Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said he has bundled zkAPI, Tor, extra cover traffic and local LLM prompt rewriting into an OpenAI-compatible daemon, then built a "paranoid mode" wrapper for his AI agent framework. In this setup, each conversation gets its own Tor circuit, requests are hidden by randomized cover traffic, and zkAPI is used so users do not reveal their identity through payments. Buterin said all prompts are rewritten by a user-supplied local model before being sent out, and noted that he is using qwen3.8-flash-next.
He said the system is already fairly usable, though latency is high, especially when starting a new conversation. Buterin also cautioned that Tor is far from ideal for privacy. While the cover traffic design can defend against passive attackers, its protections weaken sharply if an LLM provider colludes with a Tor entry node and actively manipulates timing. He said that scenario would require a more specialized mixnet. Separately, Buterin added that gas costs for zkAPI deposits and withdrawals will drop substantially, with the related update set to go live on mainnet soon.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said on X that he has combined zkAPI, Tor, extra cover traffic and local LLM prompt rewriting into a daemon that is compatible with the OpenAI API, then built a "paranoid mode" wrapper for his AI agent framework.
How the privacy mode works
According to Buterin, each conversation under this mode is assigned a separate Tor circuit. Requests are obscured with randomized cover traffic, while zkAPI is used to make sure users do not leak their identity through payments. All prompts are rewritten first by a user-provided local model before being sent onward.
Buterin said the local model he uses is qwen3.8-flash-next.
Usable, but with trade-offs
Buterin said the setup is already fairly usable. Still, it comes with high latency, especially when a new conversation is created.
He also said Tor is far from an ideal privacy tool. The cover traffic mechanism can defend against passive attackers, but the protection weakens significantly if an LLM service provider colludes with a Tor entry node and actively manipulates timing. For that kind of threat model, he said a more specialized mixnet would be needed.
zkAPI mainnet update is coming
Separately, Buterin said gas fees for zkAPI deposits and withdrawals will be reduced substantially, and the related update will go live on mainnet soon.
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