Ethereum Now Lets You Pay for AI Without Revealing Who You Are
The Ethereum Foundation launched zkAPI on mainnet, a privacy-preserving payment system for AI services. It lets users deposit funds into an Ethereum vault and then pay for API access without linking their identity or billing details to their prompts. Each request uses a zero-knowledge proof to show sufficient funds and prevent double-spending, after which a temporary, memory-only API key is issued. The AI provider sees only the request and usage, while the payment layer sees only the spend; the two are not linked. The launch includes OA Chat, a browser-based private chatbot, and open-source code on GitHub. zkAPI was built with the Open Anonymity Project and reflects Ethereum’s broader AI strategy, including work on agent coordination and private, machine-to-machine payments. The protocol is still experimental and has no formal audit listed.
