Starknet has launched Shadow Accounts, allowing users to interact with decentralized finance applications without publicly linking these activities to their main wallets. The feature creates separate, persistent on-chain addresses for individual applications.
Users fund Shadow Accounts using shielded balances held in Starknet's STRK20 privacy pool. This mechanism obscures the direct connection between the funding wallet and the specific DeFi activities conducted through the Shadow Account.
All balances, transactions, and positions maintained by Shadow Accounts remain publicly visible on the Starknet blockchain. The feature provides identity-layer privacy, not full transaction obfuscation.
Once integrated into a DeFi application, users can connect their wallets, switch to private mode, and deposit assets into a vault. Shadow Accounts then manage these positions until the user withdraws funds back into a shielded balance within the STRK20 privacy pool.
StarkWare said the functionality could expand beyond vault deposits to include liquidity provision, lending, borrowing, staking, derivatives trading, prediction markets, and NFT marketplaces.
The launch extends StarkWare's privacy work. In June, the company introduced its STRK20 privacy framework, enabling private transfers and shielded token balances directly on Starknet. Later in June, StarkWare demonstrated a Private Know Your Customer system that allowed users to verify personal information without revealing full identity documents on-chain.
