Vitalik Buterin unveils privacy focused AI agent using Tor and zkAPI

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has developed an open-source privacy system for AI agents that combines Tor routing, anonymous payments and locally processed prompts to reduce the exposure of user information when accessing large language models. Summary Vitalik Buterin has developed an open source AI privacy system that combines Tor routing, zkAPI payments and local prompt rewriting. Each AI conversation uses a separate Tor circuit, with random cover traffic added to make requests harder to track. The system runs through an OpenAI compatible interface and uses sandbox restrictions to route network activity through Tor. Buterin said the setup was becoming usable but acknowledged slower response times and weaknesses against coordinated traffic analysis. He expects cheaper zkAPI deposit and withdrawal costs on Ethereum mainnet, although no deployment date has been confirmed. In an X post, Buterin said he had built a “paranoid mode” for his AI agent harness, pi, using zkAPI, random cover traffic and a local language model to rewrite requests before they reach an external AI provider. Wrapped zkAPI + Tor + extra cover traffic + local LLM prompt rewriting in an open-AI compatible da...