Ethereum Foundation Launches zkAPI, Enabling Anonymous Payment of AI API Fees

Odaily News: The Ethereum Foundation has announced that zkAPI, jointly developed with the Open Anonymity Project, is now running on the Ethereum mainnet. The solution separates payment from identity through zero-knowledge proofs, allowing users to deposit ETH, USDC, and other assets into a vault contract in a single transaction and authorize AI API usage quotas without revealing their identity.

Service providers can view request content but cannot know the payer's identity, while the payment service provider can only see the amount spent and cannot associate it with specific requests or users. zkAPI is initially aimed at AI inference scenarios and can also be used for pay-as-you-go scenarios such as blockchain RPC, image and video generation.