Concerns about privacy in decentralized finance (DeFi) have become a known factor. In response, Railgun, a cutting-edge project, is attempting to provide a solution: total privacy and anonymity when it comes to completing a cryptocurrency transaction.

The best part is that there is no trade-off in security and transparency. This means users can feel confident that their experience can be private and safe.

Technically, Railgun is a privacy protocol built on Ethereum and compatible networks. It allows users to make private transfers, trades, and engage in DeFi activities using zero-knowledge proofs.

To help you understand this project, this guide covers all the essentials of the Railgun project. This includes its native token (RAIL), the details of the token’s airdrop, and the project’s roadmap for future objectives.

What is Railgun?

Railgun is a decentralized privacy protocol that provides full anonymity when engaging in cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications on public blockchains like BNB, Ethereum, Polygon, and Arbitrum chain. Smart contracts make this possible by utilizing advanced zero-knowledge proofs like zk-SNARKs.

According to the official Railgun documentation, users can interact with DeFi services like Uniswap, Aave, or 1inch without revealing any private information, such as wallet addresses, token types, amounts, or other details pertaining to the transaction. In other words, Railgun provides the ability to transfer, trade, and stake your assets on the same blockchain without the hassle of whitelisting your assets on another blockchain.

How Does Railgun Work?

Railgun places importance on privacy and acts as a middleware protocol. It focuses on EVM-compatibile chains like Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, etc. Railgun does not work as its own separate chain or layer. It has its smart contracts integrated directly into these chains. It provides privacy through various forms of cryptography, primarily zero-knowledge proofs.  

In simple terms, users first deposit their assets into the protocol through a process known as “shielding.”

They can then engage in private transactions, such as swaps, transfers, and other DeFi interactions. This process keeps details like the sender, recipient, amount, and asset type hidden.

Finally, users can choose to withdraw their assets to a public address, which is referred to as “unshielding.”

Here are the major sub-components that make RAILGUN work:

Shielding

 This involves transferring tokens from a public address into Railgun’s “private pool”. After being shielded, the tokens will be completely removed from the public wallet flow visibility and will be included in the anon set.

Private Balances / 0zk addresses

 While using Railgun, you will hold or encounter addresses that start with 0zk and not 0x. This is your private “0zk” address linked to your public 0x wallet, and the transactions made from it show as anonymised.

UTXOs (Unspent Transaction Outputs) and Merkle Trees

The protocol manages your private balances as UTXOs. These are securely stored in an encrypted Merkle Tree, also known as an accumulator within the smart contracts. This setup allows for proofs of spending rights without disclosing the actual tokens, addresses, or amounts involved.

Broadcasters / Relay wallets

A “broadcaster” wallet, which is a private 0x address, is key to user anonymity. It effectively shields and protects a user’s identity during an on-chain transaction. As a result, outsiders only see the broadcaster’s address, while the user’s private 0zk address remains hidden.

At the core of Railgun’s privacy, however, is its zero-knowledge proof technology, particularly zk-SNARKs. This clever tech allows a user to demonstrate that a transaction is legitimate—for instance, verifying they have the right to spend certain assets. Crucially, this is all done without disclosing sensitive details like the amount, sender, or recipient.

For example, protocols use circuits to verify statements like, “I have enough balance in a private UTXO” or “I’ve completed a valid swap.” Through this process, no competing parties can see the specific private UTXO. The counterparties (the swapper or clanker) and the value involved also remain hidden.

Furthermore, Merkle Trees and accumulator schemas support this entire system. These data structures play a major role by ensuring efficient proof verification and allowing the system to represent many UTXOs in a scalable way.

Railgun Team

Emmanuel Goldstein — Founder

He founded Railgun in early 2021. He has over 10 years of experience in mobile game development and digital economy design, along with a professional background in cybersecurity for government departments.
>Goldstein is integrating zero-knowledge cryptography into decentralized finance (DeFi) to improve privacy on smart contract networks like Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Polygon. Under his leadership, Railgun has developed privacy layers that work with major DeFi applications.

Kieran Mesquita — CTO

Kieran Mesquita serves as Chief Technical Officer of Railgun. He was an early Bitcoin miner since 2010 and he has a strong technical background in consensus algorithms, cross-chain development, and cryptographic engineering.
>He previously worked as CTO at UnityChain (Taiwan) and is widely regarded for his contributions to zero-knowledge proof research within blockchain privacy systems. He makes sure that Railgun’s cryptographic architecture is efficient and fully decentralized.

Andrey Kravchenko — Project Manager

Andrey Kravchenko manages projects for Railgun. He holds a Ph.D. and an MBA in Computer Science from the University of Oxford and also has experience in mobile and web application development.

Kravchenko oversees the operational and development workflows for the project. He also acts as a liaison, connecting the decentralized members of the DAO with the non-DAO technical partners. His experience allows Railgun to continue its goal of developing privacy-enhancing tools compatible with DeFi ecosystems.

Railgun Token

Railgun protocol has its own token called Railgun Token (RAIL). It was released in early 2021 together with the Railgun ecosystem. The Railgun Token is an ERC-20 asset on Ethereum. It has bridged versions on Polygon, BNB Smart Chain, and Arbitrum. Unlike most privacy coins, RAIL does not provide anonymity for transactions but facilitates governance and community decision-making for the Railgun DAO.

RAIL features include decentralized governance, multi-chain compatibility, and active government participation.Within a DAO, holders can propose and vote on governance changes, enhancements, adjustments on the protocols, and parameters, and add or remove networks. Railgun’s multi-chain architecture allows RAIL tokens, such as RAILPOLY and RAILBSC, to interact with other blockchains and cross-chain governance.

