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Every 0xio wallet holds two distinct balance types on the same Octra address, giving you full control over your financial privacy.
  • Public balance (OCT): a normal, transparent on-chain balance.
  • Private balance (pOCT): an FHE-encrypted balance whose amount is hidden from everyone except you.

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Public Balance

Your Public Balance (OCT) is visible to everyone on the blockchain.

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Characteristics

  • Transparency: Visible to anyone viewing the blockchain
  • Speed: Faster transaction processing (no proof generation required)
  • Compatibility: Works with all protocols and services

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When to Use

  • Standard interactions with public DeFi protocols
  • Sending to exchanges that don’t support FHE
  • When transparency is beneficial or required
  • Situations where speed and lower cost are priorities

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Private Balance

Your Private Balance (pOCT) is encrypted with Octra’s FHE layer and only visible to you.

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Characteristics

  • Privacy: Amount encrypted on-chain; completely confidential
  • Security: Complete financial privacy
  • Validation: Transfers are validated with zero-knowledge range proofs without revealing amounts
  • Cost: Privacy operations carry a larger fee because the network must process ciphertexts and verify proofs

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When to Use

  • Confidential transfers and payments
  • Private trading and swaps
  • Salary payments and business transactions
  • Protecting wealth information from public view
Your 0xio wallet displays both balances simultaneously. You move funds between them at any time using Encrypt (public → private) and Decrypt (private → public), and receive incoming private transfers with Claim.

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Moving Between Balances

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Encrypting Funds (Public → Private)

This “shields” your funds by moving OCT into your encrypted pOCT balance so the amount is no longer visible to blockchain observers. Process:
  1. Open the Encrypt action
  2. Enter the amount to shield
  3. Review the fee
  4. Confirm the transaction
  5. Wait for blockchain confirmation
Technical note: Your device generates the FHE ciphertext and the supporting range proof locally before broadcasting. Proof generation can take anywhere from seconds (native desktop) to over a minute (mobile), depending on platform.

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Decrypting Funds (Private → Public)

This “unshields” funds by moving pOCT back into your public OCT balance, making the amount visible on the blockchain again. A zero proof attests that the remaining encrypted balance stays consistent. Process:
  1. Open the Decrypt action
  2. Enter the amount to unshield
  3. Review the fee
  4. Confirm the transaction

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Claiming Incoming Private Transfers

When someone sends you a private (stealth) transfer, the funds arrive as a pending encrypted output rather than landing in your balance automatically. Claim scans incoming outputs for those addressed to you and adds them to your private balance.

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Network Fees

Octra denominates fees in ou, the network’s base fee unit (1 OCT = 1,000,000 ou).
  • Standard public transfers carry a small, flat fee.
  • Stealth and other privacy operations require a minimum fee of 1,000,000 ou (1 OCT) because the network must process ciphertexts and verify zero-knowledge proofs.
Exact fees are estimated by the wallet at the time of each transaction.