The problem CrypticCloak ( Stealth Micro Rollup ) solves

One of Ethereum's major challenges is privacy, as the default setting on public blockchains exposes everything to the public. This includes not only financial transactions but also assets like POAPs and NFTs. Utilizing Ethereum applications implies making a substantial part of one's life public, raising concerns about privacy invasion in various scenarios:

User Spending Patterns:
Transparent blockchain ledgers enable network analysis, potentially uncovering spending patterns and user behaviors. This openness poses concerns for specific account holders, especially institutional investors or those prioritizing financial privacy.

Dust Attacks:
Dust attacks aim to de-anonymize cryptocurrency users by sending small amounts to multiple wallet addresses. Attackers trace these funds, mapping out a user's transaction history. This information allows for more precise phishing attempts or various forms of fraud.

Fungibility Challenges:
Fungibility, essential for any currency, faces hurdles in traditional cryptocurrencies when coins are linked to illicit activities or possess a tainted transaction history.

The fundamental issue across all the mentioned challenges lies in the public exposure of data on the blockchain.CrypticCloak solves this by providing an infrastructure that lets one end of the transaction be masked.CrypticCloak can also be used over any EVM-compatible chains by providing an interoperable and robust solution.

1. Providing an off-chain yet verifiable single-point registry for all EVM-compatible chains.
2. Instead of using heavy computation zk computations, CrypticCloak just uses cryptographic computations that help reduce gas and execution time, while providing the same level of privacy.
3. Users identities cannot be backtracked and even if it can be, it will be meaningless.
4. CrypticCloak is based on a micro rollup, which helps to use the consensus layer and security of Ethereum on any L2 or EVM-compatible chains.

Challenges we ran into

Our project faced a couple of tough spots. Firstly, understanding stealth addresses was like cracking a code – not easy for regular folks. There weren't many examples, and we had to work with one written in Rust. It took us a good amount of time, but honestly, it was kinda fun figuring it out.

Then there's the Micro Rollups thing. It's a new concept, and we were like the first pioneers using the Stackr SDK. Dealing with how things are set up – like managing states, State Machine, and Transport functions in TypeScript – was a bit tricky at first. Luckily, the Stackr team had our backs. We ended up creating a micro rollup that acts like a hub for Verifiable Registration and Stealth Transaction announcements. And get this – it works across different L2s without any issues and no setup whatsover needed , thanks to Ethereum's security. It's like making sure transactions are safe and sound in different Layer 2 worlds.