Aztec Network

# Aztec Network > Aztec is the first fully decentralized, privacy-preserving Layer 2 on Ethereum. It gives developers *programmable privacy* — the ability to choose, function by function, what stays private and what becomes public — using client-side zero-knowledge proofs and the Noir programming language. Aztec is an L2 rollup that settles to Ethereum. Private functions execute locally on the user's device, inside the Private eXecution Environment (PXE), and produce zero-knowledge proofs, so sensitive data is never exposed on-chain; public functions execute on Aztec's decentralized network of sequencers and provers. Private state uses a UTXO/note model and public state uses an account model, and the two are composable within a single transaction. Smart contracts are written with **Aztec.nr**, a framework built on **Noir**, a Rust-like zero-knowledge language. The network is permissionless and decentralized, with an open set of sequencers, a permissionless prover network, on-chain governance, and the **$AZTEC** token used for transaction fees, staking, and governance. The pages below make up the main aztec.network site; in-depth technical documentation lives at docs.aztec […gekürzt]