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Compare
XELIS ecosystem
vs the alternatives.
Important: XELIS Vault is a DeFi protocol, not a blockchain. It runs on the XELIS BlockDAG (an L1 with native Twisted ElGamal encryption). The comparison below covers both the chain layer and the DeFi ecosystem built on top — because privacy in DeFi requires both.
XELIS Vault IS
- · A DeFi protocol suite (46 Silex contracts)
- · Built on top of the XELIS BlockDAG
- · CDP stablecoin, AMM, oracle, governance, chat, mixer
XELIS Vault IS NOT
- · A blockchain (that is XELIS)
- · A wallet (that is Genesix)
- · A token (the tokens are VLT and xUSD)
| Feature | XELIS ecosystem | Aztec | Railgun | Secret Network |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | L1 BlockDAG | L2 zk-rollup (Ethereum) | Privacy protocol (on Ethereum/BNB/Polygon) | L1 blockchain (Cosmos SDK) |
| Privacy mechanism | Native Twisted ElGamal homomorphic encryption | zk-SNARKs (client-side proving) | zk-SNARKs (client-side proving) | Trusted execution environment (Intel SGX) |
| Block time | 5s | ~12s (L1 settles slower) | = host chain (~12s on Ethereum) | ~6s |
| Smart contracts | Silex (Turing-complete, native) | Noir (zk-circuits) | Cairo (zk-circuits, limited) | CosmWasm (Rust) |
| Trust assumption | None (cryptographic) | None (zk proofs) | None (zk proofs) | Intel SGX hardware trust |
| CDP stablecoin (xUSD) | Yes (VaultEngine + PSM) | No native | No native | No native |
| AMM with MEV protection | VaultSwapV2 (TWAP + vol fees) | L2 sequencer (single block) | L2 host | No native AMM |
| Decentralized oracle | StakedOracle (5-tier reputation, slashing) | No native | No native | Band Protocol (external) |
| Encrypted messaging | VaultChat (E2E, Merkle anchoring) | No | No | No |
| Privacy mixer | PrivacyMixer (native ZK) | Native (shielded addresses) | Native (shielded pools) | No native |
| Governance | On-chain VLT + 48h Timelock | Off-chain | Off-chain (DAO) | On-chain (SCRT staking) |
| Governance token supply | VLT — 10M fixed | Variable | RAIL — variable | SCRT — variable |
| Deflationary mechanism | 3 burn vectors (slash + fees + governance) | No | No | No |
| Open source license | MIT | BSL (source-available) | BSL (source-available) | MIT |
| Funding model | No VC, team 10% transparent vesting | VC-backed (a16z, Paradigm) | VC-backed (DCG) | VC-backed (multiple) |
A note on fairness. Aztec, Railgun, and Secret Network are all genuinely good projects pushing privacy forward. They each chose different tradeoffs — Aztec on Ethereum L2, Railgun as a privacy overlay, Secret on a Tendermint chain with SGX. XELIS chose to build a layer-1 with native homomorphic encryption, which lets XELIS Vault offer default-private smart contracts without SGX trust assumptions or L2 sequencer risk. The right tool depends on your threat model. We encourage you to read each project's documentation before deciding.
Want the technical deep dive?
The XELIS Vault whitepaper covers the cryptographic primitives, the threat model, and the comparative analysis against each of the projects above.
Read the whitepaper