Token holders and community members can earn governance rights after staking certain amounts. Stakeholders receive rewards in ETH, DAI, and RAIL, from the protocol treasury. These rewards focus on sustaining participation within the community as well as commitment.

Railgun Fundings

Railgun protocol began its funding journey in mid-2021, shortly after the launch of its governance token, RAIL. At early stages, support from community-supported allocations, along with grants and offerings from the Right to Privacy Foundation, assisted the project in developing the ZK (zero-knowledge) privacy framework. 

A small seed round was conducted on July 26, 2021, according to Crunchbase, although the amount raised was not publicly disclosed. These early funding efforts reflected Railgun’s decentralized ethos. This was due to the community participation with transparent treasury management governed by the DAO’s control and not traditional VC monopolization.

The project’s most notable financial milestone occurred in January 2022. Digital Currency Group (DCG) made a strategic investment totaling around $10 million into the Railgun DAO. This investment comprised both stablecoin contributions to the DAO treasury and direct token purchases. This was also indicative of a major shift. It marked the first time an institutional investor had invested in a decentralized privacy protocol rather than a centralized entity.

This investment significantly bolstered Railgun’s development capabilities, and a subsequent expansion of multi-chain integrations across Ethereum, Polygon, and BNB Smart Chain, reinforcing its mission to build privacy infrastructure for decentralized finance (DeFi).

Roadmap

Following the release of its whitepaper in July 2021, Railgun launched its on-chain privacy provision for BNB, Ethereum, and Polygon chain. This marked its entry into decentralized privacy solutions for DeFi users.In this phase, the zk-SNARK infrastructure core was built for on-line concealed transactions, concealed balance holding, and on-chain interaction.

In 2022, the team shifted protocol levels and usability with the introduction of RAILGUN v1.0. This version featured faster and smaller zk-SNARK circuits, batch transaction capabilities, and relayer support that keeps gas-payer identities hidden, ensuring stronger privacy.

Alongside these upgrades, they also expanded privacy coverage to include NFTs and other complex transaction types. Railgun’s team emphasized optimizing transaction speeds, reducing gas costs, and preparing the system for multi-chain interoperability.

A huge achievement followed with the incorporation of Railgun into the Kohaku toolkit by the Ethereum Foundation in October 2025. This recognition further affirms Railgun’s position as a pivotal privacy infrastructure within the blockchain ecosystem.

Looking to the future, RAILGUN’s roadmap focuses on expanding to more blockchains, having more seamless integrations with important DeFi protocols, and deploying more advanced zk-cryptographic circuits to enhance the efficiency and cost of privacy.

In addition, privacy cross-chain bridges, BTC compatibility, and more user-friendly designs for wallets and seamless wallet interfaces will be available. 

How To Get Railgun Airdrop?

Railgun airdrops aren’t open to everyone. Only users who have shown their support for the project by participating in its governance by staking their RAIL tokens can receive these airdrops.

Take, for example, how Railgun began distribution of airdrops while expanding to BNB Chain and Polygon in 2021. 

Supporters who held and staked $RAIL tokens for the $RAILBSC launch on BNB Chain received airdrops of $RAILBSC tokens. The longer users stake their $RAIL tokens, the more $RAILBSC tokens they gain.

For Polygon ($RAILPoly), a snapshot of all staked $RAIL tokens took place on October 10, 2021. Following this, stakers received a 1:1 reward. This means they received 1 $RAILPOLY for every $RAIL token they had staked.

How To Withdraw Airdrop From Railgun?

There are no clear guidelines on how to withdraw airdrop from Railgun. 

What Is the Date of Railgun TGE?

The project’s TGE took place in January 2021.

Railgun Review: Final Thoughts

Railgun makes a large addition to potentially new advancements in decentralized finance privacy. This is made possible by combining zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs) with Ethereum’s smart contracts. This allows users to do private transactions, swaps, and other DeFi activities without exposing a wallet address or transaction value on the public blockchain. The official token ($RAIL) encourages active governance, sustains the protocol and features privacy adoption.

Included in their roadmap are plans for multiple cross-chain expansion, inclusion of features like Proof of Innocence, and a more deeper integration into DeFi. RAIL airdrops are community driven, aiming to incentivize early supporters and promote active governance participation.

Advantages 

On-Chain Privacy: Railgun lets users create private transactions and participate in DeFi activities on EVM based blockchains.

Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Railgun uses a special technology known as zero-knowledge proofs and this hides information like who received, sent money, the type of currency, and the amount, while still proving that the transaction is valid.

Full DeFi Compatibility: This solution works seamlessly with popular DeFi platforms such as Uniswap and Aave, enabling users to swap currencies and lend money privately.

Selective Transparency: Users can utilize features like viewing keys and a concept called Proof of Innocence, which allows them to show that their funds are legitimate without disclosing any private information.

Decentralized & Non-Custodial: Your funds remain completely under your control because there’s no central authority or intermediary that handles your funds. This ensures your financial privacy and security.

Disadvantages 

Regulatory Concerns: Privacy technologies often attract regulatory attention because regulators worry that people might use them for illegal activities.

User Experience Challenges: People who aren’t tech-savvy often find advanced privacy features like special addresses and proof systems complicated and confusing.

Cost Issues: It takes a lot of computing power and this makes it expensive.

Limited Use: The level of privacy offered by these tools depends on how many people are using them; if there are only a few users, the privacy protection is weaker.

Compliance Challenges: Even when there are ways to prove someone is innocent, financial institutions and regulated platforms may still be reluctant to adopt full privacy solutions due to compliance issues.