‘Everything is encrypted’: Aztec privacy suite launches on testnet amid growing interest
Author: Margot Nijkerk | Edited by: Aoyon Ashraf Updated: May 1, 2025, 5:13 PM Published: May 1, 2025, 1:00 PM
Aztec, a privacy-focused Layer 2 software company, announced the launch of its testnet on Thursday.
The announcement comes amid growing interest from large institutions seeking to ensure privacy while processing large volumes of transactions.
The Aztec team said they have been working on the product for over 8 years, bringing cutting-edge technology closer to the main network.
Aztec differs from other zero-knowledge suites because it aims to help applications and users protect their personal data by implementing encryption at the protocol level.
“Any information you want to store encrypted will be stored encrypted on our blockchain,” Zach Williamson, co-founder of Aztec Network, told CoinDesk.
Layer 2 networks have been actively developed in the Ethereum ecosystem for the past few years and are considered a faster and more cost-effective solution for transactions on the Ethereum protocol. However, Aztec will have to give up some aspects of this to maintain its mission of privacy and decentralization.
“A fully private transaction will have more data associated with it because everything is encrypted. That means you need more resources, so you can’t scale as much,” Williamson said. “So that’s fine with us. Aztec’s unique proposition is not scaling. We do that a little bit [since] we’re a layer 2, but we never need to be as cheap as other layer 2s.”
Institutions have long sought privacy solutions because they play a vital role in handling sensitive transaction data for public ledgers. Aztec raised $100 million in a Series B round in 2022 led by a16z, just as the conversation around blockchain privacy was starting to gain momentum.
Privacy tools have become increasingly important to the industry recently, as large institutions begin to embrace blockchain. On Tuesday, privacy solution Miden announced it had raised $25 million in seed funding from a16z.
Read More: DeFi Privacy Bridge Aztec Connect Goes Away After Less Than a Year
CORRECTION (May 1, 2025, 15:30 UTC): An earlier version of this article said Paradigm led Aztec’s $100 million Series B round, but it was a16z.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *