Privacy Architecture

Imagine you have money in your wallet. Normally, when you use it on a blockchain, everyone can see how much you have, who you pay, and how much you send. Orbinum changes this using zero-knowledge cryptography, allowing you to make transactions where these details remain private.

This guide shows you how that privacy system works, what operations you can perform, and what guarantees you get.

What can you do in Orbinum?

Shield (Protect)

Deposit public tokens into the private pool. Your funds become confidential.

Transfer (Send)

Send private tokens to other users without revealing amounts or identities.

Unshield (Reveal)

Withdraw tokens from the private pool to a public account visible on the blockchain.

Note Disclosure

Share a disclosure key to prove the exact contents of a note — value and asset — without granting spending capability.

How it works: The Shielded Pool

The shielded pool is like a common vault where all private funds are mixed together. When you deposit tokens, they become notes — cryptographic receipts that only you can spend.

What is a "note"?

A note is like a private bill that contains:

Amount: how many tokens it represents
Asset ID: what type of token it is (ORB, USDT, etc.)
Owner: who can spend it (your public key)
Blinding: a random number to hide all of the above

The four operations

Everything you can do with the pool is one of these. Each has its own page.

Operation	What it does	What it makes public
Shield	Public balance → private note	That you deposited, and how much
Private Transfer	Note → note	Only that a transfer happened
Unshield	Note → public balance	The recipient and the amount
Note Disclosure	Proves one note's contents	Nothing — it is off-chain

Shield and unshield are the visible edges. What happens between them is not: a transfer publishes a nullifier and new commitments with no link between them.

Privacy Guarantees and Limitations

✅ What is protected

Amounts in private transfers (fully hidden)
Identities of sender and recipient in transfers
Relationship between inputs and outputs (unlinkable)
History of a note before being spent
Individual balances within the pool

⚠️ What remains visible

Shield/unshield operations link public accounts with the pool
Transaction timing (when they occur in each block)
Merkle tree growth (size of the anonymity set)
Asset type can be partially inferred in some cases
Unshield amounts are completely public

Best practices for privacy

Use common denominations: instead of 137.42 USDT, round to 100 or 150
Wait before unshielding: don't withdraw immediately after depositing
Mix with other users: the more transactions there are, the larger your anonymity set
Split funds into multiple notes: don't use a single large note