Best of blog.shutter.network on Kiwi News
Most upvoted by Kiwi News readers
20 stories from blog.shutter.network have been shared on Kiwi News since 27 May 2024, with 34 upvotes and 1 comment in total. The latest was shared on 21 June 2026. They are listed below, most upvoted first.
Text under a title is an AI summary of the linked article.
- On the Limits of Encrypted Mempools – A Response to a16z Crypto’s Analysts
Shutter responds to a16z Crypto's critique of encrypted mempools, arguing that such systems need not be perfect to deliver substantial value against malicious MEV. The response says Shutter's threshold-encrypted mempool has been live on Gnosis Chain since July 2024, and that encrypted mempools can reduce sandwich attacks and front-running while distributing transaction-ordering power. It addresses eight objections from a16z Crypto, including collusion in committees, metadata leakage, and censorship, and cites measures such as traitor-tracing schemes, batched decryption and Flashbots' FRP-18 proposal as responses. It also says BEAT-MEV benchmarks show decryption of a full Ethereum-sized block in about 3 seconds, well within the 12-second slot time.
- Coming Soon to DAOs: Permanent Shielded Voting via Homomorphic Encryption
Shutter announces that permanent Shielded Voting is on its development roadmap, aiming to keep individual DAO votes private before, during, and after the vote while anyone can still verify the result on-chain. The approach extends Shutter's existing threshold encryption to linearly homomorphic threshold ElGamal in the exponent, so encrypted votes can be tallied and only the final result decrypted by a threshold of Keypers. Zero-knowledge proofs verify that each vote is valid (Yes, No or Abstain) and that the tally was decrypted correctly. The post also lists limitations, including reliance on a threshold trust assumption and the cost of discrete logarithm recovery for large tallies.
- Shutterized Gnosis Chain Debuts in July!
Shutter's encrypted mempool protocol is set to go live on Gnosis Chain mainnet on Thursday, July 11, 2024, to protect users from MEV attacks. Shutter uses threshold encryption so transactions stay hidden until they are included in a block, and validators commit to including encrypted transactions. The initial Keyper set will have 7 node operators, rising to 21 in the following weeks, and the mainnet launch follows alpha Keyper and full Chiado testnet deployments made with the Gnosis and Nethermind teams.
- From Flash Boys to Flashbots: The New Era of Front Running Is On‑Chain
This article is an opinion piece arguing that front running has moved on-chain to Ethereum and that encrypted mempools should be adopted as a protocol-level fix. It states that since 2020, more than $1.8 billion has been drained from Ethereum users through Maximal Extractable Value (MEV), much of it from front running and sandwich attacks. It describes MEV-Boost, Order-Flow Auctions and Private Routes as existing patches that leave transactions visible before inclusion in a block. It proposes encrypted mempools, which keep transaction contents hidden until ordering, as a chain-wide safeguard that would still permit benign MEV such as arbitrage and liquidations.
- Shutter MCP Alpha: Encrypted Workflows at Your Command
Shutter has released a testnet alpha of Shutter MCP, which lets AI tools such as Claude AI set up and run time-locked encrypted workflows, powered by Shutter API. The supported workflows include sealed-bid requests for proposals, sealed bug bounties, time-delayed announcements, encrypted messages and timed contests. According to the article, encrypted content can only be decrypted at the chosen future time, because keys are released by a network of decentralized keypers only after the specified timestamp.
- Tired of Getting Sniped? Send Your dApps this Commit-Reveal Fix
Shutter promotes threshold encryption as an upgrade to the commit-reveal scheme, replacing the single centralized party that traditionally manages reveals with a network of Keypers. In the article's account, players encrypt their moves to a public key tied to a time window called an epoch, and when the window ends, the Keypers work together to decrypt and reveal both moves at once. No single Keyper can decrypt alone, and the article says the protocol still works even if a few Keypers are offline or uncooperative. The article lists trade-offs including setup complexity, a short reveal latency, and an assumption that a majority of Keypers behave honestly.
- The First Beta Release of the Shutterized Gnosis Chain Is Now Live!
