> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.lacunalabs.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.lacunalabs.io/lacuna-labs/introduction.md). # Introduction *Privacy was always part of money. Public chains removed it.* Money is sensitive by nature. What you earn, what you hold, who you pay and who pays you — in every functioning financial system, these details are private at the level of the individual. Public blockchains broke that norm in exchange for something valuable: a shared, verifiable ledger that no single party controls. For years the trade-off was tolerable, because on-chain activity was niche. It is no longer. *Fig. 1 — On a public chain, a single address exposes its balance, every counterparty, and its complete history — to anyone, permanently.* ## The privacy gap A *lacuna* is a gap — a missing piece in an otherwise complete record. That is precisely what privacy should be on a public chain: a deliberate blank space where your financial life would otherwise be exposed. Today that gap does not exist. Anyone can take an address, read its entire history, and connect it to a person or a business. Lacuna exists to restore that missing piece without asking anyone to give up control of their funds. ## What Lacuna is Lacuna is a **mobile-native, non-custodial privacy protocol** for public blockchains: a zero-knowledge shielded pool, a wallet to use it, private swaps and cross-chain bridging built on the same model, and a developer surface so others can build on top. Privacy is the default; self-custody is non-negotiable. ## Who it's for Lacuna serves three audiences with the same infrastructure: **individuals** who simply do not want their salary, savings, and spending publicly searchable; **businesses** that cannot operate with payroll, supplier payments, and treasury movements exposed to competitors; and **autonomous agents**, which will soon originate a large share of on-chain payments and cannot reveal their strategy with every transaction. ## What this paper covers The sections that follow move from the problem to the design: how the shielded pool works, the cryptography that makes it private, the full set of capabilities transfers, swaps, bridging, emergency recovery, and gasless withdrawals and the security model, economics, and roadmap behind them. Each idea is introduced in plain language before going deeper, so the paper is useful whether you are evaluating Lacuna as a user, a builder, or an investor. --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.lacunalabs.io/lacuna-labs/introduction.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.