The "Privacy Stewards of Ethereum (PSE)" team under the Ethereum Foundation recently released a brand new privacy roadmap. This is not just a technical update, but marks a critical strategic evolution in Ethereum's development direction—from a default completely transparent ledger to a global settlement layer that offers robust, flexible, and programmable privacy features. The goal of this blueprint is to address the issues arising from on-chain transparency, meet the urgent demand for transaction confidentiality from institutional investors, and respond to the growing regulatory pressures worldwide.
Chapter 1: Why is Privacy Urgently Needed?
The transparency of Ethereum was once its advantage: any transaction or contract interaction could be verified. However, taken to the extreme, transparency becomes a "dark forest"—every move of the user is exposed, leading to rampant MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) attacks and significant losses for ordinary investors.
Ethereum also faces dual pressures from the external world. On one hand, global regulators are closely monitoring the crypto industry, considering implementing stricter oversight measures. On the other hand, traditional financial institutions like Wall Street are highly interested in on-chain finance, but they have one absolute prerequisite: there must be privacy solutions that can protect their trading strategies and capital flows. No board of directors would approve exposing a company's core financial operations entirely on a globally public ledger.
This dual pressure forces Ethereum not to simply replicate Monero's "default complete anonymity" model, as this could directly conflict with global anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. However, it also cannot maintain the status quo, as this would shut out trillions of dollars in institutional capital. Therefore, providing a "voluntary, programmable, and compliant" privacy solution has become Ethereum's only strategic choice.
Chapter 2: The Three Pillars of the Privacy Roadmap
Privacy protection has always been at the core of the Cypherpunk spirit since the inception of cryptocurrencies. The launch of the PSE roadmap is also a reaffirmation and return to the core values within the Ethereum community.
The release of the roadmap is accompanied by an important organizational change: the former "Privacy & Scaling Explorations" team has officially been renamed to "Privacy Stewards of Ethereum (PSE)". The core of this transformation lies in a shift in mindset and working methods. The new PSE team clearly states that its focus will shift from "pursuing cool tech" to "solving concrete problems," from "internal projects" to "ecosystem outcomes." This represents a fundamental shift from a "cryptography research lab" to a "problem-driven product development department." It indicates that the Ethereum Foundation has recognized that merely having cutting-edge cryptographic research is far from sufficient. There must be clear goals, pragmatic plans, and strong execution to transform complex privacy technologies into products that millions of users can trust and use, truly fulfilling the role of a "steward."
The PSE team's roadmap is built around three core pillars: "Private Writes," "Private Reads," and "Private Proving," aiming to achieve end-to-end full-stack privacy protection.
Private Writes: Make Your On-Chain Operations Invisible
The goal of "Private Writes" is to address privacy issues when executing operations on the blockchain (such as transfers, voting, and interacting with smart contracts). Its core mission is to significantly reduce the cost and complexity of private operations, making them comparable to public operations in terms of feasibility, usability, and economics.
There are two core technologies involved:
Stealth Addresses
Current Ethereum addresses are like a public home address; anyone can see when you receive assets, exposing your social and financial relationships.
Stealth addresses, on the other hand, are like a special "mailbox service." The contact information you leave for others is no longer a fixed address, but a "universal delivery code." When the other party sends assets, they can generate a one-time, brand-new mailbox address that only you can open using this delivery code. From the outside, this address looks no different from thousands of other addresses, and only you can scan and find your assets with your "universal key" (Viewing Key). This way, apart from the sender, no one knows that the asset is for you, thus protecting the recipient's privacy.
The PSE roadmap explicitly mentions support for the Kohaku wallet proof of concept (PoC), with one of its implementation focuses being the key management and user experience optimization of stealth addresses.
PlasmaFold
Imagine you and your friends are conducting a lot of private transactions in a private room (Layer 2), and when finished, you need to prove to the outside mainnet that the entire process was fair, but you don't want to disclose all transaction details. PlasmaFold is an experimental Layer 2 that allows you to jointly write a "summary report" (a compact zero-knowledge proof) that simply states: "We followed the rules, the final result is legitimate, and no one cheated." The mainnet only needs to verify this report to be assured that the entire process was valid without needing to know any transaction details. If the PlasmaFold experiment is successful in the future, its technology will be adopted by other Layer 2 solutions.
At this point, attentive readers might ask: Isn't this just ZK-rollup? Why are we revisiting this?
Indeed, in my view, the key innovation of PlasmaFold lies in Fold, which utilizes "Proof-Carrying Data (PCD)" technology to efficiently "fold" or compress multiple independent ZK proofs into a single, extremely compact proof. The critical difference from traditional ZK is:
Traditional ZK technology: compresses a large batch of transactions (e.g., hundreds or thousands) into one proof.
