# Privacy Pools

> Privacy-preserving pool protocol for shielding and unshielding ERC-20 tokens, tracked by Kohaku as a WIP Ethereum privacy package.

- Readiness score: **57/100** (score.v2)
- Integration difficulty: high
- Chains: ethereum
- Categories: privacy, zero-knowledge, compliance, wallets
- Last verified: 2026-06-04 by composewith.eth research (Privacy Pools site and Kohaku docs/GitHub live-verified via WebFetch 2026-06-04) (confidence: medium)

## Resources

- docs: https://ethereum.github.io/kohaku/privacy-pools/intro
- sdk: https://github.com/ethereum/kohaku/tree/master/packages/privacy-pools
- support: https://github.com/ethereum/kohaku/issues

## Good for

- privacy pool experimentation with association-set or proof-of-innocence concepts
- wallet teams tracking Ethereum privacy pool primitives

## Avoid for

- production token privacy integrations that require mature docs and stable package APIs today
- private voting or anonymous credential systems

## Capabilities

### ERC-20 privacy pool package (alpha)
Best for: researching compliant privacy pool flows, tracking Kohaku's privacy-pools package
- Kohaku marks @kohaku-eth/privacy-pools as WIP and the docs contain TODO sections.

## Composes with

- **kohaku** (privacy_layer; supports) — Kohaku wallet privacy work can use Privacy Pools concepts for association-set and proof-of-innocence experiments.
- **railgun** (alternative; alternative) — Railgun is a more mature private token flow, while Privacy Pools is the association-set/privacy-pool direction to track.
- **helios** (privacy_layer; supports) — Helios can complement wallet privacy experiments by reducing reliance on trusted RPC responses.

## Known issues

- **Kohaku Privacy Pools package is WIP** (medium, confirmed) — workaround: Use Privacy Pools as a research or prototype track. Prefer Railgun for mature wallet-integrated token privacy until Privacy Pools docs and package maturity improve.
  - source: https://ethereum.github.io/kohaku/llms-full.txt (retrieved 2026-06-04, high)

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Canonical: https://composewith.eth/protocols/privacy-pools · JSON: https://composewith.eth/protocols/privacy-pools.json