Ethereum Foundation and OA Launch zkAPI for Private AI Payment
The Ethereum Foundation and the Open Anonymity Project have developed zkAPI, a zero-knowledge protocol that lets customers pay for AI companies and different paid APIs with out linking their identification to their requests.
Live on Ethereum mainnet, the system separates fee information from the prompts and queries despatched to service suppliers, though it doesn’t cover all community exercise or the content material customers submit.
How zkAPI Separates Payments From API Requests
The Open Anonymity Project announced its collaboration with the Ethereum Foundation in a September 25, 2026, submit introducing its public AI chat companies, OA-chat. The basis additionally promoted zkAPI on October 2, describing it as “a way for non-public AI.”
The protocol was initially proposed by Ethereum researcher Davide Crapis and co-founder Vitalik Buterin, whereas the Open Anonymity staff constructed the shopper, server, sensible contracts, and browser integration.
Users first deposit ETH into the ZkAPIVault contract on Ethereum mainnet. The deposit is then became a dedication through using a Merkle tree, which is a cryptographic knowledge construction, whereas the spending steadiness is stored as a personal word on the consumer’s machine.
At the beginning of a session, the browser generates a zero-knowledge proof that proves the consumer has adequate funds to pay and has not but spent the cash. Payment verification is completed with out understanding the precise deposit getting used for the fee and the consumer’s identification.
Once the verification is full, an API key with a spending cap is issued, with the immediate going straight from the browser to the AI supplier. When the API key expires, you get a receipt of utilization. The system then deducts that quantity from the non-public steadiness, with a one-way serial quantity referred to as a nullifier stopping the identical funds from being spent twice.
The protocol makes use of Groth16 proofs, BN254 cryptography, and Poseidon hashing to make the fee system each non-public and verifiable, and customers can withdraw their remaining funds immediately via the vault contract, even when the zkAPI servers cease working.
What zkAPI Does Not Hide
The protocol hides the fee hyperlink, not the content material. A supplier nonetheless sees prompts and community particulars similar to an IP handle, and can attempt to match classes by timing. The builders counsel Tor with a contemporary circuit per session, since reused dialog historical past, writing model or private particulars can let a supplier relink particular person classes.
This venture sits near Buterin’s latest pursuits. Recall that late final month he shared a longer-term Ethereum roadmap that positioned higher emphasis on cryptographic proofs and verification. zkAPI applies that normal method to on a regular basis funds, permitting a service to confirm spending with out receiving a standard account identification.
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