PlasmaFold's folding technology: compresses and aggregates (or "folds") a large batch of proofs into a smaller proof.
This means that whether there are ten transactions or ten thousand transactions on L2, ultimately, only a fixed-size and very small proof may need to be submitted to the mainnet for verification. This approach greatly reduces the verification burden and data storage costs on the mainnet, achieving both high scalability and strong privacy.
Private Reads: Incognito Browsing of the Blockchain
We often overlook that "reading" operations, such as checking balances and browsing transaction history, can also leak privacy. When you use a wallet, your request is sent to an RPC node service provider, who can record your IP address and the accounts you queried, thereby analyzing your behavior and wealth status, and even predicting your next investment moves.
Privacy RPC and ORAM Technology
ORAM (Oblivious RAM) technology is like giving you a "magic cloak." Once you wear it, each time you query, you no longer just request one piece of data, but instead request a large batch of seemingly random data, of which only one is what you truly want. From the perspective of the node service provider, they cannot distinguish which data you are interested in, thus perfectly hiding your true intentions.
Private Proving: Making Zero-Knowledge Proofs Ubiquitous
The goal of "Private Proving" is to promote the popularization and democratization of zero-knowledge proof technology. It aims to make generating ZK proofs fast, cheap, and convenient, allowing ordinary users to generate privacy proofs for any data (whether on-chain states, web data, or identity credentials) on their everyday devices (such as smartphones and laptops) without relying on powerful centralized servers or third-party services.
Client-Side Proving
Suppose you want to prove to the bouncer at a bar that you are over 21 years old, but you do not want to show your ID, which contains all sensitive information such as your name, address, and date of birth. In the traditional model, you would need to go to an authoritative "notary" (a centralized proving service) and hand over your ID to them. After verification, they would issue you a "proof of age." This process is not only cumbersome, but you also have to trust that the notary will not misuse your personal information. In the blockchain scenario, generating ZK proofs (especially SNARKs) is a computationally intensive task that requires significant CPU and memory resources. This makes it impractical to generate proofs directly on ordinary users' devices, often necessitating reliance on cloud services or specialized proving markets, which introduces centralization and potential privacy risks.
The "Client-Side Proving" technology acts like a portable "magic stamp" (ZK proof generation software or hardware acceleration module). You can use this stamp at home to "stamp" your ID, instantly generating a special "self-certification card." This card only displays "Age > 21: Yes," while all other information is perfectly hidden. You simply show this card to the bouncer, and he can confirm with a special "verification mirror" that this card was indeed generated from a real ID, thus believing you are of legal age. The entire proving process is completely under your control, and your complete ID information never leaves your possession.
The ultimate goal of "Client-Side Proving" in the Ethereum PSE roadmap is to provide easy-to-use software development kits (SDKs) that allow developers to easily integrate client-side proving capabilities into mobile phones, browsers, and server applications.
zkTLS / TLSNotary
You want to prove to a DeFi lending protocol that you indeed have $100,000 in your bank account to obtain a loan with a better collateral rate. However, you absolutely do not want this anonymous DeFi protocol to know your name, bank account number, or any other transaction records. The zkTLS technology acts like an absolutely trustworthy "screenshot notary" running on your computer. When you log into your online banking normally (this is a standard HTTPS/TLS encrypted connection), this "notary" software can "peek" into the encrypted communication between you and the bank without breaking the encryption. It can confirm that your webpage indeed shows "
Account Balance: 100,000." Then, it will help you generate a zero-knowledge proof that can verify to anyone (including the DeFi protocol): "This person indeed saw data containing 'Balance > 100,000' through a valid TLS encrypted session from bank.com." This proof itself contains none of your personal information. After the DeFi protocol verifies the validity of this proof, it will trust your asset status without needing to directly access your bank account or trust any centralized data provider.A more technical explanation is:
ZK proofs themselves can only guarantee the correctness of the computation process but cannot guarantee the authenticity of the input data. If the input data is forged, even if the proof is valid, its conclusion is meaningless.
TLS (Transport Layer Security) is the standard encryption protocol that protects today's internet communications (HTTPS). TLSNotary is a clever protocol that leverages this. It allows users to generate ZK proofs about certain contents of the session when conducting TLS sessions with any standard Web2 server (such as banks, government websites, social media platforms). This proof can be publicly verified by third parties (such as Ethereum smart contracts), thus bringing trusted off-chain Web2 data into the on-chain Web3 world in a trustless manner while perfectly protecting user privacy.
