# @vitalik.eth: how Railgun's privacy pools filter criminal deposits

Source: https://warpcast.com/vitalik.eth/0x52a97c0b
Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/vitaliketh-how-Railguns-privacy-pools-filter-criminal-deposits?index=0x67add400bb19dc7f272a327ed6757d7d20d58aa6cfbc974715ebd101f2947dc56b787c62
Submitted by misha on 2025-02-13 UTC, 4 upvotes, 1 comment

## Summary

Vitalik Buterin highlights that Railgun's privacy pools mechanism filters out deposits linked to criminal activity without using snooping or backdoors. According to the post, anyone can deposit into Railgun, and algorithms then spend a 1 hour period checking whether the deposit likely came from activity they consider criminal. Deposits that pass can be withdrawn privately using ZKPs after 1 hour, though waiting longer is advised for a better anonymity set. Deposits that fail can only be withdrawn to the depositor's own address, with no risk of freezing or seizure, but without access to the privacy pool.

## Article

This is a solid demonstration of Railgun's privacy pools mechanism working in practice, allowing Railgun to avoid serving proceeds of crime without using any snooping / backdoors.

How it works:

* Anyone can deposit into Railgun.
* After you deposit, there is a 1 hour period during which various algorithms detect whether or not the deposit likely came from what the algorithms consider to be criminal activity.
* If your deposit passes the filter, then after 1 hour you can use ZKPs to withdraw privately (but ideally wait longer to get a good-enough anonymity set).
* If your deposit fails the filter, then you can only withdraw back to your own address. There is no risk that your funds will get frozen/seized, you just can't benefit from the privacy pool.

If you disagree with Railgun's filters, anyone is free to fork and make their own pool with their own rules, though if you can't get reasonably wide public support you're going to have a tiny anonymity set.

https://x.com/officer_cia/status/1889642583971733983

## Comments

**tim**: Just saw this on X as well before checking if it had been submitted already: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Vitalik:-Railguns-privacy-pool-mechanism-for-ethical-crypto-transactions?index=0x67ade2635e3add56a3c704c8083f3c78dfbbf19e770eee7ce3f67b68c76554b2e89beccf