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Key usage tips

How to get Sepolia ETH for using Nyx (preview)

We sponsor the transactions of your Aztec private account. However, using Nyx (preview) requires that you call our test token faucets with your Ethreum account and then transfer those tokens to your Aztec private account. These actions require a small amount of (free) Sepolia ETH for their gas fees. Here are some good Sepolia ETH faucets:
  1. Google Cloud Web3 faucet gives you 0.05 Sepolia ETH per day.
  2. Alchemy Sepolia faucet gives you 0.1 Sepolia ETH every 72 hours but requires that you have at least 0.001 ETH in your Mainnet address.
  3. Quicknode faucet gives you 0.4 Sepolia ETH every 12 hours but requires you to have at least 0.001 ETH in your Mainnet address

Ensure passkey availability

Your passkeys encrypt and decrypt your Aztec account secret. To ensure that only you have control and visibility of your funds, we have no way of recovering your account access if you lose your passkeys.
If you lose all your passkeys, you can’t view or use your private funds. Please ensure your passkey availability by:
  1. Using a synced passkey (iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager, etc)
  2. Enrolling backup passkeys on multiple devices.

Common questions

Privacy

What is publicly visible onchain?

Any transactions originating from or sent to an Ethereum account are visible in Ethereum explorers, including the Ethereum account address and information about the tokens involved. However, your Aztec private account address is never revealed in such transactions. Aztec private account activity takes place as transactions on the Aztec blockchain, as explained in our technical overview. Sends between Aztec private accounts reveal no public information. Ethereum vault deposits and withdrawals, initiated by your Aztec private account, have a Nyx relayer as the sender address and show token type and amount. Again, there is no visible link to your Aztec private account address. However, if you transfer 1.034567 ETH from your Ethereum account into your Aztec private account and shortly thereafter a Nyx relayer deposits 1.034567 ETH into an Ethereum vault, people may suspect that your Ethereum account is connected to the vault deposit. So, you may wish to wait a bit between these actions and/or break your deposit into multiple parts depending on the level of Nyx vault traffic at the time. Public visibility by action type
ActionPublicly-visible on AztecPublicly-visible on Ethereum
Transfer from Ethereum to your Aztec private account.Information about the tokens involved. Your Aztec private account address is not revealed.Your Ethereum account address and information about the tokens involved.
Send on Aztec.Nothing. Only the other party knows what happened.N/A
Deposit into an Ethereum vault from your Aztec private account.Information about the tokens involved. Your Aztec private account address is not revealed.Nyx relayer as sender for a transaction that deposits publicly visible token type and amount into a vault contract. You should, however, consider the timing and size of your vault deposits so people don’t assume it’s linked to the Ethereum account that made the Nyx deposit (see paragraph directly above the table).
Redeem shares in an Ethereum vault.Information about the tokens involved. Your Aztec private account address is not revealed.Nyx relayer as sender for a transaction that redeems shares for a publicly visible token type and amount.
Send from your Aztec private account to an Ethereum account address.Information about the tokens involved. Your Aztec private account address is not revealed.The Ethereum account address and information about the tokens involved.

Tokens

What coins and tokens does Nyx (preview) support?

For our initial preview, Nyx uses test coins and tokens we’ve deployed to Sepolia. These have no real-world value or compatibility with DeFi apps and won’t be used in the Mainnet version of our app. We show a price and value for them only to simulate what Nyx will look like with established, verified coins and tokens.
CoinShare token you recieve for depositing the coin into its corresponding Earn vault (Investment)Description
nUSDCsnUSDCNyx USDC (nUSDC) is our stand-in for USDC. Nyx USDC Vault Share (snUSDC) represents vault shares received for lending nUSDC via our Earn feature. They have no value and are just for simulating the Mainnet experience.
nETHsnETHNyx ETH (nETH) is our stand-in for ETH. Nyx ETH Vault Share (snETH) represents vault shares received for lending nETH via our Earn feature. They have no value and are just for simulating the Mainnet experience.
nBTCsnBTCNyx BTC (nBTC) is our stand-in wrapped BTC. Nyx BTC Vault Share (snBTC) represents vault shares received for lending nBTC via our Earn feature. They have no value and are just for simulating the Mainnet experience.

