How to Interact with Dapps using Tornado – Emmy Leke
The Ethereum platform is a fast-growing one. If you are new to this platform and you find yourself thinking ‘oh! It’s just like Bitcoin’, you’d be wrong. However, don’t worry, you are not off by much. This platform was created to usher in the birth of the next generation of apps called Dapps. It works with teh same technology Bitcoin works with. The ‘D’ stands for decentralized and that is what the apps are; They are like your regular apps but are free from the invasive activities of giant tech companies who are the Goliath this David hopes to bring down.
The Ethereum platform has a currency just like America has one. Unlike the dollar, this is called an Ether. You can use it to make transactions around this blockchain platform with a degree of anonymity. Maybe due to media misinformation, a lot of people seem to think once you are on the blockchain, you are invisible and cannot be monitored in any way. This is largely untrue. See, all transactions made on the Ethereum blockchain is public and visible for all to see. Sure, no one will know it’s you, but your wallet address would be listed out as the recipient or sender of an amount of ether. So if anyone knows what your wallet address is, they can make a trace of your activities. Don’t panic. There is a fix and I’ll get to it.
How to stay anonymous and make transactions within Dapps ( A Kickback case study)
I’ll be making this illustration using Kickback as a case study. Kickback is a phenomenal invention. It is a perfect way to help you commit to events and see them through. What Kickback does is to let you create events and mark people in like a ticketing platform would. People who want to go to an event can browse through those events on Kickback and they will be asked to commit an amount of money to the event. If they do not show up at the event, they lose this committed fee and it is shared among the other people who turned up for the event. If you do show up, you get your money back.
One problem with Kickback though is that it is difficult to stay anonymous on the platform when you make transactions. You sign up with your twitter handle and it is not so difficult to tie to your eth address. There is a fix for this however, and it is called Tornado.
Tornado is a way to ensure complete transactional anonymity when using Dapps such as Kickback. Tornado uses zKSnark technology to ensure that no one can trace this transaction back to you. Below are listed steps that will help you get on your way to using Tornado in your daily transactions.
How to Use Tornado.
- Visit the Tornado site then look on the far right to click on a button named ‘Connect’. Look out for the yellow arrow in the image below.
2. Once you click on connect, you would be asked to pick which wallet you want to use out of Metamask, Portis or Squarelink.
3. Once you select which, Tornado will connect to your wallet and you are ready to make your first transaction.
4. On the left, you would see a box that has tabs for you to ‘Deposit’ or ‘Withdraw’ ether. There is a drop-down for the type of token and a slider for the amount you are allowed to send.
5. Once you pick your type of token, select the amount you want to deposit and hit the ‘Deposit’ button.
6. Once the deposit button is hit, Tornado spins up a note and requests that you to back it up. This note is important as it would be required when you decide to withdraw the ether you’ve deposited.
7. Click on ‘Send Deposit’ and Metamask or whichever wallet you use would ask you to confirm the transaction. Confirm the transaction and in the anonymity set box, you should notice an increase in the number of transactions.
8. To withdraw your ether so you can make payments for services provided by Dapps like Kickback, simply click on the ‘Withdraw’ tab and paste in your note in the first box labeled ‘Note’.
9. You can now withdraw the amount into a different account with a fresh address using the ‘relayer’ option. Just paste this address into the recipient box and click on ‘Withdraw’.
10. A Gas fee will be deducted and the ether will be deposited into your fresh account. You can now use this new account to make payment for services on different Dapps such as Kickback.
You can also use the Wallet option to make withdrawals. All you have to do is enter your depositor’s note, click on the settings icon, choose the wallet option and save this setting with the save button. Enter your recipient’s address like before, click withdraw and wait until proof is generated. Sign the transaction and watch your ether get deposited into an account of your choosing.
Tornado is a tool that you must have in your box if you intend to make truly anonymous transactions on the Ethereum platform. You should also use VPNs or Tor to stay completely safe and hidden from prying eyes.
Published at Sat, 11 Jan 2020 01:41:08 +0000
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