Stealth Addresses

Stealth Addresses ensure recipient privacy by generating unique, one-time addresses for every transaction. Leveraging a non-interactive Diffie-Hellman key exchange, they keep the linkage between transactions and the original public address concealed, significantly enhancing privacy.

Back to Privacy Stealth Address Tool EIP-41 Standard

What Are Stealth Addresses?

With the advent of ErgoMixer v4.4.0, support for Stealth Addresses has been rolled out. ErgoMixer assists in the creation and management of your Stealth Addresses for receiving payments. Note: Stealth Addresses aren’t directly payable. The sender must use the Stealth Address Tool to generate a Stealth Payment Address, which can then be used like any standard address.

Example: Stealth Addresses for Donations

Suppose you want to place a donation address on your website. Traditionally, all transactions to this address are visible on the blockchain, revealing donation amounts. A common workaround is generating a new address for every user, which is tedious.

Stealth Addresses simplify this. By sharing your stealth address, anyone can generate a unique Stealth Payment Address to send funds. You can then locate the UTXO boxes associated with these addresses and collect the funds, keeping your transactions hidden and private.

Stealth Address → [shared publicly]
Stealth Payment Address → [unique per transaction]

Covert vs Stealth Addresses

Covert Addresses

Enable users to receive funds at a public address not directly tied to their actual wallet, helping obscure the transaction trail.

Stealth Addresses

Amplify privacy by generating unique, one-time addresses for every transaction. The recipient shares a public address, and the sender creates a unique address for each payment, making transactions unlinkable.

Both address types aim to bolster privacy, but Stealth Addresses excel by ensuring every transaction uses a new, one-time address, impeding traceability.

How Stealth Addresses Work

  1. Stealth Address Generation: Alice (the recipient) creates a Stealth Address and shares it (e.g., on her website). This address contains her public key, without exposing any identifiable information.
  2. Stealth Payment Address Creation: Bob (the sender) uses the shared Stealth Address to generate a unique Stealth Payment Address for the transaction.
  3. Payment Transaction: Bob sends funds to the Stealth Payment Address, creating a special box on the blockchain. Only Alice can access it, and it’s not linked to the shared Stealth Address.
  4. Unique Identifiers: Unique identifiers are stored in the payment box, ensuring only Alice can access it.
  5. Verification: Alice’s wallet checks the identifiers and allows her to open the box and receive payment.
  6. Discovering Payments: Alice’s wallet automatically scans for new payments, enabling her to securely and privately access her funds.

This mechanism is based on the EIP-41 Stealth Address Standard.

Resources

Stealth Address Tool

Generate Stealth Payment Addresses for Ergo using the official tool.

EIP-41: Stealth Address Standard

Read the full technical standard for Stealth Addresses on Ergo.