Wallets and passkeys

Can I use a hardware wallet?

Yes, with the following requirements:
  1. An Ethereum Sepolia account goverened by your hardware wallet (with Ledger, this requires enabling developer mode so that you can create testnet accounts).
  2. Sepolia ETH in that account (see recommended faucets).
  3. Blind signing enabled (we are actively working on supporting clear signing).
Then:
  1. Use the WalletConnect option to connect your wallet app (e.g. Ledger Wallet) to app.nyx.money.
  2. Use your wallet app + hardware wallet to sign transactions.

What is my passkey used for?

We store a limited amount of data on our backend so that you can use Nyx across devices - things like your contacts and any active transaction claim secrets. For your protection, we use a passkey security feature to encrypt this data in your browser before sending it to our backend, meaning we only store an encrypted version we cannot read. It can only be read once it’s sent back to your browser and is decrypted with the same passkey. This passkey feature is called the “PRF extension,” and this blog post gives a good overview of how it works.

What passkey options are supported?

The passkey security feature we use to protect your data - see section directly above - isn’t supported everywhere yet. In the tables below, we show what we’ve confirmed works. We haven’t been able to test all popular options yet, so if something is missing from the tables it may work. We’ll do more testing and expand our tables over time. Mac OS 26 (Tahoe)
BrowserSynced passkey optionsDevice-bound passkey options
ChromeiCloud, Google Password Manager, 1PasswordLedger Security Key app, YubiKey 5
SafariiCloud, 1Password-
FirefoxiCloud, 1Password-
We did not test all options so others may work as well. Windows 11
BrowserSynced passkey optionsDevice-bound passkey options
ChromeGoogle Password ManagerLedger Security Key app, YubiKey 5
EdgeMicrosoft Password ManagerLedger Security Key app, YubiKey 5
Firefox-Ledger Security Key app, YubiKey 5
We did not test all options so others may work as well. Other OSes
  • We have not yet tested with Linux but plan to. Generally, Chrome had the best PRF support on the platforms we tested so you may want to start there.
  • Nyx does not currently work with iPadOS, iOS, or Android. We are currently not designing our UI to support mobile device use. We are focused on desktop use and will expand to support mobile over time, once we’ve refined our desktop UX.

Transfers and sends

Why do I have to claim the funds I transfer to my Aztec private account?

To protect your privacy. If your Aztec private account address was included in a transaction on Ethereum, it would be publicly linked to the actions and other account(s) involved in that transaction. The use of a claim secret for recieving tokens with your Aztec private account prevents this linkage. For your convenience, our app automatically stores any unused claim secrets so you don’t need to remember them. To ensure that only you have control and visibility of your funds, we end-to-end encrypt this data and it can only be decrypted with your passkey, which we do not control.

Why do I have to share my Aztec private account address when sending funds on Aztec?

The recipient must add your address to their contact list in order to discover your private send and decrypt the transaction details. This is a feature of Aztec private accounts to ensure that only the sender and receiver can see the transaction details.

Earn

How does Earn work?

In the Mainnet version of Nyx we’ll deposit your tokens into, and withdrawl them from, an Ethereum lending protocol using a relayer as the sender. This Ethereum activity will not expose your Aztec private account address so you can earn yield on your tokens in private. For our current preview, we created test vaults on Sepolia to simulate this process. The simulated earnings in our test vaults do not correspond to projected earnings for Mainnet and are set artificially high to show quicker change for testing purposes.

Why do I have to claim my vault shares after depositing, and my coins after redeeming?

For the same reason as when you transfer from your Ethereum account to your Aztec private account.