In March 2021, Aztec launched the zk.money protocol, which provided a privacy shield for direct Ethereum transactions. Connect moves the shield out further, allowing users to privately connect to Ethereum’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, including popular apps Uniswap, Lido and Aave. Private DeFi actions could include staking, lending, swaps and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) treasury management. The Aztec network includes zero-knowledge rollup technology, which essentially bundles transactions before sending them to the Ethereum mainnet, saving money on transaction or gas fees.
