GhostPay

Privacy Infrastructure for the Agent Economy

The missing privacy layer for x402 payments and ERC-8004 agents on Base

Light Paper · Documentation · Examples

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The Problem

AI agents transact $50M+ through x402 payments on Base — all publicly visible. Every agent's strategy, spending pattern, and business relationships are exposed on-chain. GhostPay fixes this.

The Solution

GhostPay brings Railgun-level privacy to Base's agent economy:

• ZK-UTXO Architecture — Groth16 proofs, Poseidon hashing, encrypted amounts
• Circuit-Level Fee — Protocol fee enforced at ZK circuit level on ALL transactions
• View Tags — 50x note scanning optimization with 1-byte Poseidon-based pre-filtering
• x402 Native — Drop-in middleware + GhostPay Facilitator for any x402 server
• Hybrid Relayer — Self-relay or external relay modes — agents need zero ETH
• ERC-8004 Compatible — Verifiable agents, private payments
• Agent-First SDK — Privacy payments with the ShieldedWallet API

import { ShieldedWallet } from 'ghostpay-sdk';
import { ethers } from 'ethers';

const provider = new ethers.JsonRpcProvider(RPC_URL);
const signer = new ethers.Wallet(PRIVATE_KEY, provider);

const wallet = new ShieldedWallet({
  provider,
  signer,
  poolAddress: '0x17B6209385c2e36E6095b89572273175902547f9',
  usdcAddress: '0x036CbD53842c5426634e7929541eC2318f3dCF7e',
  circuitDir: './circuits/build',
});
await wallet.initialize();
await wallet.deposit(10_000_000n);  // 10 USDC -> shielded

Architecture

+-----------------------------------+
|  Agent Frameworks                 |
|  (Virtuals, ElizaOS, GAME)       |
+-----------------------------------+
|  ERC-8004: Identity + Trust       |
+-----------------------------------+
|  GhostPay: Privacy Layer          |
|  (ZK-UTXO + Facilitator)         |
+-----------------------------------+
|  x402: Payment Protocol           |
+-----------------------------------+
|  Base L2                          |
+-----------------------------------+

Privacy Model

What	Visible?
Payment amount	Hidden (encrypted + ZK)
Payment recipient	Hidden (stealth addresses)
Payment sender	Hidden (nullifier-based)
Transaction links	Broken (UTXO model)
Agent identity	Public (ERC-8004)

Quick Start

For API Providers (Server)

Add private payments to your x402 API with the V4 middleware:

import express from 'express';
import { ghostPaywallV4 } from 'ghostpay-sdk/x402';

const app = express();

app.use('/api/weather', ghostPaywallV4({
  poolAddress: '0x17B6209385c2e36E6095b89572273175902547f9',
  usdcAddress: '0x036CbD53842c5426634e7929541eC2318f3dCF7e',
  signer,          // ethers.Signer for on-chain relay
  price: '1000000' // 1 USDC (6 decimals)
}));

app.get('/api/weather', (req, res) => {
  res.json({ temp: 22, city: 'Istanbul' });
});

// External relay mode — server doesn't pay gas, no ETH needed
app.use('/api/weather', ghostPaywallV4({
  poolAddress: '0x17B6209385c2e36E6095b89572273175902547f9',
  usdcAddress: '0x036CbD53842c5426634e7929541eC2318f3dCF7e',
  mode: 'external-relay',
  relayerUrl: 'https://relay.ghostpay.xyz',
  price: '1000000'
}));

For Agent Developers (Client)

import { ShieldedWallet } from 'ghostpay-sdk';
import { ghostFetchV4, createGhostFetchV4 } from 'ghostpay-sdk/x402';

// Initialize wallet
const wallet = new ShieldedWallet({ provider, signer, poolAddress, usdcAddress, circuitDir });
await wallet.initialize();
await wallet.syncTree();

// Deposit once
await wallet.deposit(10_000_000n);  // 10 USDC

// Private API payment (x402 flow: 402 -> ZK proof -> private payment -> 200)
const fetch = createGhostFetchV4(wallet);
const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/weather');

