zk.money relaunches after three-year shutdown, plans Q4 mobile launch and DeFi integration

BlockBeats news, September 30: Aztec Labs has relaunched the self-custodial privacy wallet zk.money on the privacy-focused Ethereum Layer 2 Aztec Network, three years after the original product ceased operations in 2023. Aztec said the new wallet will not publicly disclose user balances, payment amounts, or counterparty information on a public ledger, and the platform cannot spend, transfer, or freeze user funds.

The original zk.money launched in 2021 and served over 75,000 unique wallets, processing more than $100 million in transaction volume. Aztec Labs CEO Joe Andrews said the product was discontinued not because of a lack of demand for private payments, but because the original system struggled to add features and could not scale globally.

The new wallet supports users registering ENS usernames like "bob.zk.money" and sending or requesting payments via links, and users can also restrict who can interact with that username. zk.money is now accessible via the web or can be run locally, with plans to launch a mobile app and integrations with Ethereum DeFi protocols in the fourth quarter, though specific launch dates and partners have not yet been announced.