Privacy is the default. Research at the edge of trust: a memory-only microkernel backed by formal proofs. NOX zero-knowledge privacy on Ethereum.
Ø State
- Tweets 1,442
- Following 73
- Followers 3,183
- Likes 3,408
We recorded a full private payment on @ethereum from start to finish, on an iPhone.
One account shields NOX into the pool, then pays 1,000 to a second account. The phone builds the proof by itself in 92 seconds, a relayer delivers it over @torproject and Ethereum settles it in a single transaction.
Watch what the chain gets and what it never learns.
🧵
14
19
56
963
4/
From today, our smart contracts are open source: the pool, the verifier, the tests and the proofs, with every contract we run on Sepolia. From now on we build in the open. Our apps follow on 1 October 2026. github.com/NON-OS/L1-Shield
7
89
3/
Anyone can open the transaction and look: a relayer, a small fee and data that reveals nothing about us.
The second account now holds 1,000 NOX. Nobody watching the chain can tell where it came from.
This was the 44th private transfer on our launch pool. Still testnet, not yet audited.
sepolia.etherscan.io/tx/0xcc…
6
81
2/
The proving screen is the heart of it.
For 92 seconds the phone works out, on its own, that the payment is honest. Our keys never leave the device, and no server helps.
Then a relayer carries the finished proof over Tor. It pays the gas, cannot read the payment, and cannot change it. 24 seconds later it was final.
6
94
1/
What you see in the video:
A new account takes test NOX from the faucet and deposits 10,000 into the pool. That deposit is the one public moment.
From there the money lives as a private note that only this phone can open. The second account shares an address that never touches the chain.
6
136
Today, while testing and hardening the NOX Shield launch pool on Sepolia, we settled its first 41 private transfers. Each is one transaction in which Ethereum verifies a zero-knowledge STARK with no trusted setup.
Forty form an open challenge: link any sender to its receiver.
Read more 👇
5
19
58
1,274
4/
The receiver never writes to the chain. It finds its sealed note among the events of the settlement, opens it with its own key and recomputes the commitment and for all forty-one receivers that commitment matched the leaf exactly. The verifier reports 80 provable bits of soundness and 142 conjectured, each proof is 112,956 bytes, and a transfer costs between 7.07 and 7.88 million gas.
1
4
130
5/
The challenge is built to be answerable if the system leaks. Forty senders paid forty receivers identical amounts within each asset, in a secret random order and through a single relayer and we committed to the pairing of each batch by hash before its first deposit.
Anyone who matches settlements to senders better than chance has found a break, and we will treat it as one. This is a testnet run with test assets, and its limits are set out in section 8 of the paper.
1
5
117
NØNOS retweeted
This is the kind of update that does not get enough noise but absolutely should.
Ethereum caps a transaction at 16.7 million gas.
The $NOX private payment verifier used to need over 200 million to run. That was the wall standing between this technology and actual on-chain deployment.
Tonight it needed 11.2 million.
A 112 KB STARK proof verified end to end within a single Ethereum transaction. The team did not touch the cryptography to get there. They found gas that the EVM charges for and never returns and they took it back.
Now that is the kind of engineering that turns theoretical into deployable.
Sepolia testnet is next.
Sub $2M market cap.
Post quantum cryptography.
Zero trusted setup.
Privacy preserving payments now fitting inside a single Ethereum transaction.
The people who understand what just happened here are very quiet right now and very busy.
Are you paying attention? 👀
@nonossystems 🔥
Ethereum caps a transaction at 16.7 million gas. Our private-payment verifier used to need over 200 million.
Tonight it needed 11.2.
A 112 KB STARK proof, verified end to end within one transaction gas. The last half came off without touching the cryptography. It was memory the EVM charges for and never gives back.
Passed in testing. Sepolia next.
Made with AI
3
13
49
1,746
NØNOS retweeted
Team 124
Connection Room
@nonossystems
What is NØNOS:
NØNOS is a zero-trust OS built from bare metal, a Rust microkernel that runs from memory and only runs signed software.
On top of it they build their own STARK proof system and NOX Shield, private transfers on Ethereum verified on chain in one transaction.
Complicated and quality tech that I respect and enjoy checking.
Welcome $NOX to my room
8
13
58
2,147
NØNOS retweeted
Twelve years ago, I wrote about self-destructing messages. Today, they are mainstream, but the bigger shift may be toward computing sessions that retain less by default.
My new article explores intentional persistence, zero trust, and the emerging case for ephemeral computing. @nonossystems #Privacy #zerotrust
linkedin.com/pulse/future-we… via @LinkedIn
6
6
22
538
Ethereum caps a transaction at 16.7 million gas. Our private-payment verifier used to need over 200 million.
Tonight it needed 11.2.
A 112 KB STARK proof, verified end to end within one transaction gas. The last half came off without touching the cryptography. It was memory the EVM charges for and never gives back.
Passed in testing. Sepolia next.
14
24
69
5,885
The long version, arithmetic included in our research:
nonos.software/assets/papers…
1
1
16
501
AI is changing the threat. At NØNOS the priority is building the defence. Our new Commercial website is live, showcasing the technology we’re developing to help protect Financial, Institutional & Enterprise systems against malicious AI attacks.
We’re also opening the doors to view our simulated interactive Launchpad. Step into the role of an organisation deploying with us.
Follow the setup journey, simulate your company’s deployment and explore multisig approvals across three wallets.
A first look at what we’re building and how your organisation could use it. Explore the technology. Try the Launchpad.
nonos.systems
7
22
68
3,667
The faucet for the upcoming NOX Shield beta is live at faucet.nonos.software
Test ETH and test NOX, one claim per address every 24 hours. Nothing to sign, no gas on your side and neither asset has value.
We verify STARK proofs directly on Ethereum in Solidity while most wrap them in a SNARK first so verification fits in one transaction which quietly brings a trusted setup back with it. We didn't.
Verification is 258,556,537 gas today, down from 512,576,167 on the first run.
Still under active performance and security work.
🧵
1
14
55
1,312
2/
Paste your address, complete the check, claim.
You should see 0.1 Sepolia ETH and 40,000 test NOX land shortly after. If the faucet is running low the contract pays less.
Add the token or your wallet will hide the balance:
0x3E5249A65CA513D5e11260222e0D26f46b465d36
Faucet and token are both verified on Etherscan.
1
2
18
483
3/
The proofs already verify on chain. The pool is not open.
One verifier still serves one proof which we can live with for a bit. What we cannot ship is the copy constraint. We found this week that it is argued at a fixed point which makes it forgeable. We reproduced it on our own circuit and we are fixing it with a commitment round, not a patch.
The pool opens when we trust that. The faucet is just so the test funds are already sitting in wallets that day.
16
183