Encrypted transactions are now live on the Gnosis Chain in a beta release, the first mainnet implementation of Shutter's threshold encryption for transactions, announced by the Gnosis, Nethermind and Shutter teams. The launch adds an encrypted mempool intended to protect users from malicious MEV attacks such as front running and sandwich attacks. The initial phase has a smaller set of participating validators, which leads to longer transaction inclusion times, and the initial Keyper set consists of 7 Keypers. The article also notes there are no significant consequences for misbehaving validators yet, as slashing is planned for a later phase.
- Shutter Predict: A Mini-dApp for Encrypted Predictions
Shutter Predict is a mini dApp on Gnosis Chain that lets users submit encrypted predictions which are automatically revealed at a chosen time using Shutter's threshold encryption, showcasing the recently launched Shutter API. Users enter a prediction and reveal time, and the encrypted prediction is recorded on-chain via a smart contract, after which the Shutter Keyper network creates a decryption key and a Predict bot posts the prediction publicly on X. Submitting a prediction costs a 0.1 xDAI fee, which the text says is meant to prevent spam, and the fee recipient is currently brainbot GmbH. The text describes the app as an early, playful experiment not intended for anything valuable or sensitive.
- Introducing the Open Source MEV Simulator
The article announces an open source MEV simulator for modeling attacks like sandwich attacks and running local experiments. Its illustrative scenario compares a trader submitting about $3,000 per swap, three times a week for a year, on a public mempool versus an encrypted or private one, using a simulated Uniswap V2 pool. In the simulation, the public-mempool trader lost $12,406 more than the private trader over the year, about 2.65% of the $468,000 volume, or $79.53 per trade. The article stresses that this model is simplified and that its 100% sandwich rate and absence of gas costs make it unrealistic, estimating 1–3% of volume as a more realistic range.
- Introducing the Perpetual Endowment Network (PEN)
The article introduces the Perpetual Endowment Network (PEN), a conceptual model for a permissionless, member-governed on-chain endowment that preserves its principal indefinitely and distributes only the yield through governance. Members buy non-transferable, non-delegatable seats that give one vote each, and votes occur once per quarter on funding slates, with ranked-choice voting that includes reinvesting the yield as a default option. The treasury is split into a Principal Vault that is never spent and a Yield Vault that receives its income. The article presents PEN as an unfinished model meant to invite community feedback.
- Why It Took So Long to Achieve Digital Voting Systems (That Actually Work)
Shutter's team argues that its Permanent Shielded Voting system resolves the privacy, transparency and scalability trade-off that caused earlier digital voting systems to fail. The system uses ElGamal homomorphic encryption so election authorities add encrypted votes and decrypt only the final sum, with zero-knowledge proofs checking validity and blocking duplicate votes. The decryption key is split among independent parties, for example requiring three of five to cooperate, and the text says computational cost grows linearly with voter numbers. Earlier failures cited include West Virginia's 2018 Voatz blockchain voting and Switzerland's 2019 e-voting suspension.
- Encrypted Mempools and Ethereum’s Roadmap: Fix or Distraction?
Encrypted mempools would close the window in which pending Ethereum transactions can be front-run or sandwiched, and the article presents them as a possible fix for harmful MEV on the network's roadmap. Supporters, including end users, DEXs and some validators, argue that hiding transactions until block inclusion reduces predatory MEV while leaving benign MEV such as arbitrage and liquidations viable after the reveal. Skeptics, including public-mempool searchers and independent builders reliant on leaked order flow, worry about lost advantages and operational complexity. The article describes a phased rollout, starting with opt-in endpoints outside the protocol, and notes that open questions remain on metadata leakage, committee operations and enshrinement.
- Breaking Encrypted Mempool Limitations with Advanced Cryptography
Advanced cryptographic primitives can address three limitations of threshold-encrypted mempools: collusion among Keypers, costly fixed Keyper sets, and decryption latency. Accountability schemes deter collusion, including secret sharing with snitching from Dziembowski et al. and traceable threshold encryption from Boneh et al., where Canard et al. add public tracing that smart contracts can enforce. Garg et al. propose threshold encryption with silent setup, in which each Keyper publishes a hint so Keypers can join or leave without a global DKG rerun. Choudhuri et al. proposed batched threshold encryption, which gives constant-sized decryption data per block, though these constructions are not yet production-ready.
