AirGap adds support for Tezos Sapling on Ghostnet
When we learned that Tezos would be introducing transactions with enhanced privacy, we were excited. Following the integration, we investigated the feature and decided to implement Sapling support on the Testnet (Edonet) in April 2021. After testing, we announced Sapling implementation on the mainnet on the 24th Feb 2022, but unfortunately, a protocol-level vulnerability was discovered. As a precaution, we acted quickly to disable this integration. At the time we took action, the current contract had only 68 tez. This flaw was fortunately caught on time and no loss has occurred.
The most recent Tezos upgrade, Jakarta, addressed this vulnerability, and everything is in place to ensure that the Tezos blockchain continues to provide users with secured privacy transactions. AirGap now supports Sapling on Ghostnet.
What is a Sapling or shielded transaction?
Sapling transactions, also known as shielded transactions, were an original concept introduced by the ZCash protocol. Since its inception, it has served as the gold standard for transaction protection in blockchain, ensuring the confidentiality of the sums and the unlinkability of the sender and receiver are maintained.
Advantage of Tezos Sapling
True privacy
Due to cryptocurrency’s pseudonymous nature, most people believe it provides privacy for payments, but in reality, it does not. In some ways, crypto gives less protection than fiat since it is a public blockchain that can theoretically reveal the real identity behind a public address if someone has enough resources to do chain analysis. With the introduction of the Sapling, transactions can now be routed through a shielded pool, thereby providing true privacy and anonymity.
Less negative reaction
Because Sapling is not enabled by default for normal transactions on the Tezos blockchain, it may not elicit a negative reaction that some countries and exchanges have had in the past toward blockchains such as Zcash and Monero, which do include private transactions as a default feature.
How to perform Tezos Sapling transactions on AirGap
We’ve written a guide on how to perform shielded transactions in AirGap. Please see below. Although this guide was written for the testnet, the same procedures can be followed on the mainnet. Tezos Sapling guide
When is Sapling coming on the mainnet in AirGap?
Everything about Sapling is ready to be deployed on the mainnet. However, decisions are being weighed in light of recent happenings with Tornado Cash, a similar implementation of privacy-preserving transactions on the Ethereum network. To avoid any complications for the developers of AirGap and its mother company, Papers AG, we won’t be deploying Sapling on the mainnet until we are sure there won’t be any future implications.
Things you need to know about Sapling
Transactions on blockchains are generally not reversible. Saplings also make transactions untraceable. So it is difficult to get any form of support when you use Sapling transactions.
