Aztec Ships V5 Alpha With Private Proofs Generated on a Laptop in 2.5 Seconds

Aztec, the privacy-focused Ethereum layer-2 network, released its Alpha V5 upgrade with the core claim that private transactions are now cheap enough and fast enough to run on ordinary consumer hardware. Proving a private token transfer takes about 2.5 seconds natively on a laptop, down from 5.2 seconds in the previous version, and about 6.8 seconds in a browser, down from 12.5 seconds, according to the project's release notes. Transfers cost under $0.05, roughly half the prior version. The gain comes from a new proving system the team calls Chonk.

The design point matters more than the numbers. Each private transaction is proved on the user's own device, so no sequencer or operator sees the underlying data. That removes the arrangement in which a network markets confidentiality while handing readable data to a single prover or relayer. The Block reported the upgrade as the addition of a full private execution environment to the network, which remains in alpha and is not presented as production-ready. Application activity is starting, including a live version of the on-chain strategy game Dark Forest, which uses hidden state as a game mechanic and also serves as a stress test.

Miden, the zero-knowledge network spun out of Polygon Labs, is approaching the same problem from the institutional side. Its Guardian layer bundles account recovery, multi-signature security and configurable disclosure into non-custodial accounts, with OpenZeppelin acting as the first Guardian operator. Miden's own framing is that privacy has to be practical rather than absolute, meaning selective disclosure for auditors and regulators rather than a network that reveals nothing to anyone.

Neither network appears in the layer-2 rankings by value secured, where Base holds $11.58 billion and Arbitrum One $10.10 billion out of $34.50 billion across tracked rollups. The privacy chains are competing for a use case that barely exists on public chains today, which is business activity that cannot be conducted with a public ledger of counterparties, balances and payroll.