Overview

Arcane runs a set of smart contracts on Solana that act as mixing pools. You deposit tokens from one address and withdraw them from a different one. Because every deposit goes into the same pool, an outside observer can't tell which deposit belongs to which withdrawal.

Custody

The smart contract holds the tokens. You hold the private note. Only a valid zero-knowledge proof (derived from your note) can release the funds. Arcane has no admin access, no override, and no way to freeze or move deposited tokens.

Tips for Better Privacy

Arcane has no protocol-level deposit fee. On withdrawal, a total of 1% is deducted: 0.5% to the relayer and 0.5% to the DAO Treasury. Your withdrawal address receives the rest.

Relayer fee

Half of the withdrawal fee (0.5%) goes to the relayer that submits your transaction. Relayers may set different fees; the UI uses weighted selection that favors lower fees. You never pay gas from your withdrawal address — the relayer covers it and takes their fee from the amount you withdraw.

DAO Treasury

The protocol takes 0.5% of each withdrawal for the DAO Treasury. This funds protocol development, governance, and ecosystem initiatives.

Connect with any Solana wallet that works in the browser. The app supports the following:

Solana Seeker (mobile)

On Android in Chrome, you can connect via Solana Seeker. This uses the Mobile Wallet Adapter so the app can talk to wallet apps on your phone (e.g. Seed Vault, Phantom, Solflare). Solana Seeker is not available on iOS or in non-Chrome Android browsers.

The On-Chain Link Problem

On a public blockchain, every transaction is visible. If you send tokens from address A to address B, anyone can see that connection. Arcane breaks this link by putting a pool in between — you deposit from A, someone else (or you, later) withdraws from B, and a zk-SNARK proof is the only thing connecting the two. That proof reveals nothing about which deposit is being withdrawn.

   ┌─────────────┐                                  ┌─────────────────┐
   │  Address A   │                                  │   Address B     │
   │  (sender)    │                                  │   (recipient)   │
   └──────┬───────┘                                  └────────▲────────┘
          │ Deposit                                           │ Withdrawal
          ▼                                                   │
   ┌─────────────┐       ┌───────────────┐       ┌───────────┴──────┐
   │   Relayer    │──────▶│  Arcane Pool  │◀──────│     Relayer      │
   │  (deposit)   │       │               │       │   (withdrawal)   │
   └──────────────┘       │  zk-SNARK     │       └──────────────────┘
                          │  (no link     │
                          │   revealed)   │
                          └───────────────┘

Maximizing Privacy

Deposit

          [Merkle Root]
         /             \
      [H1]             [H2]
     /    \           /    \
  [H3]   [H4]     [H5]   [H6]
  /  \   /  \     /  \   /  \
 C1  C2 C3  C4   C5  C6 C7  ← your commitment

Withdrawal

To withdraw, you reconstruct the secret and nullifier from your stored note. The nullifier gets hashed:

What the contract checks

What stays private

Arcane's smart contracts are designed to be immutable and trustless. Security is a priority from the ground up: no admin keys, no upgrade backdoors, and no single point of failure.

Audits

Third-party audits provide independent verification of the protocol's correctness and security. We will publish audit reports here as they are completed.

Security assumptions

Arcane's security relies on:

• Cryptographic assumptions — Poseidon and the zk-SNARK proof system are used as designed; no known attacks apply to the parameter sets we use.
• Solana runtime — We assume the Solana network and its program runtime behave as specified.
• No admin keys — Contracts have no upgrade path and no privileged roles. Once deployed, logic cannot be changed.

Compliance and screening

This application may use optional compliance tooling (e.g., wallet screening for high-risk or sanctioned addresses) at the interface level only. Such checks are not enforced by the protocol. The protocol itself is permissionless; users may interact with it via other interfaces or direct contract interaction. Compliance tooling is published as optional and is not a condition of using the protocol.

A relayer is someone who submits withdrawal transactions on your behalf. Instead of your withdrawal address paying gas and showing up as the sender, the relayer's address does. You pay them a small fee from the withdrawn amount.

Flow

Relayer Selection

The UI picks a relayer for each withdrawal using weighted random selection:

Scoring formula

Setup

What is a secret note?

When you deposit, the protocol generates random bytes and splits them into a secret and a nullifier. These get combined into a single string — your secret note. The note is the private key to your deposit. Only its hashed commitment is stored on-chain.

On-chain Note Account

Arcane can store encrypted copies of your notes on Solana, tied to your wallet. This is your Note Account.

First-time setup

If your wallet doesn't have a Note Account yet, the app walks you through creating one:

Returning users

If you already have a Note Account, reconnecting your wallet detects it automatically. Enter your key to decrypt your notes locally.

What you can do

Actions per note

Arcane breaks the on-chain link between deposit and withdrawal addresses. That's the point. But sometimes you need to prove where your funds came from — to an exchange, a regulator, or an auditor. The Compliance Tool lets you do that without affecting anyone else's privacy.

How it works

What's in the report

Depends on whether the note has been spent:

What the report proves

The report re-links a deposit and withdrawal address using the commitment and nullifier hash. Only the note holder can generate it. It proves three things: