Ethereum’s zkAPI is now live on mainnet, turning an earlier zero-knowledge API payment proposal into a working implementation for private, prepaid access.
zkAPI, built by the Open Anonymity Project with the Ethereum Foundation, has gone live on Ethereum mainnet, using zero-knowledge proofs to separate API payments from user identities.
The system lets a user pay for metered API access without being known, according to a post from Vittorio Rivabella, AI coordinator at the Ethereum Foundation’s dAI team. Users deposit funds into an Ethereum vault, then use zero-knowledge proofs to prove they have enough credit to pay for API requests without revealing which deposits are theirs.
One of the immediate use cases of the system is paying for the use of AI without linking the payment to a user. zkAPI issues short-lived API keys with predefined spending limits. Prompts are sent directly to the AI provider, while usage is settled separately through the payment layer. The project has also released a local client and software development kit, along with a browser-based AI chat implementation.
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cointelegraph.com