Web3 venture builder Chainway launched a new protocol called Proof of Innocence on January 18th. This allows Tornado Cash (TORN) users to benefit from additional anonymity while proving that their funds have not been stolen.
This protocol allows Tornado Cash users to prove that their funds are not from authorized or blacklisted addresses without revealing their identity.
The announcement post summarizes the capabilities of the protocol as follows:
The Proof of Innocence protocol adds an extra layer to this process by allowing users to prove that their commitment is not on a specific list of commitments. This helps ensure that the user is not a hacker or other malicious person who has been sanctioned or flagged for illegal activity. “
Usage
According to a statement from Chainway blog postusers can initiate this protocol when they want to withdraw funds from Tornado Cash.
Users can provide zero-knowledge proof that the funds they wish to withdraw are safely stored within Tornado Cash. A zero-knowledge proof uses a Merkle tree data structure to exclude the original address of a user’s funds. This allows tracking of input addresses without revealing the owner’s identity.
The protocol can be accessed at Github Currently only works with Tornado Cash.