behaviour. If these acts are permanently tied to the same address, the same certificate, the same chain of identity, external observers do not necessarily need to know who the address is, and analysis of its callee, frequency of call, amount of payment and time patterns may restore the user image behind it。
For example, an AI Agent regularly calls a database, a code audit tool, a transaction policy interface, a chain analysis service every day. Even if the address of payment is not known, the long-term behaviour itself discloses information。
This is what Vitalik says about the risk of a prolonged, pseudo-hidden identity that will gradually lose privacy in the AI scenario. The report mentions that the idea of ZK API is to isolate each request so that service providers can know that “the call has been paid, not for garbage”, but that each request is based on the identity of the same sustainable tracker。
This will have a significant impact on the future payment industry. In the past, we discussed the privacy of payments, and in many cases stayed in the privacy of individual transfers and the privacy of chain addresses. But when AI Agent appears, it becomes a more complex issue:It's not whether a single deal should be hidden or not, it's whether continuous machine behavior can be unimaged。
Future payments on a genuine high frequency chain may not necessarily be human transfers, but may be automated settlements between Agent and API, Agent and service providers, Agent and Agent. At that point, privacy was no longer the preference of a few extremists, but rather the infrastructure requirements of the machine-paying age。
ZK Payments are not “anonymous payments”, but “verifiable but not naked”
It must be clear here:ZKPayments can't be simply understood as "anonymous payments."I don't know. If one of the project participants packaged it as “untraceable” “untraceable” “totally anonymous” “evading regulation”, it would essentially be pushing itself to high-risk areas. Particularly in today's global regulatory environment, any operation involving payment, stabilization of currency, wallets, exchange of money, access money, as long as the direction of advocacy becomes “overseeable”。
The real value of ZK Payments is not to make the transaction disappear, but to make it verifiable without full disclosure of information. In other words, it is not “no one can know” but “not everyone should know”。
FOR EXAMPLE, IT IS POSSIBLE TO VERIFY WHETHER PAYMENT HAS BEEN MADE; WHETHER THE USER HAS SUFFICIENT AMOUNTS TO PROVE THAT A CERTAIN API CALL HAS BEEN PAID AND CAN BE CONFIRMED; WHETHER THE TRANSACTION IS IN COMPLIANCE WITH A RULE MAY BE VERIFIED THROUGH A CERTIFICATION MECHANISM; AND, IN A GIVEN COMPLIANCE SCENARIO, THE USER MAY ALSO MAKE SELECTIVE DISCLOSURES TO THE AUTHORIZED PARTY。
At the same time, however, users do not have to expose their complete balances, full trading history, full service call records and full identity relationships to the public chain. It was also reported that Vitalik's discussions had taken place in the following directions:Zero proof of knowledgePromotes the transfer of encrypted payments from “perfect anonymity” to “default privacy”, allowing users to complete payment authentication without disclosing the full balance and transaction history。
This is not the same as the traditional “private currency”. Privacy currency is more easily understood by regulation as an anonymous flow of assets per se; and ZK Payments is more like a privacy protection and authentication mechanism in the payment process. It is concerned about how transactions are identified, how information is minimized and how compliance parties obtain proof when necessary, rather than by default exposing all data to the entire web。
That's where it really deserves attention。Good privacy payments are not for everyone to see, but for those who are not supposed to see, so that they can still be verified。
Enterprise-level encrypted payments cannot be accepted long-term "naked and transparent"
Business users would be much more sensitive to the matter if individual users could also endure some degree of chain transparency. There is a basic requirement for an enterprise to pay: it should let its counterparty know; it should let banks, auditors, regulators know, and disclose to the extent necessary; but it should not let the market, competitors, and unrelated third parties see it, so that it cannot be exposed to public books. This is not business corrections, but business common sense。
A GLOBAL COLLECTION PLATFORM THAT PROVIDES SERVICES TO B-END CORPORATE CLIENTS CANNOT ONLY CONSIDER WHETHER THE FUNDS ARE ON THE BOOKS, BUT ALSO WHETHER THE CLIENT ' S FINANCIAL PATH, COUNTERPARTY, SIZE OF BUSINESS, SETTLEMENT PATTERNS WILL BE UNDULY EXPOSED。
A platform for stabilizing the collection of money from businesses, if the chain of payments for all businesses were easily tracked by external instruments, was itself a product defect for some high-value clients。
A wallet or gateway that does AI Agent pay, and if every model is called, every API buys, every subscription deduction can be linked on a long-term basis, it also encounters trust problems in the future when it comes to business clients。
And that's why I think the point of competition in the encrypted payment industry is moving back。
The first stage is the ability to access the stable coin。
The second stage involved the availability of French-currency channels, commercial networks, access to funds and compliance plates。
