Vitalik: Railgun's privacy pool mechanism for ethical crypto transactions

Vitalik Buterin highlights Railgun's privacy pools mechanism as a working way for the protocol to avoid serving proceeds of crime without using snooping or backdoors. Deposits go through an automated filter during a one-hour period that checks whether they likely came from criminal activity. Deposits that pass can be withdrawn privately with zero-knowledge proofs after one hour, though waiting longer is recommended for a larger anonymity set. Deposits that fail can only be withdrawn to the depositor's own address, with no risk of freezing or seizure, but without access to the privacy pool.