The Ethereum Foundation introduced changes aimed at making privacy an integral part of the network’s technical architecture. These plans are outlined in a newly published roadmap.
The Ethereum Foundation released a renewed strategy for advancing privacy mechanisms within the ecosystem, defining key directions and concrete initiatives that will be implemented in the coming years.
It’s emphasized that Ethereum, aspiring to serve as a global settlement layer, risks becoming a tool of mass surveillance without built-in privacy mechanisms. To prevent this, the PSE team (formerly Privacy Scaling Explorations) was transformed into the Privacy Stewards of Ethereum. Their new mission is to make privacy the norm rather than the exception within the ecosystem.
The updated PSE strategy covers three main pillars that will form the foundation of Ethereum’s long-term privacy development:
- Private writes — making private transactions as affordable and accessible as public ones.
- Private reads — protecting users when reading and interacting with the blockchain without revealing identity or intent.
- Private proving — accelerating and simplifying the creation of private proofs for data and identities.
Concrete initiatives include a series of projects. Over the next three–six months, the PSE team will focus on the following areas:
- Private transfers. Continued development of PlasmaFold, integration of post-quantum accumulation schemes, launch of the Kohaku wallet, and implementation of stealth addresses. A working prototype is planned to be presented at Devconnect 2025.
- Private voting. Publication of the “State of Private Voting 2025” report and collaboration with Aragon and other teams on new protocols.
- Confidential DeFi. Creation of an Institutional Privacy Task Force to address barriers to institutional adoption of privacy-enhanced DeFi.
- Network-level privacy. Launch of the Private RPC working group, integration of ORAM solutions and the Sphinx mixnet protocol, and development of private RPC nodes for browsers.
- TLSNotary and zkTLS. Optimizing the protocol for production use and creating an SDK for integration across platforms.
- Private identity. Development of standards for zk-SNARKs, a modular ZKP wallet, and privacy-preserving credential revocation systems.
- Privacy experience (PX). Establishing unified interface and tooling standards for private applications.
The PSE team stresses that Ethereum must become the foundation of a digital economy that guarantees privacy for transactions, data, and identities. The roadmap underscores a long-term commitment to zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), fully homomorphic encryption, and user-friendly solutions for both retail and institutional participants.
The community aims to make privacy a core component of Ethereum’s architecture, ensuring not only technological advancement but also compliance with global security and regulatory standards. It’s noted that the announced updates are part of a broader decade-long development plan for the ecosystem.
