• Ethereum Foundation launches a new “Privacy Cluster” with 47 experts to enhance blockchain privacy.
• The initiative expands on PSE’s six-year R&D with new tools like the Kohaku wallet and zkID.
• The program aims to make on-chain privacy accessible for users, developers, and institutions.

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) has deepened its commitment to privacy with the introduction of a new “Privacy Cluster.” Led by Igor Barinov, the cluster brings together 47 researchers, engineers, and cryptographers from across the blockchain industry.

This expansion builds on the Privacy and Scaling Explorations (PSE) team’s ongoing work since 2018, marking Ethereum’s next phase in developing privacy-driven blockchain infrastructure.

The new initiative underscores Ethereum’s long-standing principle that privacy is not optional but essential for digital trust. EF stated that privacy represents the freedom to control one’s digital interactions, to decide what, when, and with whom information is shared. As Ethereum processes billions in assets and millions of transactions daily, its credibility depends on embedding privacy across every layer of the ecosystem.

Building the Full Stack of Privacy Tools

Privacy Cluster aggregates a number of base projects, such as Private Reads/Writes, Private Proving, Private Identities, Privacy Experience, the Institutional Privacy Task Force (IPTF), and Kohaku, a new wallet and SDK that preserves privacy. All these projects focus on addressing a particular privacy problem in the increasing ecosystem of Ethereum.

Private Reads/Writes facilitates secure and transparent interactions, be it payments or on-chain activity, without subjecting data to public networks.

Private Proving supports validation frameworks, enabling people to verify identity or ownership without exposing confidential information. At the same time, zkID and Privacy Experience are aimed at designing easy-to-use and user-friendly interfaces such that privacy comes intuitively, not complicated.

IPTF serves the purpose of harmonization between the privacy of blockchain and the needs of institutions, assisting companies in the integration of privacy-compliant offerings that meet the criteria of regulations. Kohaku, however, is aimed at making cryptography more developer- and user-friendly, introducing usable privacy into wallets and programs.

Strengthening Ethereum’s Privacy Foundations

Since 2018, EF’s PSE team has spun out over 50 open-source privacy projects, such as Semaphore, anonymous signaling, MACI, private vote, zkEmail, and Anon Aadhaar. Such technologies have become cornerstone components in the privacy infrastructure on Ethereum and are just being brought under the Privacy Cluster to accelerate innovation further.

By growing its work on privacy from cryptographic exploration all the way through to practical institutional deployments, the Foundation will work towards making privacy one of the first-class features on Ethereum.

It supports EF’s decades-long vision of credible neutrality, achieving an open, secure, and private blockchain network on which people and organizations can securely and comfortably interact.

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