The third phase would be deeper capabilities: privacy protection, selective disclosure, risk control, audit certification, compliance interface, and enterprise-level fund management。
A lot of projects today are saying, "We support thisUSDT/USDC collects "We can settle across the border" "We have virtual cards" "We can make OTC channels." Of course, there are still markets, but the threshold will be clearer and differentiation will become more difficult. In the future, it will be possible to establish new infrastructure advantages for those who can resolve the payment privacy of businesses and Agent under a compliance framework。
The Stable Currency is a payment of assetsZKPayments are more like paying privacy. The former deals with what to pay, while the latter deals with how to pay with dignity。
True boundaries of compliance: protection of privacy does not amount to confrontation with regulation
FromFrom a legal compliance point of view, such orientations are most likely to be misread and to be misspoken by project parties. Many Web3 projects hear “private payment”, the first reaction being that marketing “untraceable” “protecting users from detection”。This expression is largely out of place today, and it's even very dangerousI don't know。
GLOBAL REGULATION IS MOST CONCERNED NOT WITH THE USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES, BUT WITH WHETHER YOUR SYSTEM WEAKENS THE BASIC OBLIGATIONS OF AML/CFT (ANTI-MONEY-LAUNDERING AND COUNTER-TERRORISM FINANCING), SANCTIONS SCREENING, TRANSACTION CONTROL, CUSTOMER DUE DILIGENCE, SUSPICIOUS TRANSACTION REPORTING, ETC。
If a ZK Payments project ultimately results in the platform being unable to identify customers, identify high-risk transactions, respond to regulatory requirements, freeze or intercept suspicious funds, it is difficult for it to be accepted by the mainstream financial system。
However, if, in turn, ZK Payments were designed as a “compulsory privacy” infrastructure, the logic would be completely different. It can serve the business secrecy protection of enterprises, reduce data disclosure on the public chain, support selective disclosure, provide certified certification to auditors, regulators, law enforcement when necessary, or be combined with the KYC, sanctions screening, and transaction monitoring system。
Regulation is not necessarily natural against privacy. The real opposition to regulation is out of control。Users do not necessarily need absolute anonymity. In most real business scenarios, users need reasonable confidentiality, minimal disclosure, authorization to disclose and probable compliance。
The mature direction of future encrypted payments is probably not one between “full transparency” and “total anonymity”, but rather a new balance between privacy, authentication and compliance. This is also where project participants have to be careful when speaking out. Privacy protection, protection of commercially sensitive information, minimization of chain data, selective disclosure, verifiable compliance and enterprise-level payment security can be described. But it is not easy to say anonymous payments, untraceable, deregulated and hidden sources of funding. This gap is not just about words, but about the fate of the business as a whole。
When encrypted payments are really going to the mainstream, privacy payments make up for them
In the past few years, the stabilization currency has taken a big step forward in the payment of encryption. For the first time, it has made many people realize that the block chains are not just coin-fixing instruments, but can also be part of a global network of financial flows. In particular, in cross-border payments, commercial settlements, offshore operations and the flow of funds from the Web3 platform, the stabilization currency is no longer merely a concept but a tangible production tool。
But the stability currency addresses the asset layer, not the entire issue of payment experience and payment governance. When encrypted payments enter the business scene, it has to address the protection of business secrets; when encrypted payments enter the AI Agent scene, it has to address the image of machine behavior; when encrypted payments enter the mainstream financial scene, it has to address the authentication of compliance; and when encrypted payments enter the public chain environment, it has to address over-exposure of data in the chain。
So ZK Payments is not an isolated technical hotspot. What it really represents is a change in the direction of the next stage of encrypted payments: from “can it be paid on the chain” to “can it be paid on the chain of safety, compliance and privacy”。
Today, when it comes to encrypted payments, it makes sense for everyone to focus on the stabilization currency, which is the most mature and commercially viable encryption asset. But if you focus on stable currencies, it is easy to ignore the next level of competition。
Future payment infrastructure will not be more expensive than who supports more currency, who pays lower fees and who arrives faster. For businesses and AI Agent, the more important question becomes: can this payment be validated? Can sensitive information not be made public? Can disclosure be complied with if necessary? Can the platform protect users without becoming a black box
The lesson of privacy will always be added when the payment is actually in the mainstream world. It is not to confront regulation, but to make chain payments truly fit for the business world。If a stable currency makes encrypted payments available for the first time, then privacy payments may make them available to businesses for the first time。
