Ciphertext / Record Ciphertext

When a private record is created on Aleo, it is encrypted before being stored on the ledger. The encrypted form is called the record ciphertext. Only the record's owner - or anyone holding their view key - can decrypt it back to a readable plaintext record.

Agents querying the Aleo REST API for record state will encounter ciphertexts. To read the actual record contents, you must decrypt using the owner's view key. This is how Aleo achieves on-chain privacy: the data exists publicly, but its contents are opaque to everyone except the intended owner.