DeFi Privacy Protocol Railgun Launches Protected Mobile Wallet App

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) privacy protocol Railgun has launched the Railway Wallet mobile app, enabling users to privately carry out DeFi activities on the Ethereum blockchain.

Railway Wallet protects users’ transaction histories and ensures they cannot be tracked with tools like Etherscan, allowing users to privately interact with decentralized exchanges (DEXs), decentralized apps (dApps) and liquidity provisions. The mobile wallet, which is the first zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) prover to run completely on mobile, is compatible with both Apple’s iOS system and Android.

Railgun co-founder Alan Scott says it’s important for developers to build effective privacy apps as the DeFi space continues to expand.

“If the future of finance is going to be DeFi, there has to be a privacy infrastructure in place, just from a consumer protection standpoint,” Scott told CoinDesk.

As a layer 1 application, Railway Wallet will take advantage of security features provided by the Ethereum blockchain’s main network, in addition to utilizing Railgun’s open-source code. In the run-up to the on-chain wallet’s launch, cybersecurity firms Trail of Bits, Hacken, and ABDK Consulting have audited the code, with Zokyo Security Team giving the code a 100 rating.

In recent months, regulators have pushed back against some privacy protocols, which they claim may be used to obfuscate dirty money trails. In August, for example, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned the Tornado Cash protocol and roughly four dozen wallets associated with it, reviving discussions about reasonable expectations of privacy in the crypto community.

Read More: Tornado Cash Sanctions Are Spiraling Into Compliance Nightmares

But although some regulators are concerned about privacy services enabling nefarious activities, Scott argues it's normal for users to have high expectations of privacy in DeFi spaces, just as they would expect privacy in other aspects of their lives.

“Whenever I go to a restaurant, I may tell them about my nut allergy, but I don't hand them the entirety of my medical records, '' Scott said. “And I think the same thing is quite applicable to finance.”

In 2021, Railgun DAO struck a $10 million deal with Digital Currency Group (DCG), the parent company of CoinDesk, to create a privacy protocol for the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.

Read More: The Privacy That DeFi Needs to Succeed