Every transaction you make onchain is trackable. Most of us have just accepted that as normal, and we shouldn't have to.
Thomas Thierry is a privacy researcher at the Ethereum Foundation. In our second episode of our Lean Ethereum series, he walks through exactly what's broken with privacy on public blockchains today and what Ethereum is doing about it.
The short version: if FOCIL and framed transactions ship in the Hegota network upgrade, we could have native, trustless, censorship-resistant private transactions on Ethereum by 2027. Users might simply tick a box someday in their wallet to transact privately. Everything else happens in the background.
A few things worth knowing before this episode:
The near-term goal isn't total privacy, it's hiding who you are. Amounts and actions will remain public. But it will be impossible to know who is behind the transaction. That's the first step, and it's already achievable with current ZK technology.
Unstoppability and privacy are inseparable. You can be fully private but if you still have to go through one trusted third party to execute your transaction, and that party doesn't like you, you're not really private. FOCIL is what forces builders to include your transactions regardless of who you are.
Institutions want privacy too. Every institutional investor Thomas talks to raises privacy as a concern. They want to settle on something with no counterparty risk. Ethereum's combination of censorship resistance and incoming privacy features makes it uniquely positioned for this.
Ethereum vs Zcash feature parity is coming. The Zcash community has been louder and louder about privacy as ZEC price has gone up. Ethereum is getting to privacy through a different path technologically, one that also enables private DeFi such as lending and swapping. Private money legos from an already rich DeFi economy, that go far beyond what Zcash can offer.
Listen to the latest Edge Podcast and follow Thomas’s work at ethresear.ch!
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🔗 Guest Links 🔗
► Ethereum Research website: ethresear.ch
► Thomas Thierry on X: x.com/soispoke
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DISCLAIMER: Nothing said on The Edge Podcast is a recommendation to buy or sell tokens or securities. This content is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing shared here is financial advice. Any views expressed by hosts or guests on the show are solely their opinions. Always do your own research. DeFi Dad, Nomatic, and guests may have positions in the assets or other matters discussed in this podcast. DeFi Dad and Nomatic hold ETH.
