Privacy projectPenumbra: Shielded DEX chain. Technology: zero-knowledge proofs.
Penumbra is one of the most elegant designs in the field: a fully shielded Cosmos chain where every action is private, staking and trading included. Its DEX batches swaps so trades clear at a shared price and no individual order is ever exposed, and the specification is openly published and holds up to reading. The company that built it wound down in 2025 after the lead developer moved on, and the network now runs as a community project, with liquidity that reflects that.
Key facts
- Entry type
- Privacy project
- Category
- Shielded DEX chain
- Technology
- Zero-knowledge proofs (ZK)
- Website
- penumbra.zone
What is zero-knowledge proofs?
One party proves a statement about hidden data is true without revealing the data the statement is about.
How it compares with the other approaches on latency, trust assumptions and fit is set out, with sources, in the technology taxonomy.
Private by design.
See how confidential transactions work on the networks you already use.