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Ethereum’s zkAPI brings privacy-preserving API payments to mainnet
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- DeepHorus
Ethereum’s zkAPI went live on Ethereum mainnet on Thursday, enabling prepaid API access with greater financial privacy. The Ethereum Foundation said the system, developed with the Open Anonymity Project, turns an earlier zero-knowledge proposal into a working implementation. It separates API usage from a user’s publicly visible billing identity.
The launch follows a February proposal from Ethereum Foundation researcher Davide Crapis and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin for zero-knowledge-based API usage credits. Their concept outlined prepaid service access without exposing the payer’s identity on every request. zkAPI now carries that design onto Ethereum’s main network.
Users deposit funds into an Ethereum vault, then use zero-knowledge proofs to show they have enough credit for an API request. The proofs verify available credit without revealing which deposits are theirs. According to dAI team AI coordinator Vittorio Rivabella, this breaks the visible link between funds and service use.
zkAPI issues short-lived API keys with predefined spending limits. Prompts go directly to the AI provider, while usage is settled separately through the payment layer. The release also includes a local client, a software development kit and a browser-based AI chat implementation, supporting AI and other metered APIs.
Privacy remains limited. zkAPI does not hide prompt contents or network metadata from providers, and users may still be linked across sessions through IP addresses, timing or details in their requests. The system offers financial privacy rather than complete anonymity from the service receiving data.
The deployment moves zero-knowledge API credits from proposal to working infrastructure. Short-lived keys and spending caps offer a defined prepaid model, but exposed metadata could constrain its privacy benefits. Wider use will depend on integrations with AI and other API providers and on developer and user acceptance of the separate payment process.
