A practical guide to shielding tez and tokens on Tezos using the Shield Bridge platform
In a recent article, we looked at how Umami Wallet added support for shielded tez transactions, making a long-standing Tezos protocol feature much easier to use in practice. We also briefly mentioned something important: shielding on Tezos isn’t limited to tez alone. Through Shield Bridge, users can also shield FA2 tokens (such as USDT, tzBTC, and others).
In this article, we take a closer look at Shield Bridge itself. We’ll go through what it is, how it’s used in practice, and how it fits into Tezos’ approach to privacy when moving tez or tokens between public and shielded use. But first, let’s add some context.
Why Private Transactions Matter
On most blockchains, transaction details are public by default. Sending a simple payment can reveal more than intended, like balances, transaction history, and patterns that have nothing to do with the payment itself.
Wanting private transactions isn’t about hiding activity or doing something illegal. It’s about basic financial boundaries. Paying someone shouldn’t automatically give them access to your entire transaction and balance history, just as it wouldn’t in traditional finance.
At the same time, privacy doesn’t mean avoiding accountability. There are many situations where transparency is required, such as audits, tax reporting, and regulatory oversight, and that information should still be available when needed. The difference is that disclosure should be intentional, not automatic.
This is the balance Tezos aims to support, enabling private use when it makes sense, without removing the ability to disclose transaction data to the appropriate parties.
What Is Shield Bridge
Shield Bridge is one of the tools that makes private transactions on Tezos possible in practice.
It’s a platform that lets users access shielded transactions by connecting a regular Tezos wallet. You don’t need a special wallet or a separate setup to get started. You can shield funds with the wallet you already use, then manage shielded activity through Shield Bridge.
Shielding isn’t limited to tez. Shield Bridge also supports FA2 tokens, which means assets like stablecoins or other tokenized assets can be moved into shielded use, not just XTZ.
Shield Bridge also supports viewing keys. These allow users or businesses to export a read-only view of shielded balances and transaction history when disclosure is required, for example, for accounting, audits, or tax reporting, without giving up control of funds.
Shield Bridge moves assets between public Tezos addresses and a shielded set using the Sapling protocol. Assets aren’t mixed, handed over to a custodian, or removed from the chain, transactions are still validated and enforced, with the difference being how much information is visible by default.
Using Shield Bridge in Practice
Start by connecting a regular Tezos wallet, just as you would with any other application. This wallet is used to move funds into and out of shielded use.
Before you can make shielded transactions, you’ll also need a shielded account (their addresses start with “zet…”). The first time you use Shield Bridge, you either create a new shielded account or load an existing one using a 24-word mnemonic. This account is separate from your regular wallet and is where shielded balances live.
Once both are set up, the interface guides you through three actions:
ShieldChoose an asset (XTZ or a supported FA2 token), select your shielded account, and enter the amount. This moves funds from your public wallet into the shielded set.
TransferSend assets between shielded accounts. These transfers are validated by the protocol, but amounts and counterparties are not publicly visible.
UnshieldMove funds out of the shielded set to any normal Tezos address. This doesn’t have to be the wallet you originally used to shield funds, you can unshield directly to another person’s address or any standard Tezos account.
For transfers and unshielding, Shield Bridge also offers an optional injection service. By paying a fixed 1 tez fee, the transaction can be broadcast on your behalf, instead of directly from your public wallet. This helps reduce the link between your wallet and shielded activity. Using this service is optional, but it can strengthen privacy by reducing the direct connection between your wallet and the on-chain transaction, since the transaction is broadcast by the service instead of directly from your wallet.
Shield Bridge also supports viewing keys, which can be exported from the settings page. A viewing key allows a shielded account to be loaded in read-only mode inside the platform. Anyone with the key can see balances and transaction history, but cannot move funds.
A Practical Example
Let’s say I hire a Tezos artist to design a logo for me. We agree on a price, but I don’t want that payment to expose my full wallet balance or transaction history.
I go to Shield Bridge, connect my regular Tezos wallet, and shield the amount of tez (or USDT) I’m going to use for the payment. Those funds are now part of the shielded set and no longer sit in my public balance.
From there, I have two options.
If the artist already has a shielded address, I can send the payment directly to that address. The transaction is validated as usual, but the amount and the counterparty aren’t publicly visible. This is the actual way to make a private transaction.
But even if they don’t have a shielded address, I can instead unshield the payment directly to their normal Tezos address. The funds come out of the shielded set and land in their wallet, without revealing anything about my broader balance or transaction history. This way though, I have to use the injection service, so the transaction is also broadcast on my behalf, reducing any direct link between my wallet and the payment. Without the injection service, they would be able to see on the explorer my normal Tezos wallet being the one that paid the fee for the unshielding operation, and they could link it with the payment.
From the artist’s side, they simply receive the funds. There’s no need for them to see where the money came from beyond the payment itself, and no visibility into anything else I hold or do on-chain.
In an ideal scenario where shielded transactions are a normal part of everyday use, both sides would already have shielded addresses and payments could stay entirely within the shielded set. But even at this early stage, Shield Bridge can already add meaningful privacy to everyday web3 interactions, without requiring anyone else to change how they operate.
On top of that, if I need to show a business partner that the payment was made, I can export a viewing key for my shielded account and share it with them. They can load the account in read-only mode and see the payment for themselves, without having the ability to move funds or interfere in any way.
The example above shows how Shield Bridge can be used today, but it’s worth keeping one thing in mind: the level of privacy shielded transactions provides depends on several factors. Two of the most important ones are how actively the shielded set is used and how many people are participating in it.
Like any system based on privacy sets, shielded transactions become more effective as activity increases. The more funds move in and out, and the more transactions happen inside the shielded set, the harder it becomes to infer meaningful information from the outside.
Shield Bridge isn’t a finished or perfect interface, and shielded transactions aren’t yet a default part of everyday use on Tezos. But they are real, usable, and already capable of adding privacy to normal interactions, especially for people who take the time to understand how they work.
If privacy on-chain is something you care about, the most practical next step isn’t theory or debate, but experimentation. Try shielding a small amount, send a test transaction, unshield it again, and get a feel for the flow. Like most things on Tezos, it becomes clearer once you’ve actually used it. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and try it!
Shield Bridge: Adding Privacy to Everyday Tezos Transactions was originally published in Tezos Commons on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.