Summary of Technologies in the Roadmap
| Technology Name | Pillar | Core Function | Pain Points Addressed | Typical Application Scenarios | |------------------------|-----------------|---------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------| | Stealth Addresses | Private Writes | Generate one-time receiving addresses for each transaction | Recipient address is public, exposing social and financial relationships | Private transfers, donations, salary payments | | PlasmaFold | Private Writes | Aggregate and fold ZK proofs for numerous transactions | L2 transaction privacy leakage, high mainnet verification costs | High-throughput private payment networks | | Privacy RPC / ORAM | Private Reads | Hide the true intent of user queries for blockchain data | RPC nodes monitor user behavior, metadata leakage | Wallet balance checks, browsing dApp data | | Client-Side Proving | Private Proving | Users generate ZK proofs on local devices | Reliance on centralized proving services, personal data leakage | Decentralized identity verification, private airdrop claims | | zkTLS (TLSNotary) | Private Proving | Prove trusted data from Web2 servers | On-chain applications cannot trust off-chain data sources | On-chain credit lending, compliant ID verification |
Chapter 3: How Will the New Blueprint Change the Ethereum Ecosystem?
The implementation of this roadmap will profoundly change various aspects of Ethereum, having a disruptive impact on decentralized finance (DeFi), decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governance, and decentralized identity (DID) among other fields.
Which Areas Will Be Affected?
New Paradigm for DeFi: From Complete Transparency to Strategic Confidentiality
Unlocking Institutional DeFi: For a long time, institutional investors have found it difficult to participate in on-chain DeFi at scale due to the need for confidentiality in their trading strategies and strict compliance requirements. Confidential DeFi will completely change this situation. It will allow institutions to execute large trades, provide liquidity, or participate in lending protocols without disclosing their positions, trade sizes, or specific strategies. This is seen as a key step to unlocking trillions of dollars of institutional capital into the Ethereum ecosystem. The PSE roadmap explicitly establishes the "Confidential DeFi" initiative and collaborates with the Ethereum Foundation's EcoDev corporate team to form the "Institutional Privacy Task Force (IPTF)," aimed at identifying and addressing privacy-related barriers to institutional adoption of DeFi and developing corresponding technical specifications and proofs of concept.
Fostering New Financial Products: Privacy will become a new catalyst for DeFi innovation. Based on privacy protection technologies, new financial products that cannot be realized in the current transparent environment can be constructed, such as: "dark pools" similar to traditional financial markets, allowing large trades to be executed anonymously without affecting market prices; completely private order book exchanges; and decentralized credit scoring, insurance, and personalized financial services based on individual private financial data (provided through ZK proofs).
DAO Governance Revolution: Achieving Truly Private Voting
In current DAO governance, voting is completely public, leading to issues such as vote buying, bribery, and pressure on minorities. Introducing private voting will allow DAO members to vote based on their independent judgment without worrying about external influences, thus improving the quality of DAO decision-making. The PSE team will also collaborate with leading DAO infrastructure projects like Aragon to jointly develop private voting protocols.
The Future of Identity and Social: Reclaiming Your Data Sovereignty
Zero-knowledge proofs will become the cornerstone of the next generation of decentralized identity (DID). In the future, you can prove to applications "I am over 18" or "I am a citizen of the EU" without revealing your name, specific date of birth, or other core information, truly achieving data sovereignty in your digital life.
Potential Beneficiary Projects and Tracks
The advancement of the PSE roadmap will bring significant direct or indirect benefits to multiple tracks and projects within the Ethereum ecosystem.
Layer 2 Rollups: Especially ZK-Rollups (such as StarkNet, zkSync, Polygon zkEVM, Scroll, etc.), which are among the biggest beneficiaries. These teams already have a deep accumulation of ZK technology and engineering talent, allowing them to quickly integrate and utilize the new privacy primitives, standards, and toolkits launched by PSE.
Wallet Providers: Wallets are the key entry point for privacy features to reach users. Whether mainstream wallets (like MetaMask, Rabby) or specialized privacy wallets (like the Kohaku supported by PSE), integrating stealth addresses, privacy RPC, and client-side proof generation capabilities will become their core differentiating advantage in the future.
DeFi Protocols: Leading DeFi protocols (like Uniswap, Aave, Curve) can launch private trading pools or lending pools aimed at institutions and privacy-conscious retail investors by integrating with L2 privacy layers like Aztec or developing their own privacy features, thus opening up new markets.
Identity and Credential Protocols: All projects dedicated to the DID and verifiable credentials (VCs) track will directly benefit from the maturity of the "privacy proof" technology stack, especially tools like zkTLS that can securely bridge trusted data between Web2 and Web3, greatly expanding their application scenarios.
