Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has introduced a demo version of an anonymous message board with moderation for the L2 network Aztec. The project's source code has been published on GitHub.

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 19, 2026

The prototype is based on the concept of an anonymous moderated platform that Buterin described in 2022. He referred to this development as a "toy version" created in a vibe-coding mode.

"This is an early stage, but already very interesting and non-trivial things can be done," he wrote.

Users deposit ETH through a smart contract on the Ethereum mainnet, allowing them to publish messages on Aztec. Funds can later be withdrawn back to L1.

The address and deposit amount remain public. Withdrawals also reveal the recipient's wallet on Ethereum. However, messages do not contain the sender's address in the public data and are not linked to the original deposit.

Source: GitHub.

The anonymity group includes all users who have deposited funds but have not yet withdrawn them. Thus, the claimed privacy pertains to the publications, not all system operations. The frequency of publications depends on the deposit size.

With a base delay of 3600 seconds, the following parameters apply:

  • 0.001 ETH — one message per hour;
  • 0.005 ETH — five messages per hour;
  • 0.01 ETH — ten messages per hour.

Unused limits can be partially accumulated and then spent on multiple consecutive publications. A repeat deposit does not bypass the limit: a new initial delay is set for it.

When deploying the contract, a moderator address is assigned. In the code, this role is referred to as "censor." The owner can mark messages as violating established policy, after which they are hidden from the main feed, but users can access them through a separate warning. The author receives an additional delay before their next message.

Source: GitHub.

The severity of the penalty depends on a coefficient set during contract deployment. Moderator rights can be transferred to another address.

The text of the policy is stored on-chain and is limited to 1488 bytes. It is used by the user interface, the moderator application, and the command-line tool. For automatic verification, a local daemon with a large language model is provided. It monitors new publications, compares them with the policy, and sends a mark to the smart contract.

The system operates through llama.cpp and by default uses Qwen3.5-2B in a compressed format of about 1.4 GB. The model runs locally and does not access external APIs.

By default, the right to mark publications is assigned to one address. This can be transferred to another owner, including a multi-signature wallet or a decentralized autonomous organization, but the protocol does not automatically distribute powers.

The repository is in an early stage and does not contain ready releases. Some browser scripts are still untested. One known issue concerns the update_portal() function — currently, any user can trigger it first and specify a spoofed address.

This could block the contract and render it unusable. According to the documentation, the issue affects system availability but does not allow for fund theft.

Developers also need to strengthen end-to-end proofs, test the interface in the browser, and address other technical limitations.

Recall that in April 2025, Buterin stated that privacy is the foundation of personal freedom and decentralization, protecting society.

Later, he introduced the open-source project Kohaku, which creates a modular stack for developing secure wallets with enhanced privacy.