How Stealth Addresses
& ZK Proofs Work
A technical deep-dive into how Veilpay uses EIP-5564 stealth addresses and zero-knowledge proofs to make cryptocurrency payments truly private across 7+ blockchains.
What is EIP-5564?
EIP-5564 (Ethereum Improvement Proposal 5564) defines a standard for stealth addresses on EVM-compatible blockchains. It was authored by Vitalik Buterin and others as a way to bring receiver privacy to Ethereum without requiring a separate privacy chain.
The core idea: instead of publishing a single static receiving address, you publish a stealth meta-address — a pair of public keys that anyone can use to generate a unique, one-time payment address for you. Only you, with your corresponding private keys, can discover and spend funds sent to these derived addresses.
Veilpay extends EIP-5564 beyond Ethereum to work across Stellar, Solana, and other chains using equivalent elliptic curve operations, creating the first truly multi-chain stealth address implementation.
The Privacy Payment Lifecycle
Key Generation
When you create a Veilpay vault, a master spending key and a viewing key are generated on your device using industry-standard BIP-39 mnemonics and Ed25519 / secp256k1 curves (depending on the chain). These keys never leave your device and are never transmitted to Veilpay servers.
The spending key controls fund access. The viewing key allows you to scan the blockchain for incoming payments without the ability to spend. This dual-key architecture is the foundation of EIP-5564 stealth addressing.
Stealth Meta-Address Publication
Your vault publishes a stealth meta-address — a compressed public key pair that anyone can use to derive a one-time payment address for you. This meta-address is NOT your actual wallet address; it's a cryptographic generator that produces unlimited unique addresses.
When someone wants to send you funds, they combine your stealth meta-address with a random ephemeral key to derive a fresh address that only you can discover. The ephemeral public key is posted on-chain as a tag, but reveals nothing about the recipient.
Payment Derivation
The sender generates a one-time stealth address using Diffie-Hellman key exchange between their ephemeral key and your stealth meta-address. They send funds to this fresh address and publish the ephemeral public key on-chain.
Each payment goes to a mathematically unique address. Even if the same person sends you 10 payments, each goes to a different address. On-chain observers see 10 unrelated addresses with no connection to each other or to your known identity.
Scanning & Discovery
Your Veilpay vault periodically scans new on-chain ephemeral key announcements. Using your viewing key, it performs a trial computation on each announcement to determine if the resulting address belongs to you.
This is computationally lightweight — a single elliptic curve multiplication per announcement. When a match is found, the vault derives the full spending key for that specific stealth address, adding the funds to your balance.
Zero-Knowledge Verification
For chains that support it, Veilpay wraps outgoing payments in zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs or zk-STARKs). These proofs mathematically guarantee the transaction is valid — correct amounts, no double-spending — without revealing any details.
On Zcash this uses the Sapling/Orchard circuits. On Ethereum L2s, Veilpay integrates with privacy pools and ZK-rollup frameworks. The result: validators confirm the transaction is legitimate without learning who sent what to whom.
Zero-Knowledge Proofs Explained
What Are ZK Proofs?
A zero-knowledge proof is a cryptographic protocol where a prover can convince a verifier that a statement is true without revealing any information beyond the truth of the statement itself. In crypto payments, this means proving a transaction is valid (correct amounts, no double-spending) without revealing who sent what to whom.
How Veilpay Uses ZK Proofs
Veilpay combines zk-SNARKs (on Zcash) and Bulletproofs (on Monero-style chains) with stealth addresses to create a layered privacy system. Stealth addresses hide the recipient. ZK proofs hide the amount and validate the transaction. Together, they make every payment fully private.
Veilpay vs. Other Privacy Solutions
| Feature | Veilpay | Mixers/Tumblers | Single-Chain Privacy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-Chain | ✓ 7+ chains | ✗ Usually 1 | ✗ 1 chain |
| Non-Custodial | ✓ Always | ✗ Custodial risk | ✓ Varies |
| Stealth Addresses | ✓ EIP-5564 | ✗ No | ~ Some |
| ZK Proofs | ✓ Multi-scheme | ✗ No | ~ Chain-specific |
| No KYC Required | ✓ | ~ Varies | ✓ |
| Fiat On-Ramps | ✓ Built-in | ✗ No | ✗ Rare |
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