The MASP
Namada affords users data-protection through its multi-asset shielded pool (MASP), which supports shielded transfers with any native or non-native asset. The MASP is a zero-knowledge circuit (zk-SNARK (opens in a new tab)) that extends the Zcash Sapling circuit (opens in a new tab) to add support for sending arbitrary assets. All assets in the pool share the same anonymity set -- meaning that the more transactions are issued to MASP, the stronger the data protection guarantees for all users.
The MASP allows users to make transfers in a way that does not reveal the sender, receiver, or amount. Each transfer is a zero knowledge proof itself, and is often referred to as a "note". From the users perspective, the construction of these zero knowledge proofs occur behind the scenes.
Users of the MASP are rewarded for their contributions to the shielded set in the form of native protocol tokens (NAM).
Inspiration
The MASP is inspired by the work produced by the Electric Coin Company (ECC) who developed Zcash, and builds on the Sapling Circuit by implementing multi-asset functionality. In addition to the MASP, Namada has also implemented a zero knowledge circuit for rewarding shielded set contributions in a shielded manner. This circuit is called the Convert Circuit (CC for short).
If you are familiar with Zcash, the set of interactions you can execute with Namada's MASP are similar:
- Shielding transfers: transparent to shielded address
- Shielded transfers: shielded to shielded address
- Unshielding transfers: shielded to transparent address
More technical details of these circuits can be found in the specs (opens in a new tab) as well as this blog post (opens in a new tab).