The strategic intent of this privacy upgrade is not for the PSE team to personally build a few killer privacy dApps. Its more profound layout lies in building a powerful, standardized set of privacy "primitives" and infrastructure. These will serve as a foundational "empowerment layer," enabling thousands of developers in the ecosystem to easily integrate various levels of privacy features into their applications, just like calling an API library. The power of this model lies in its network effects: it is not aimed at creating a successful privacy application, but rather enabling all applications in the ecosystem to easily become private. This will greatly accelerate the adoption of privacy protection throughout the ecosystem, with an impact that is exponential and far beyond what can be achieved through isolated breakthroughs.
Chapter 4: What Are Ethereum's Competitive Advantages?
In the privacy track, Ethereum does have competitors, mainly divided into "native faction" public chains (like Monero, Zcash, Aleo) and "application faction" solutions (like Aztec Network). Although it started later, Ethereum possesses a strong latecomer advantage.
Unmatched Network Effects: Ethereum has the largest user base, assets, developer community, and infrastructure. Once any privacy feature is implemented, it can immediately serve this vast existing market. This is akin to adding privacy facilities in a thriving "digital metropolis," while competitors need to "build a city from scratch" in a barren land.
Technical Synergy of Scalability and Privacy: The Ethereum ecosystem's substantial investment in ZK technology (such as ZK-rollup and L1-zkEVM) was initially aimed at solving scalability issues. However, this strategy inadvertently paved the way for the development of privacy technology. This is because the underlying cryptographic primitive—zero-knowledge proofs—serves both scalability and privacy needs. Tools, cryptographic libraries, hardware acceleration solutions, and top ZK talent developed for scalability can be directly or slightly modified for building privacy applications. This positions Ethereum far ahead of all competitors in terms of engineering practice and talent reserves in ZK technology.
Strategic Advantage of "Optional and Programmable Privacy": Unlike Monero's enforced privacy or Zcash's simple optional privacy, Ethereum pursues a more advanced "programmable privacy" through the PSE roadmap. This means privacy is no longer a simple "on/off" option but becomes a series of tools that developers can finely combine and customize according to the specific needs of their application scenarios, much like building with Lego blocks. This model has significant strategic advantages:
Flexibility: It allows for the construction of complex hybrid applications, such as a DEX with partially public transactions (for price discovery) and partially private transactions (to protect user positions).
Regulatory Friendliness: It enables applications to meet audit and compliance requirements through selective disclosure or providing viewing keys to regulatory agencies, which is crucial for attracting institutions and enterprises.
Chapter 5: What Challenges Lie Ahead?
However, the path to realizing this grand blueprint is bound to be fraught with challenges. Ethereum still faces multiple severe challenges on its journey toward "default privacy":
Technical Complexity: Many core technologies mentioned in the roadmap, such as efficient client-side proving, practical ORAM, and long-term fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), are still in the cryptographic research or early engineering implementation stages. Deploying them at scale in production environments with hundreds of billions of dollars in assets requires extremely high standards of technical stability and security, posing significant challenges.
User Experience (PX): How to package complex cryptographic concepts and operations (such as managing viewing keys and scanning stealth addresses) into seamless products that ordinary users can use effortlessly, or even unconsciously, is a huge design and engineering challenge. If the activation of privacy features requires users to incur excessive learning costs and operational burdens, widespread adoption will be difficult. The PSE roadmap has specifically established the "Privacy Experience (PX)" initiative to systematically address this issue.
Ongoing Regulatory Games: Although Ethereum's "optional and programmable privacy" model is designed to be more regulatory flexible, the global regulatory stance on on-chain privacy technology remains uncertain. How to effectively prevent the technology from being used for illegal activities like money laundering while encouraging technological innovation and protecting users' legitimate privacy rights will be a long-term and complex game between the Ethereum community and global regulators.
Ecosystem Adoption and Migration Costs: Promoting the adoption of new privacy standards and tools across the vast Ethereum ecosystem (including thousands of dApps, millions of users, and numerous infrastructure providers) requires enormous coordination, education, and development costs. This necessitates the PSE team to play a strong "steward" role, closely collaborating with various stakeholders in the ecosystem to advance together.
Conclusion: Ethereum's Path Toward "Default Privacy" is Full of Opportunities and Challenges
The release of the new privacy roadmap by PSE marks a watershed moment in Ethereum's development history. It signifies that Ethereum has officially elevated privacy to a core strategic level on par with scalability and security.
Of course, the road ahead is also filled with challenges, including extremely high technical complexity, how to simplify user experience, and how to maintain ongoing communication and negotiation with global regulators.
Nevertheless, this blueprint provides Ethereum with a clear and correct path forward. If successful, it will not only mean Ethereum's victory in the privacy track but will also provide the most solid foundational cornerstone for the entire vision of an open and free internet. Ethereum is proving that privacy and transparency are not irreconcilable contradictions, but a well-designed system can possess both of these valuable attributes simultaneously. The endpoint of this journey is a more secure, fairer, and freer digital future.
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