Vitalik says he built an early Aztec demo for a moderated anonymous bulletin board
The prototype uses Aztec privacy tools, ETH deposit-based rate limits and local AI moderation to test anonymous posting with safeguards against spam and abuse.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has released an experimental anonymous bulletin board on Aztec that uses zero-knowledge proofs to explore how on-chain privacy can coexist with moderation and anti-spam controls. The small GitHub demo is not presented as a consumer-ready product, but as a practical test of anonymous participation with proof-based constraints. The prototype uses Poseidon2 hashing and privacy-preserving mechanisms to let eligible users post without exposing their identity, while adding rate limits tied to ETH deposits and a local AI moderation component intended to curb abuse. The design reflects a broader challenge for public blockchains: preserving user privacy without making systems unusable because of spam, Sybil attacks or harmful content. The project extends Buterin’s longer-running focus on privacy infrastructure and zero-knowledge systems within Ethereum. It also highlights continued experimentation around tools that could eventually support private forums, DAO discussions, surveys and other forms of censorship-resistant communication, even though the demo itself remains an early-stage prototype.
- zero-knowledge proofs: Cryptographic methods that verify a claim or rule compliance without revealing the underlying data or identity.
- Poseidon2 hashing: A hashing approach designed to work efficiently inside zero-knowledge proof systems.
- Sybil attacks: Abuse in which one actor uses many fake or duplicated identities to manipulate or overwhelm a system.