Shielding Tokens (Entering Private Mode)

Shield converts public tokens into private Railgun balances. As noted in 2.1, this is only available on accounts that have a recovery phrase — private-key-only imports cannot shield assets.

The Shield screen includes:

• Add recipient - the destination is always a private 0zk address, typically your own private address.

• Route selection - choose between:

  • Fast route: roughly 2 minutes, a 0.5% fee, supports receiving a different token than the one you sent, and covers roughly six chains.

  • Slow route: roughly 60 minutes, a 0.25% fee, but the recipient receives the same token that was sent, and supports fewer chains.

• You send - choose the source token and network (for example, USDC on PulseChain), within the token's minimum and maximum shieldable amount (observed as roughly 10–25,000 USDC). The token picker groups available assets by network: PulseChain, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon.

• You receive - shows the destination token labeled with a RAILGUN suffix (for example, "USDC · RAILGUN"). Available destination networks can be narrower than the source options — for USDC, only Ethereum and BNB Chain were available as receive networks during testing.

• Gasless mode - enabled by default; when enabled, the shielding fee is used to cover gas costs so you don't need a separate native token balance to complete the transaction.

• One last check - a confirmation summary showing the chosen route, gasless mode status, the resulting private RAILGUN balance, and an explicit warning to double-check the recipient address.