tomi Sets Ground For First-Ever Privacy Stablecoin Amid U.S. Crackdown

Credit: AI-generated image

Anonymous crypto project tomi launched tomi Privacy Layer (TPL), its encrypted privacy layer on Ethereum, and unveiled plans to release tomi private usd (tpUSD), its stablecoin pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar and the first privacy stablecoin on the market.

This comes as the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a new draft bill last week to regulate stablecoins. The draft puts the Federal Reserve in charge of non-bank stablecoin issuers, including the likes of Tether and Circle, and represents just the latest in a string of regulatory actions taken by the U.S. in recent weeks to address crypto.

One of blockchain’s earliest value propositions was to empower consenting parties to transact freely and privately. While Bitcoin and Ethereum do offer immediate and disintermediated transactions, their public ledgers enable governments and corporations to fully trace transactions. 

That blindspot has led to the development of privacy coins, such as Monero and Zcash, as well as privacy layers on top of the major L1 blockchains that foster discreet transactions away from big brother’s watchful eye. Such L2s on Ethereum, however, don’t let users communicate with Ethereum directly.

Now, anyone can engage in private transactions and smart-contract execution via TPL directly on Ethereum applications. TPL’s privacy-enhancing technology enables users to prove the validity of a statement without revealing any sensitive information.

ZERO-KNOWLEDGE ROLLUPS Zero-knowledge rollups (ZK-rollups) are layer 2 scaling solutions that increase throughput on Ethereum Mainnet by moving computation and state storage off-chain. ZK-rollups can process thousands of transactions in a batch and then only post some minimal summary data to Mainnet. This summary data defines the changes that should be made to the Ethereum state and some cryptographic proof that those changes are correct.

TPL offers privacy in a zero-knowledge roll-up built with a privacy-first architecture that enables users to access their favourite apps on L1 while maintaining complete privacy. The transactions through zero-knowledge proofs on Ethereum can reduce transaction costs. Developers will be able to use TPL SDK to transfer funds, interact with L1 protocol and other services privately. TPL can handle medium to large amounts of transactions With full privacy.

TPL is the latest product in tomi’s broader bundle of privacy-preserving tools under the umbrella of tomiNET, its alternative internet ecosystem. tomiNet aims to kick off a clean slate for the Internet, one where Google and Facebook don’t have power over people’s identities, Amazon doesn’t crush small businesses and host more than a third of the world’s data, and government and corporate surveillance is impossible.