What are Multi-Asset Shielded Pools (MASP)?

by James Allard | Apr 14, 2023

As government institutions extend their influence into various aspects of our lives, more and more individuals are growing increasingly concerned about safeguarding their financial information and activities from prying eyes.

MASPs are another tool we have in the continued fight to protect our financial privacy. So…what are they?

Multi-asset shielded pools(MASP) are a type of privacy-focused asset pool that allows for the shielding of multiple types of assets, including tokens of different standards such as NFTs. These pools are designed to support tokens of many kinds and sources, making them a great boost to privacy. They are composed of various assets and allow users to deploy tokens to smart contracts seamlessly. Multi-asset shielded pools are also built with mechanisms to align the incentives of users, rewarding those that contribute to shielding by adding tokens to the pool.

MASPs are part of a broader trend towards privacy-focused DeFi solutions. They are designed to provide a way for users to pool their assets together in a way that hides the identities of the individuals involved and the amounts of the assets being traded.

One of the key benefits of multi-asset shielded pools is that they allow for the inclusion of a wide variety of assets. This can include everything from traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum to more specialized tokens like NFTs. By allowing for the shielding of multiple types of assets, these pools can help to create a more diverse ecosystem of privacy-focused solutions.

Another important aspect of multi-asset shielded pools is that they are designed to be user-friendly. They typically utilize smart contracts to automate the process of creating and managing the pool, which can help to reduce the amount of time and effort required by users. Additionally, they often come with built-in incentives to encourage users to contribute to the pool and help to maintain its privacy.

In the above diagram courtesy of anoma.net, Alice wants to send some crypto over to Bob while ensuring that Eve cannot observe the amount or recipient of the transaction.

So Alice sends her funds into a MASP. Inside this MASP are millions of other tokens sent in by other people wishing to transact as well. The more assets in this pool, the greater the anonymity of the transactions.

Eve can see that Alice sent the funds to the MASP, but from here her trail is lost.

Private DEXs are Comin’!

Over the coming year we should begin to see these MASPs getting utilized in DEX platforms. The Panther Protocol is one example of this. Users will be able swap tokens via their protocol which utilizes the MASP technology in a user friendly GUI not disimilar to Uniswap and other popular DEXs.