Privacy-oriented blockchain platform Aztec is preparing to shut down Aztec Connect, the network's privacy infrastructure that serves as an encryption layer for ethereum. Aztec Network has officially announced the imminent shutdown of Aztec Connect and plans to disable Aztec Connect deposits from frontends like zk.money and zkpay.finance on March 17th.
According to Aztec’s blog post, users will be able to withdraw funds from Aztec Connect for free for a year. “While withdrawals are always possible, the burden of withdrawals will increase significantly after March 21, 2024,” Aztec said, advising users to withdraw as soon as possible. The announcement noted that since its launch in July 2022, Aztec Connect has amassed more than 100,000 users.
From March 2024, Aztec will no longer be running a collator, which means that the current system will no longer publish aggregated blocks that process Aztec Connect transactions. "Contract licensing will be waived and all rollup functionality will be discontinued," reads the announcement. Since Aztec has fully open-sourced the entire Aztec Connect protocol, the company encourages the Aztec community to fork, deploy, and run new versions of the system. “We would love to see Aztec Connect run independently and are prepared to fund it,” Aztec said.
According to the announcement, the closure of Aztec Connect marks a milestone in the development of a decentralized universal cryptographic blockchain. Aztec first attempted to use zk-Rollup with Aztec 1 before launching Aztec Connect in July 2022, an approach that was "slow, inefficient, and costly" and limited in functionality to "basic private transfers." Aztec emphasized that research conducted using Aztec Connect will be useful and critical to the development of next-generation blockchains, providing the basis for fully programmable versions of cryptographic rollups, adding: “It cannot be denied that Aztec Connect is an important stepping stone towards our ultimate goal. Now is the time for us to fully focus on that goal: a decentralized universal encrypted blockchain.”
After closing Aztec Connect, Aztec plans to focus on developing a general-purpose zero-knowledge language called Noir and the next generation of encrypted blockchains. The news comes as ConsenSys prepares to launch its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine rollup on a public testnet on March 28. The launch follows more than four years of research into the potential for faster transactions, higher throughput and better settlement security on the Ethereum blockchain.