- Understanding Good and Bad MEV - and How Encrypted Mempools Stop the Bad
Shutter argues that encrypted mempools can stop harmful forms of Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) while preserving beneficial ones such as arbitrage, liquidations and back-running. The article describes malicious MEV as front-running, sandwich attacks, time-bandit attacks and censorship, which exploit users by reading pending transactions in the public mempool. Shutter's design encrypts transactions with threshold encryption, and a group of decentralized Keypers must reveal their parts of the key before transactions can be decrypted after block inclusion. The article acknowledges trade-offs: encrypted transactions are larger, causing slightly higher fees, and the system adds infrastructure complexity and minor delays. Shutter is already live on Gnosis Chain.
- Closing the Governance Privacy Gap On-Chain
Shutter proposes a fully on-chain Shielded Voting design for Ethereum and EVM chains that keeps individual votes private until the voting period ends, using threshold encryption with minimal changes to existing Governor frameworks. The article says Vitalik Buterin's May 21, 2025 tweet, "we need privacy in governance," motivated the work, and that Shutter's off-chain Shielded Voting on Snapshot has already helped over 600 DAOs. In the described flow, a proposer registers an encryption key in the Governor contract, voters submit encrypted ballots, and Shutter Keypers release decryption-key shares after the window closes. An executor then decrypts the votes and posts zero-knowledge proofs of correct decryption on-chain.
- DAO Voting Confidence is in Decline: How to Restore It
Decent DAO is integrating Shutter API's Shielded Voting into its governance platform to address declining confidence in DAO voting, which the article ties to low turnout, whale dominance, herding and vote buying. Votes are encrypted during the voting period using threshold encryption, with key shares held by multiple parties, and are revealed and tallied on-chain only after the poll closes. The article says this will be the first Shielded Voting within a Safe-based framework and will be available to any DAO on the platform from day one. Decent DAO also plans further steps, including quadratic voting, conviction voting and fully anonymous ballots.
- Why Encryption Is the Only Real Protection Against MEV
Shutter argues that encryption is the only effective protection against malicious MEV, because transaction visibility lets operators extract value and trust-based protections fail once enough money is at stake. The article cites over $1.38 billion extracted on Ethereum through front-running and sandwich attacks, and says Changpeng Zhao was sandwich-attacked on a decentralized exchange. It describes Shutter's encrypted mempool, in which Keypers use threshold encryption to decrypt transactions only after block commitment, and says this model is operational on Gnosis Chain and piloted on OP Stack.
- Unveiling The Road Towards a Distributed Encrypted Mempool on Ethereum
Shutter and collaborators Nethermind, Gnosis, Chainbound, and MEV Blocker (CoW Protocol) have published a white paper, "The Road Towards a Distributed Encrypted Mempool on Ethereum," proposing a phased roadmap for threshold-encrypted transaction mempools on Ethereum. The article says encryption until finalization would virtually eliminate malicious MEV and reduce real-time censorship, and it names proposer commitments within Proposer-Builder Separation as a key mechanism. The roadmap has three steps: encrypted RPC endpoints, proposer commitments in PBS, and full protocol integration. Shutter's encrypted mempool is already operational on Gnosis Chain.
- Staking and Keyper Incentive Mechanism Coming Soon for Shutter DAO 0x36
Shutter DAO 0x36 has begun development of a Keyper incentive mechanism and delegated staking for its SHU token, with Blockful as the technical developer. The 0x36 members chose Blockful to build the initial version, which Blockful aims to release in about three months, with August named as the target. Under the example economic parameters in the draft proposal, Keypers would permanently stake a minimum of 50,000 SHU, and the DAO would distribute 10 million SHU with a target 20% APY and a minimum six-month lock-up for stakers.
- The First Shutterized Testnet Is Now Live on Chiado!
The Shutterized Chiado testnet, a Gnosis Chain testnet, is now live, described as the first live implementation of the Shutter protocol on a full testnet and the complete first stage of Shutterized Gnosis Chain integration. Users can opt in by switching to a dedicated Shutterized RPC endpoint, which encrypts transactions so that front running is harder, while validators can opt in by registering through a smart contract and manually signing the transaction. The article notes that Nethermind's client has been updated to support Shutterized transactions, that other clients do not yet support them, and that brainbot operates the relay for the testnet. It also states that a minimum threshold of opting-in validators is needed to avoid large gaps between blocks containing encrypted transactions.