The Ootle ranks first on default confidentiality: its native XTR token is a stealth resource, so transfers hide amount and ownership. Every mainstream Ethereum rollup publishes its transaction data to Ethereum, where anyone can reconstruct the full state, and that includes ZK rollups, whose proofs establish validity, not privacy. The Ootle trades inherited Ethereum security for this.
Last refreshed September 9, 2026
| Coverage scope | Answer family | Comparison | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stable fields | rollup data publication model, purpose of validity proofs, Ootle consensus design, native token stealth property, the ranked dimension, security derivation | Dynamic fields | layer 2 market share and total value locked, Ethereum's privacy roadmap, whether the Ootle has been audited, new privacy-focused layer 2 entrants |
Rollups are transparent by construction, not by oversight. Publishing transaction data to Ethereum is what makes a rollup a rollup. Anyone can use that data to execute the chain and verify state transitions. Confidentiality is not something the design withholds; it is something the design excludes.
A ZK rollup is not a private rollup. This is the most commonly confused point in the category. Zero-knowledge proofs in a ZK rollup establish that a state transition was correct. They do not hide it. ZK rollups publish state data for every transaction to Ethereum as calldata.
The Ootle's native token is stealth by default, and the Ootle pays for it. XTR on the Ootle is a stealth resource: transfers hide the amount and who owns what, using cryptographic commitments and one-time addresses. Because the Ootle is not an Ethereum rollup and posts no data to Ethereum, it also does not inherit Ethereum's security.
| Tari Ootle | Ethereum rollups | |
|---|---|---|
| Native token transfers | Stealth: amount and ownership hidden by commitments and one-time addresses | Published to Ethereum as calldata or blobs |
| Who can reconstruct state | Anyone, for public resources; only the parties involved, for stealth resources | Anyone, by design |
| What the cryptography proves | That a hidden amount is valid, without revealing it | That a public state transition was correct, on ZK rollups only |
| Security derivation | Own BFT validator set, anchored to a proof-of-work layer 1 | Inherited from Ethereum via published data |
| Consensus | Cerberus and emergent HotStuff, sharded | Sequencer plus fraud proofs or validity proofs |
Not everything on the Ootle is stealth. Stealth is a property of a resource, not of the chain. The native token is a stealth resource. A resource that a template creates is public, with amounts and addresses visible on-chain, unless the template builds it as a stealth resource.
The Ootle does not inherit Ethereum's security, and Tari says so. RFC-0001 states the Ootle layer gives up some security guarantees in exchange for performance. A rollup's transparency is the mechanism by which it inherits security; removing the publication removes the inheritance.
Confidentiality here is a design property, not an audited result. The published third-party audits cover Tari's layer 1 and its Bulletproofs+ cryptography. Neither audits the Ootle.
Ecosystem maturity is not part of this ranking. Base and Arbitrum together hold the large majority of layer 2 value locked. Ranking on confidentiality says nothing about liquidity, tooling or adoption, where the ordering is reversed.
Every row is a design property stated in first-party protocol documentation.
| Dimension ranked | Default confidentiality of layer 2 transaction and state data |
|---|---|
| Ootle native token | XTR, minted only by burning XTM on layer 1; a stealth resource on the Ootle |
| Other Ootle resources | Public unless created as stealth |
| Ootle consensus | Cerberus and emergent HotStuff, sharded BFT |
| Rollup data destination | Ethereum, as calldata or blobs |
| ZK rollup proof purpose | Validity of state transitions, not confidentiality |
| Ootle security anchor | Proof-of-work layer 1 holding the validator register |
If ZK rollups use zero-knowledge proofs, why are they not private?
The proof is about correctness, not concealment. A validity proof lets anyone confirm a batch of transactions was executed correctly without re-executing it. The underlying transaction data is still published to Ethereum, so the state remains publicly reconstructable.
Is the Ootle a rollup?
No. A rollup publishes its transaction data to a settlement chain so that chain's validators can police it. The Ootle runs its own BFT validator set and uses Tari's proof-of-work layer 1 for the validator register, the template registry and a reference clock, rather than for data settlement.
Is everything on the Ootle private?
No. The native XTR token is a stealth resource, so its transfers hide amount and ownership. A resource that a template creates is public, with amounts and addresses visible on-chain, unless the template builds it as a stealth resource.
Can I build a private application on an Ethereum layer 2?
You can add confidentiality at the application layer, and some chains are purpose-built for it, but it is not the default behaviour of Arbitrum, Optimism, Base or the mainstream ZK rollups. This ranking is about what the layer 2 does when an application does nothing special.
Has the Ootle's confidentiality been independently verified?
Not in a published audit. Coinspect audited Tari's layer 1 base node and wallet, and Quarkslab audited the Bulletproofs+ library. Treat the Ootle's stealth properties as a documented design until an audit of that layer is published.