Rings
MANUAL · UPDATED 10 NOV 2026 · 12 MIN READ

How it works

The honest manual: what happens at each step, who can see what, and who you're trusting when you trade on Rings.

01

The sealed trade

A block trade on Rings is one private, atomic swap between two people. A seller lists a block of tokens, one buyer agrees a price, both put their side into a one-time deal key, and a single transaction signed by both moves everything at once — or nothing moves.

Every deal has an outside and an inside. The outside — addresses, times, the program, deposits and withdrawals — lives on a public chain, and this manual shows exactly what it reveals. The inside — token, size, price and fee — is sealed, readable only by the two of you.

  1. 01 List Post a block: token, size as a share of supply, price, expiry. Outside Nothing on-chain.
  2. 02 Offer Buyers send encrypted offers. You accept, counter or decline. Outside Nothing on-chain.
  3. 03 Fund Each side moves its half into a one-time deal key. Outside A wallet deposit is in the open. A private transfer isn't.
  4. 04 Seal One transaction, signed by both, settles it all at once.
    4JgzGH…cCTuCY Outside Who and when. Not what.
02

What the world sees, step by step

Each row is one thing you do. Read across to see who learns what. "Helius sees" covers their infrastructure and prover; "Rings server sees" is everything we store.

Step On-chain (public) Helius sees Rings server sees Sealed
Connect Nothing Nothing Your address, IP and session time —
List Nothing Nothing Token, size bucket, price mode, discount, expiry — and your address, never shown to buyers SealedExact size
Offer Nothing Nothing Who sent an offer to which block, when, and a padded size SealedOffer size and price
Fund by deposit Token, exact size, your address → deal key In the open The deposit, as any RPC provider would That your deal key was funded Nothing — the deposit is public
Fund by private transfer Your address and the deal key In the open The amount, inside the prover enclave That your deal key was funded SealedToken and amount
Seal Signers, the program, who receives outputs, and that the Rings treasury got one In the open All amounts, inside the prover enclave That the deal sealed, and when SealedToken, size, price, fee
Withdraw Token, amount and the receiving wallet In the open The withdrawal Nothing Nothing — the withdrawal is public
In the openAnyone, forever, on any explorer Sealed — only the two parties
03

What simple math can reveal

Sealing hides what's inside a deal. It can't hide arithmetic on what you do in the open. These three patterns undo most of the privacy you paid for. We warn you about each one in the moment, too.

Could be inferred Matching amounts in and out
10 Nov 14:21 Deposit 25,000,000 $MOTH 7xKX…9fQa → Ring
12 Nov 09:02 Withdrawal 25,000,000 $MOTH Ring → 4tRw…8LmZ
Same token, same amount, two days apart. Anyone can guess it's the same money — and link the two wallets. InsteadLeave tokens in your private balance, or withdraw different amounts at different times.
Could be inferred A buyer depositing exactly the price
10 Nov 14:22 Deposit 0.5 SOL Dm4P…b31K → Ring
10 Nov 14:32 Seal Sealed Solana Privacy Program
A fresh 0.5 SOL deposit ten minutes before a seal suggests the price was 0.5 SOL. InsteadFund from your private balance, or top it up earlier with a different amount.
Could be inferred Withdrawing all proceeds right after a seal
10 Nov 14:32 Seal Sealed Solana Privacy Program
10 Nov 14:34 Withdrawal 0.4975 SOL Ring → 7xKX…9fQa
0.4975 SOL out two minutes after a seal, with a known 0.5% fee: the price was 0.5 SOL. InsteadWait, and withdraw only part — or keep the proceeds private for your next deal.
04

Who you trust

Privacy is a set of trust decisions. These are the ones you make when you trade on Rings, including the ones that have nothing to do with us.

RingsThe desk: listings, offers, the deal room.
Can't Hold your funds or your keys Change a deal — any edit breaks both signatures
Can See the metadata in section 2 Go offline. Deals pause; funds stay in your deal key.
The other partyOne buyer or one seller you agreed with.
Can't Take your funds — nothing moves without your signature Slip in other terms — your wallet checks the transaction before you sign
Can Read the terms you agreed Walk away before the seal. You unwind and keep what you put in.
HeliusBuilds and runs Solana Privacy Rings.
Worth knowing Their program can be upgraded A 2-of-5 multisig can pause it Their prover enclave sees amounts to build proofs
So you're trusting That upgrades and pauses are used as documented That the enclave keeps amounts to itself
05

Deal keys

A deal key is a one-time account that holds one side of one deal. It exists so the seal can spend exactly two inputs — and nothing else you own is ever touched. You fund yours; the buyer funds theirs; the seal empties both into four outputs.

Inputs · funded separately
Seller walletor private balance Deal key S13jL…yEsj25,000,000 $MOTH
Buyer walletor private balance Deal key B7Hq2…wP4c0.5 SOL
The seal One transaction. Both deal keys sign.
Outputs · to private balances
Buyer25,000,000 $MOTH
You0.4975 SOL
YouDeal key S remainder
Rings treasury0.0025 SOL
Names and arrows are public on-chain. Embossed amounts are sealed. If either side walks away, each deal key unwinds back to its owner's private balance.
06

Fees and costs

Rings charges one fee: 0.5% of the SOL leg, from the seller's side. It's one of the four outputs inside the seal, so it's sealed like everything else — the chain only shows that the Rings treasury received an output. Buyers pay no Rings fee.

Buyer pays0.5 SOL
Rings fee · 0.5%0.0025 SOL
Seller receives0.4975 SOL

Network costs

Solana Privacy Rings has its own small costs. They're paid to the network, not to us, and we show them before you sign.

Privacy Rings interface ≈0.0024 SOL Once per token, on its first deposit into the Ring Whoever deposits that token first
Private transaction ≈0.00002 SOL Each private transfer, seal or unwind The fee payer — for a seal, the buyer's Rings account key
Rings fee 0.5% of SOL leg Inside the seal, never separately Seller
07

Market price and discounts

Source. The market price comes from Jupiter's price feed, refreshed every few seconds, alongside the on-chain liquidity behind it. Every chip says where the price came from and how old it is.

Why discounts are never hidden. A block is only private for the people trading it. Everyone else deserves to know the price a large holder is willing to sell at relative to the chart. That's why the discount is the one number on a listing we print large, exact to one decimal, with its sign and the word "below" or "above".

Staleness rules

Up to 30s old 0.07228 SOL· Jupiter · 8s Live. Discounts and "% to market" prices update with it.
30s – 2 min 0.07228 SOL· Jupiter · 42s Marked stale. Discounts show the time they were measured.
Over 2 min 0.07228 SOL· Jupiter · 3m "% to market" offers can't be sent or accepted until the price is fresh.
Under 5 SOL liquidity No reliable market price No price we'd stand behind. Fixed price only, and no discount is shown.
08

What we never do

  • Hold your funds Your tokens sit in deal keys and private balances that only you control.
  • Read your offers Offers and counters are encrypted end to end. We store ciphertext.
  • Mix or split funds A deal moves exactly the agreed amounts between two parties. No pooling, no splitting to blur where money came from.
  • Help evade screening Every wallet is screened. A blocked wallet can't list, offer or seal, and we won't suggest a way around it.
  • Hide discounts Every block shows its exact discount to the live price. Never rounded, never hidden.
09

Questions

No. Offers, counters and sealed terms are encrypted to the two parties' keys; we store ciphertext. What we do see is listed in section 2 — who offered on what, and when.

Rings is independent and not affiliated with Helius. Solana Privacy Rings is built by Helius; see their documentation for the protocol.

Helius documentation