Ethereum Foundation Unveils Privacy-Focused Development Cluster
Ethereum just dropped a privacy bomb—and Wall Street's compliance departments are sweating.
Breaking the Silence Barrier
The foundation's new specialized cluster zeroes in on privacy enhancements that could reshape how transactions flow through the network. No more transparent ledgers broadcasting every coffee purchase to the world.
Privacy Meets Programmable Money
This isn't just about hiding transaction amounts—we're talking about smart contracts that execute without revealing their logic, decentralized applications that protect user data by default, and scaling solutions that don't sacrifice anonymity for throughput.
The development push comes as institutional players keep demanding enterprise-grade privacy while regulators circle like hawks. Because nothing says 'adoption' like trying to please both Swiss bank secrecy advocates and government watchdogs simultaneously.
Watch for the inevitable backlash from transparency maximalists who think financial privacy is somehow suspicious—while happily using password-protected email accounts themselves.
Ethereum and privacy
The MOVE comes as Ethereum has some significant privacy-focused product launches on the horizon. The Foundation recently announced the official launch of Kohaku, a privacy-centric browser wallet and SDK, which is expected to debut at EFDevcon in late November. The project aims to enable Ethereum wallets to securely process private transactions, with minimal dependencies on trusted third parties.
Kohaku code and roadmap
Full-stack privacy and security are first-class priorities in Ethereum. https://t.co/k6xq1WkjmB
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) October 9, 2025
Many of the Foundation’s most prominent members have also been outspoken about privacy-related issues in recent weeks. Founder Vitalik Buterin took to X last week to denounce a controversial piece of potential EU legislation, the EU Child Sexual Abuse Regulation, which WOULD enable automatic scanning of private messages for abuse material, including encrypted messages.
Fight Chat Control.
You cannot make society secure by making people insecure.
We all deserve privacy and security, without inevitably hackable backdoors, for our private communications.
The fact that the government officials want to exempt themselves from their own law is… https://t.co/OY5NXyk58j
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 27, 2025
The news comes as interest in privacy coins more generally seems to be piquing. Privacy blockchain Zcash’s native token hit three-year highs earlier this month, with its value doubling in under a fortnight. Experts told Decrypt that endorsements from high-profile figures like venture capitalist Naval Ravikant, praising the blockchain’s privacy, may have contributed.
Is Ethereum’s ecosystem private enough?
Privacy advocates have hailed the Ethereum Foundation’s move. Harry Halpin, founder of privacy-first network infrastructure framework Nym, told Decrypt that blockchain network privacy is now becoming a more serious issue in the blockchain world.
"I'm very happy the Ethereum Foundation has finally put Vitalik's support of privacy into action,” Halpin said.
He pointed to concerns around ETH’s current suite of privacy tools, noting that popular wallets such as MetaMask can expose users’ IP address to provider ConsenSys’s infrastructure tool Infura when making transactions (unless the user employs their own Ethereum node, or tools like VPNs and the Tor browser).
This feature was controversial with the ETH community when it was revealed in 2022, though ConsenSys has since made numerous assurances about how it stores and deletes the data.
Halpin argued that the Foundation should look to Zcash’s technical implementation when it comes to privacy, and work with industry experts.
