Why a privacy hop
Without a hop, an observer with both your input and output addresses can correlate them by time, amount, and venue. A privacy hop inserts a shielded asset between them — once your value enters the XMR or ZEC layer, it's no longer linkable to its destination by any public means.
How it works
A — You deposit on chain X
Standard quote, standard one-time deposit address. Same as any swap.
B — Orchestrator converts to XMR or ZEC
The orchestrator buys the shielded asset on a venue. This converts your traceable input into a private intermediate.
C — Shielded transfer
The XMR or ZEC is moved through a fresh wallet. Ring signatures (XMR) or zk-SNARKs (ZEC) make the transfer cryptographically unlinkable.
D — Conversion to your output asset
The shielded asset is sold for your final asset on a different venue, then withdrawn to your destination.
Trade-offs
| Dimension | Standard | Shielded |
|---|---|---|
| Time | under 1 min | under 5 min |
| Fee | 0.5% | 0.5% + 0.4% |
| On-chain link | traceable | broken |
| Min size | $10 | $50 |