Ethereum Unveils zkAPI to Secure Anonymous AI Payments

The Ethereum Foundation has developed a new technology called zkAPI to allow users to make anonymous payments for AI models and metered APIs.

This is in response to the current system, which requires users to associate their credit card or API keys with every request, exposing prompt history to infrastructure providers.

The Ethereum Foundation has co-developed the technology alongside the Open Anonymity (OA) Project. The new architecture decouples payments from user identity and starts with a standardized transaction where a user deposits funds as a credit deposit into the vault contract on Ethereum.

A zero-knowledge proof is created locally, which proves that the transaction falls under the private note without disclosing the state. A single ZK proof can verify both a single transaction and an entire session.