Unshielding moves value out of the pool to a public Solana address. It is the way out.
Steps
- Open the Unshield tab.
- Enter an amount. Max shows the most a single unshield can release (one note at a time).
- Paste the destination into To. It must be a Solana address. This wallet fills in the connected one.
- Press Unshield and approve.
The SOL arrives in the destination's public balance when the transaction confirms. If the note held more than you withdrew, the remainder comes back to you as a new shielded note.
Earning notes come out as SOL
A note that holds jitoSOL is redeemed on the way out: the pool returns the tokens to Jito's stake pool, and the recipient is paid in SOL, less Jito's 0.1% withdrawal fee. You enter the amount in jitoSOL, and the form shows how much SOL will arrive.
- Withdrawing a whole note is one transaction. Withdrawing part of one is two: the app first splits the note with a private transfer to yourself, then unshields the piece. Both happen from the one press of Unshield.
- Prefer the token? Choose Receive jitoSOL and it is paid into the recipient's wallet as jitoSOL; the app creates their token account if needed.
- When you hold both SOL and jitoSOL notes, the switch above the amount chooses which to unshield.
What the chain records
| Public | Hidden |
|---|---|
| The destination address | Which note paid |
| The amount | Who owned it, and where it came from |
The destination is written into the proof itself. A proof copied out of a pending transaction cannot be redirected to someone else's address — the program would refuse it.
Unshield well
A withdrawal is only as private as its distance from the deposit that funded it. Three habits cover most of it:
- Wait. A withdrawal minutes after a deposit is easy to pair up. Days are better than hours.
- Change the amount. Deposit 5, withdraw 2 and later 1.7 — not 5.
- Use a fresh address. The app says so when you unshield to the wallet you shielded from: that links the two in public.
Staying private goes further.
One note at a time
An unshield spends exactly one note, so the most you can release at once is your largest note. If your balance is spread across several, merge first by sending to your own shielded address — see Notes and balance.
New addresses
A Solana account must hold a small minimum — about 0.00089 SOL — to exist. If the destination is brand new, the app checks that your withdrawal covers it before building a proof, so you never pay for a proof that cannot land.
Cost
The network fee, plus about 0.00095 SOL of rent for the spent note's record. An unshield uses about 150,000 compute units.