One of the interesting things about PIVX is your power of choice. You can decide to transact publicly, like Bitcoin, or privately, using its advanced SHIELD protocol. Unlike many other cryptocurrencies, where transactions are fully transparent, SHIELD leverages zero-knowledge proofs to break the link between sender and receiver, ensuring your transaction amounts and balances remain completely private.
This tutorial will guide you through the process of taking your public PIV coins and turning them into private coins (aka “SHIELDING”), and then sending them privately.
Types of PIVX Transactions
Broadly speaking, there are two types of PIVX transactions — transparent and private. But technically, there are actually three types: fully transparent, semi-private, and fully private (SHIELDED).
Both the sender’s and receiver’s details are public for everyone to see in a fully transparent transaction. In a semi-private transaction, either the sender’s or receiver’s address is hidden. And you guessed right, both the sender’s and receiver’s details stay completely hidden in a fully private transaction.
Fun Fact: Did you know that sending funds from a transparent PIVX address to a private one is known as Shielding? This is similar to putting your PIVX coins into an invisibility cloak. The reverse process is known as De-Shielding.
Shielding Your PIV (Public to Private)
Shielding involves transferring your PIV from a transparent address to a private one. This process “shreds” the public transaction history and turns your PIV into private, Shielded balances. Here are the steps involved in Shielding.
- Open your PIVX Core Wallet or MyPIVXWallet and click on the “Send” tab. The UI varies depending on the wallet you are using.
- Input the recipient’s shielded PIVX address. Note that shielded addresses start with a “ps” prefix while transparent addresses start with a “D”. For instance, this is what my private address looks like: ps1plde029yqszv9du7el8nyw0ynu0yamp5yc9h9v966a9s25umsz6aqnr7fts9yfjaheex566cphn
Enter the amount you’d like to send and click on the “Send” button.
If you are shielding your own coins, you will send them to your own shielded address, effectively moving them from the transparent side of your wallet to the private side.
Sending a Fully Private (SHIELDED) Transaction
Once your PIV coins are in your shielded balance, you can send a transaction that is completely private. This means the amount, the sender’s balance, and the receiver’s balance are all hidden on the blockchain. The steps are basically the same as what you have above. However, you need to switch to the private side of things.
Click on the “Shielded” tab if you are using the PIVX Core Wallet or “Switch to Private” if you are on MPW.
Written by Clement Saudu
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