The three privacy architectures naturally lend themselves to building token exchanges with vastly different mechanisms: Shielding pools ➡️ AMM Edge execution ➡️ orderbook Private shared state ➡️ dark pool

A shielding pool can be deployed on existing chains, directly tapping into the applications deployed there, e.g. the AMMs on Ethereum. A DEX developer doesn't need to do anything! It does require extra steps from the user, however: shield, wait, unshield, creating friction + fees

With edge blockchains, local state updates are preferred to global state modifications. It lets the network achieve parallel execution by outsourcing state transitions to the edge. Edge blockchains like @0xMiden naturally inspire an orderbook DEX design: users can submit requests to an offchain intermediary, who matches the orders and posts them onchain.

Finally, private shared state unlocks dark pools, where orders can be matched without revealing details to the public chain or other participants until settlement. This mirrors traditional finance's dark pools - but without a trusted intermediary. With dark pools, large trades can be executed privately to avoid market impact, although users must engage in a resource-intensive Multi-Party Computation (MPC) with all the peers (p2p MPC), forcing them to either stay online (poor UX) or delegate the matching to a 3rd party (loss of privacy).

So, which one is the best? 'm not gonna get into ZKP vs. MPC fights. As always, the answer is "it depends" 🫠