Shielded vs Unshielded
Privacy Trend
Anonymity Set Strength
Shield / Unshield Flow
What does "shielded" mean on Midnight?
Midnight uses zswap, a zero-knowledge proof-based shielded pool, to protect transaction privacy. When a transaction is shielded, its sender, receiver, and amount are cryptographically hidden using zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs). Only the participants can see the details.
Unshielded transactions are transparent and visible on-chain, similar to standard blockchain transactions. These are typically contract deployments, governance actions, or explicit public transfers.
A higher shielded ratio means better network-wide privacy. Every shielded transaction increases the anonymity set -- the pool of indistinguishable transactions -- making it exponentially harder for observers to trace any individual transaction. Even if you personally use shielded transactions, a low network-wide ratio weakens privacy for everyone.
In short: the more users shield their transactions, the stronger privacy becomes for the entire Midnight network. A healthy network targets a shielded ratio above 70%.