Creative rephrasing: Railgun Privacy Agreement Achieves Nearly $1 Billion in Total Transactions, Denies North Korean Hacker Involvement

Creative rephrasing: Railgun Privacy Agreement Achieves Nearly $1 Billion in Total Transactions, Denies North Korean Hacker Involvement

Creative rephrasing: Railgun Privacy Agreement Achieves Nearly $1 Billion in Total Transactions, Denies North Korean Hacker Involvement

The Ethereum privacy protocol Railgun denies allegations that it has been used for cryptocurrency money laundering by entities sanctioned by the United States, including North Korea, stating that there is “no evidence” to support these claims, and that its zero-knowledge (ZK) proof-based technology can prevent such situations.

Railgun was established in January 2021 and uses zero-knowledge encryption technology to conceal wallet balances, transaction history, and transaction details, allowing users to use decentralized applications (DApps) on Ethereum or other supported chains while maintaining privacy.

According to a report released by “Wu Shuo Blockchain” on Monday, over the past six months, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has been interacting with Railgun using a small amount of Ether (ETH) almost every month. In response to the report, Vitalik stated, “Privacy is normal, and Railgun’s use of the privacy pool protocol makes it more difficult for malicious actors to join the pool without compromising user privacy.”

A Tornado Cash alternative?

Following up on the report, “Wu Shuo Blockchain” cited a report from blockchain analytics company Elliptic, stating that the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group is also a user of Railgun. In January 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed that North Korean cyber attackers had used Railgun to launder over $60 million worth of Ether stolen in June 2022. After Tornado Cash was sanctioned, Elliptic referred to Railgun as the main alternative to this mixing protocol.

However, Railgun denied in its response to the report that Lazarus had used their privacy protocol, calling it “false reporting.” They wrote:

“Privacy Presumed Innocent (POI), also known as Privacy POI, was launched by Railgun researchers and contributors in January 2023. This technology uses cryptographic guarantees to ensure that funds entering Railgun smart contracts do not come from known illicit transactions or actor lists. Users are required to create a ZK proof to demonstrate that their funds are not part of the default list of transactions and wallets.”

According to data from Dune Analytics, Railgun’s total trading volume has reached $962.8 million, and its Total Value Locked (TVL) on Ethereum exceeds $25 million. Following the release of the report about Vitalik’s use of Railgun, the protocol’s token RAIL saw an increase of up to 200%. As of the time of this publication, RAIL’s trading price is $1.147.

Source: Cointelegraph