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24 June 2025 - - Georgian Sgora Sgora
Hedger: Confidential Transactions on DuskEVM
Confidential information specific to Hedger on DuskEVM
As Dusk evolves into a modular architecture, it introduces Hedger, a new privacy engine specifically designed for the EVM execution layer.
The Hedger platform enables confidential transactions on DuskEVM using a new mix of symmetric encryption and zero-knowledge proofs, allowing for privacy ready for compliance in real-world financial applications.
Unlike Zedger, which was designed for UTXO-based layers, Hedger is designed to be fully compatible with EVM. Hedger integrates directly with standard Ethereum tools, making it scalable, auditable, and user-friendly from day one.
Cryptographic design
Most privacy systems in decentralized finance (DeFi) rely entirely on zero-knowledge proofs. Hedger, however, takes a different approach by combining multiple cryptographic techniques to balance privacy, performance, and compliance.
Homomorphic encryption (HE): based on ElGamal on ECC, it enables computations on encrypted values without revealing them.
Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs): proof of the correctness of computations without revealing the underlying inputs.
UTXO/hybrid computation model: supports composability across layers and seamless integration with real-world financial systems.
This multi-layered cryptographic design allows Hedger to support regulated securities while maintaining confidentiality and auditability as its foundation.
Key capabilities
The Hedger platform offers a suite of features specifically designed for regulated markets:
Support for hidden order books: Hedger paves the way for the upcoming deployment of hidden order books, a critical feature for institutional trading that prevents market manipulation and protects participants from revealing intentions or exposure.
Regulatory auditability: transactions are fully auditable by design, ensuring compliance where necessary.
Confidential ownership of assets and their transfers: ownership, amounts, and balances remain fully encrypted from start to finish, preserving privacy while ensuring transactions are auditable.
Fast in-browser proof: lightweight circuits allow for client-side proof generation in under two seconds, enabling a seamless user experience at scale.
These features make Hedger a cornerstone for DuskEVM, bridging enterprise privacy with real-world usability.
Strategic value
Hedger is a unique privacy engine that does not compromise on compliance, performance, or usability.
While the EVM-based computation model prevents full anonymity—a feature Zedger still provides—Hedger offers complete transaction privacy, providing seamless compatibility with the broader ecosystem of tools and significant gains in performance and architectural simplicity for DuskEVM.
Hedger has been developed in-house, combining years of applied cryptography research, practical performance, regulatory compliance, and accessibility for developers.
It is a key element enabling real-world financial applications to operate privately, compliant with laws, and at scale.
