Are you into Crypto? Everything you need to know about Tornado Cash and its new upgrade.

We've all been anticipating the transition to Version 3 (v3) for Ethereum Mixer, Tornado Cash.

Well guess what? Tornado Cash has rewarded our patience by announcing the launch of Tornado Cash Nova just 16 days to the end of 2021.

This upgrade comes with remarkable features like improved user experience and expanded protocol functionalities.

Prior to this upgrade, Tornado Cash functions were that tokens are first withdrawn so as to transfer the custody of deposited funds.

But now? We have shielded transfers of tokens made possible even while staying within the pool itself. It means that you can transfer a CHOSEN amount of tokens to another address without having to withdraw them from the pool.

And that's not all.

Did you see the word 'chosen' written in block letters?

The meaning goes beyond what you just thought. It is connotative.

It means that part of the new function is that you can deposit and withdraw arbitrary amounts of Ethereum (ETH). Read that again.

This is a beta version.

What you need to know about Tornado Cash

First, we don't want to assume that all of our readers know what Tornado Cash is all about. So we'd be running a brief review on it.

Tornado Cash is a fully decentralized protocol for private transactions on Ethereum. It is known to improve the privacy of transactions by just breaking the on-chain links amongst destination and source addresses.

Why is Tornado Cash popular?

Cryptocurrencies use cryptography-- which allows its users not to worry about security and blockchain technologies. Blockchain technology is used to manage and record transactions made by users.

Several blockchain projects have attempted to resolve this issue of anonymity. As a matter of fact, popular coins like Dogecoin, Baby Doge, Binance coin and lot of coins all have their transactions visible and accessible to the public.

This means that anyone can track anyone's transaction history.

While several projects have failed, Tornado Cash seems to have resolved the problem of anonymity and privacy.

Users can now do transactions without any fear of their personal data or transaction history being traced.

The coin is completely owned and governed by its community and it has its own token called TORN.

TORN?

TORN was founded in February 2021 as a means of Tornado Cash owning its own token.

TORN is the governance token of the Tornado Cash platform. TORN holders can vote and create proposals for them to change the protocols.

By voting or creating a governance proposal, all the TORN tokens being deposited cannot be utilized before the end of the proposal’s execution time frame.

To develop a governance proposal, it will require a minimum of a thousand TORN tokens.

For proposals to be executed by governance contracts, they are required to have a verified smart contract.

Each proposal has just a three day voting period with a simple majority to pass which is a quorum of 250,000 tokens.

In May 2020, the founder, Zcash, and the developers team made this adjustment. Thereby, surrendering ownership to the community.

How Tornado Cash works?

To achieve privacy and anonymity, Tornado Cash makes use of three functions: Deposit, Wait and Withdraw.

• Deposit

A user generates a random key (note) and deposits Ether or an ERC20, along with submitting a hash of the note to the Tornado Cash smart contract.

• Wait

After depositing, users should wait some amount of time before withdrawing to improve their privacy.

• Withdraw

A user submits a proof of having the valid key to one of the notes deposited and the contract transfers Ether or the ERC20 to a specified recipient.

How about the new Upgrade Function?

The Upgraded Tornado Cash, Nova has three different sections. Fund, Transfer and Withdraw.

• Fund

This section allows you to deposit ETH into your new pool.

Unlike the previous version, there is no predefined amount. You can determine the amount you want to transfer bearing in mind that the limit is 1 ETH.

Although, the community can decide to extend this limit through the governing process.

You'd connect your wallet address through DApp. Your Wallet Address will be seen as your default Shielded Address. You can do shielded transfers and check your shielded balance afterwards.

Other addresses must be registered under Tornado Nova before a transaction can take place.

• Transfer

In this section, shielded transfers can be done to any account within the pool so far as it is registered under Tornado Cash Nova.

How can I transfer?

Click the transfer section.

Type in the token amount of ETH you want to transfer.

Type your recipient's address. Remember that the recipient must be registered under Tornado Cash Nova.

Select transfer method. There are two transaction methods which are relayer or wallet. Relayer seems to be more safe because a wallet can leave traces of your transaction history.

Then click on transfer.

Withdraw

The "Withdraw" section helps you to maintain your privacy after the transaction.

This is done by a predefined amount.

This means that you can withdraw either 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 ETH inorder for your fund history to mix with the crowd.

No blockchain is entirely pseudonymous.

Your transaction can be traced to you based on your predicted amount of transaction but a uniform withdrawal will leave no trace behind.

Check Tornado Cash Nova for the process.

Other informations about Tornado Cash Nova:

Tornado Cash Nova will make use of Gnosis Chain as a Layer-2. This is to enable all relatable transactions to be cheaper and faster.

Gnosis Chain is formerly referred to as xDai chain. It provides stability, scalability and an upcoming Beacon Chain canary network for Ethereum.

The Gnosis Chain is a stable payments EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) blockchain designed for fast and inexpensive transactions. It uses a dual token model.

Conclusion

Tornado Cash has been trying to solve the issues other cryptocurrencies had failed to resolve through its unique privacy feature.

There are other added features but the most recent is the Nova version.

It's quite surprising how Tornado Cash has evolved even in the midst of other coins' failure.

But knowing that this is just a build-up to a widely anticipated v3 is super exciting.

Although, it is almost certain that v3 will only be available after we've transitioned into 2022.

The exact timeline for the transition has not been made public. But while we wait for the upgrade, we can enjoy this latest upgrade, Tornado Cash Nova.