Ethereum Foundation Collaborates with Open Anonymity to Introduce Private API Usage Credits
A new solution for private API usage credits has been introduced by the Open Anonymity Project in collaboration with the Ethereum Foundation. The project, called zkAPI, allows users to pay for metered APIs without revealing their identity.
Currently, every AI API call carries an identity linked to a user's account and payment method. This means that providers can connect years of usage into a single profile, potentially exposing sensitive information about users' health, finances, and personal thoughts.
zkAPI separates payment from identity by allowing users to deposit credits into a vault contract on Ethereum. These credits exist as private notes that only the user can spend, and nobody can trace them back to the original deposit.
The system uses zero-knowledge proofs to authorize spending without revealing the link between the request and the payment layer. This means that providers see the requests but not the billing identity behind a key, while the payment layer sees the spends but not the identity of the user.