Aztec Network activated Alpha V5, a governance-approved protocol upgrade, cutting private-transaction proving times by more than 2x and reducing average block production time from 14 to 6 seconds. Proving a private token transfer on a consumer laptop now takes approximately 2.5 seconds, down from 5.2 seconds on the prior version, while browser-based proving fell from 12.5 to 6.8 seconds. The gains come from roughly 2x faster ECDSA signature verification, roughly 3x faster Poseidon2 hashing, and a 50% cut to the protocol's circuit gate count.

Alpha V5 additionally resolves critical vulnerabilities identified in Alpha V4, following a bug bounty on Cantina that drew more than 234 security researchers. Alongside the upgrade, Aztec is rolling out its first wave of applications, including Nyx, which offers private transfers and private Aave yield governed by a user's Ethereum wallet.

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