Back
Aztec Labs Acquires Obsidion, Developer of ZKPassport Privacy Identity Tool

Aztec Labs Acquires Obsidion, Developer of ZKPassport Privacy Identity Tool

Aztec Labs said it will maintain ZKPassport and its iOS app as open-source after acquiring Obsidion, adding a privacy-preserving identity tool to its Ethereum Layer-2 ecosystem amid broader crypto industry consolidation.

ETH

Fact Check
Both The Block and Crypto Briefing independently report on May 27, 2026 that Aztec Labs acquired Obsidion, the developer of ZKPassport, and pledged to keep ZKPassport open-source. The Block specifically states Aztec is expanding its privacy-focused Ethereum L2 stack, matching the claim verbatim in substance.
    Reference: 12
Summary

Aztec Labs has acquired Obsidion, the company behind the privacy-preserving identity tool ZKPassport, with Obsidion co-founders Michael Elliot and Theo Madzou joining Aztec to continue developing the product and work on additional offerings. Aztec said it plans to keep the ZKPassport protocol and iOS mobile app open-source. ZKPassport lets users prove attributes such as age, nationality, and proof of humanity cryptographically by scanning a passport or government ID via an NFC chip on a phone, without disclosing broader personal information. According to the report, Aztec used ZKPassport in its community token sale and the firms said they verified the nationalities of 17,000 participants for compliance. Aztec Labs is building a privacy-preserving decentralized Layer-2 zk-rollup on Ethereum, and its Ignition Chain had about 136 nodes as of Wednesday. The article also notes Aztec Foundation raised about $60 million worth of ETH in an AZTEC token sale in December, while Aztec Labs has raised about $125 million in venture funding.

Terms & Concepts
  • ZKPassport: A privacy and identity tool that lets users prove attributes such as age or nationality cryptographically without revealing other personal data.
  • Layer-2 zk-rollup: A scaling network built on top of Ethereum that uses zero-knowledge proofs to process transactions more efficiently while inheriting security from the base chain.
  • zero-knowledge proofs: Cryptographic methods that allow someone to prove a statement is true without revealing the underlying sensitive information.