Project Structure

ghostpay/
├── contracts/          # Solidity — ShieldedPoolV4, Verifiers, PoseidonHasher, StealthRegistry
│   ├── src/            # Contract source files
│   └── test/           # Foundry tests (111 tests)
├── circuits/           # Circom — JoinSplit (1x2, 2x2) with protocolFee
│   ├── src/            # Circuit source
│   └── build/          # Compiled circuits + verification keys
├── sdk/                # TypeScript SDK
│   ├── src/v4/         # UTXO engine, encryption, stealth, view tags
│   ├── src/x402/       # x402 middleware + client + relayer + facilitator
│   ├── src/erc8004/    # ERC-8004 integration helpers
│   └── src/utils/      # Logger, crypto utilities
├── app/                # Demo web app (Next.js 14)
├── examples/           # Integration examples
│   ├── virtuals-integration/
│   ├── eliza-plugin/
│   ├── express-server/
│   ├── basic-transfer/
│   └── erc8004-integration/
├── scripts/            # Deploy, test fixtures, E2E scripts
└── docs/               # Protocol documentation
    ├── LIGHTPAPER.md
    ├── PROTOCOL.md
    ├── CIRCUITS.md
    ├── STEALTH.md
    ├── TODO.md
    ├── ROADMAP.md
    └── POI-ROADMAP.md

Contracts (Base Sepolia)

Contract	Address	Verified
ShieldedPoolV4	0x17B6209385c2e36E6095b89572273175902547f9	Yes
Groth16Verifier_1x2	0xe473aF953d269601402DEBcB2cc899aB594Ad31e	Yes
Groth16Verifier_2x2	0x10D5BB24327d40c4717676E3B7351D76deb33848	Yes
PoseidonHasher	0x3ae70C9741a9959fA32bC9BC09959d3d319Ee3Cd	Yes

Deploy block: 38256581

Testing

# Foundry tests (contracts — 111 tests)
cd contracts && forge test -vvv

# SDK tests (TypeScript — 101 tests)
cd sdk && pnpm test

# Relayer tests (5 tests)
cd sdk && pnpm test -- --grep relayer

# Run E2E on Base Sepolia
PRIVATE_KEY=0x... npx ts-node scripts/e2e-base-sepolia.ts

Total: 217 tests (111 Foundry + 101 SDK + 5 Relayer)

Fee Structure

Fee	Amount	Recipient
Protocol fee	max(0.1%, $0.01)	Treasury
Relayer fee	$0.01-0.05/TX	Server operator / Relayer
Facilitator fee	$0.01-0.05/TX	GhostPay facilitator

Protocol fees apply to ALL transactions including private transfers (circuit-level enforcement). Agents operate with USDC only — no ETH funding required when using external relayer.

Roadmap

Phase	Status	Features
V4.3	✅ Complete	ZK-UTXO, x402 middleware, stealth, protocol fees, BSL-1.1
V4.4	✅ Complete	Circuit-level fee, view tags, hybrid relayer, facilitator, ERC-8004 L1
V4.5	🔨 Building	Facilitator deploy, ERC-8004 L2, POI, ceremony, audit, mainnet
V5	📋 Planned	Decentralized relayers, ZK reputation, multi-token

Full roadmap

Documentation

Document	Description
Light Paper	Vision, architecture, revenue model
Protocol	Technical protocol specification
Circuits	ZK circuit design and constraints
Stealth	Stealth address system
Trusted Setup	Trusted setup ceremony guide
POI Roadmap	Proof of Innocence design
Audit Report	Internal audit findings
TODO	Development task tracker
Roadmap	Visual roadmap and milestones

Integration Examples

Example	Description
Virtuals Integration	Add GhostPay to Virtuals agents
ElizaOS Plugin	ElizaOS action plugin
Express Server	Privacy paywall middleware
Basic Transfer	Deposit -> transfer -> withdraw
ERC-8004 Integration	Agent registration + payment proof

Security

• 3 internal security audits completed (46+ findings resolved)
• 217 tests passing (111 Foundry + 101 SDK + 5 Relayer)
• Professional audit planned pre-mainnet
• Bug reports: security@ghostpay.xyz

License

Licensed under Business Source License 1.1.

Use	Allowed?
Read and audit code	Yes
Deploy on testnets	Yes
Personal/non-commercial	Yes
Academic research	Yes
Security research	Yes
Contribute	Yes
Commercial mainnet deployment	License required
Commercial hosted service	License required

Converts to GPL-2.0 on March 1, 2028.

For commercial licensing: license@ghostpay.xyz

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Built for Base Batches Season 3

Privacy infrastructure for the next generation of autonomous agents.