Generating Your Privacy Key

Your journey into the ZeroLayer ecosystem begins with the creation of a unique and secure privacy key. This key is the foundation of your anonymity within the protocol. It allows you to view your private balance, decrypt incoming transactions, and authorize outgoing transfers.

The process is designed to be both highly secure and user-friendly, leveraging the wallet you already use (like MetaMask) without ever exposing your main private key.

How It Works: Derivation via Signature

ZeroLayer uses a clever cryptographic technique to generate your privacy key. Instead of asking you to create and store a new set of keys, it asks you to sign a pre-defined, secure message with your wallet.

1. Connect Your Wallet: The first step is to connect your standard Ethereum wallet (e.g., MetaMask) to the ZeroLayer application.
2. Sign a Message: The application will then prompt you to sign a specific, human-readable message. This message is a simple statement of intent, like "Authorize ZeroLayer Privacy Key."
3. Key Derivation: The signature that your wallet produces is a unique piece of cryptographic data. ZeroLayer uses this signature as a seed to deterministically derive your privacy key.

This entire process happens locally in your browser. Your wallet's primary private key is never seen, used, or stored by the ZeroLayer application.

Security and Safety Guarantees

• Non-Custodial: Your main private key never leaves your wallet. The signature process is a standard, safe operation that does not grant the application any power to perform transactions on your behalf.
• Deterministic: As long as you use the same wallet to sign the same message, the same privacy key will always be generated. This means you don't need to back up a new seed phrase. Your privacy key can be securely re-derived whenever you need it.
• Protocol Security: The derived key is used exclusively for the cryptographic operations within the ZeroLayer protocol (like creating proofs and decrypting notes). It is separate from your public Ethereum account, ensuring that your private activities cannot be linked to your public identity.