Ethereum Foundation Reorganizes for Privacy
The Ethereum Foundation has introduced the “Privacy Stewards of Ethereum” (PSE), restructuring its Privacy & Scaling Explorations unit to emphasize on-chain privacy as a core priority. In its announcement Friday, the foundation released a privacy roadmap spanning multiple layers of the network, from protocols and infrastructure to wallets and applications.
The initiative aims to make Ethereum the backbone of digital commerce, identity, and collaboration by embedding privacy features into its core architecture.
Roadmap: Private Transfers, Confidential Voting, and DeFi
Over the next three to six months, PSE will prioritize several projects, including private transfers via the new PlasmaFold layer-2 network, confidential voting systems, and privacy tools for decentralized finance (DeFi).
The roadmap also outlines safeguards against data exposure through RPC services and private identity solutions powered by zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs. These cryptographic methods allow verification of data without revealing its full content, providing stronger privacy protections.
PSE stressed that it will coordinate with protocol teams to ensure that privacy solutions remain censorship-resistant and free of intermediaries, preserving the ethos of Ethereum as a decentralized public infrastructure.
Privacy as a Core Crypto Value
Privacy has always been part of the cypherpunk ethos that inspired cryptocurrency. But as crypto adoption rises, governments are increasingly exploring surveillance measures to track blockchain activity.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury, under Secretary Scott Bessent, is considering proposals to require government identity checks in smart contracts, a move that has triggered strong pushback from the Ethereum community.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has consistently argued for stronger privacy, warning earlier this year: “Transparency functions more as a flaw than a feature in the digital age.” He stressed that privacy is essential to protect individuals from the expanding reach of both governments and corporations.
Interoperability and Intent-Based Architecture
Alongside privacy, interoperability has been identified as Ethereum’s top near-term priority. In a recent blog post, Ethereum researchers called it the “highest leverage opportunity” for improving the user experience over the next six to twelve months.
The plan centers on intent-based architecture, where users specify outcomes, or “intents,” while the network handles the transaction execution across layer-1 and rollups. This requires faster crosschain message-passing, which is currently bottlenecked by slow settlement times.
The foundation said it will optimize key performance metrics such as time-to-inclusion, finality, settlement speed, and signatures per operation, in order to reduce fragmentation across Ethereum’s growing ecosystem of layer-2 solutions.
A Strategic Push for Ethereum’s Future
By combining privacy solutions with interoperability improvements, the Ethereum Foundation is laying the groundwork for the next phase of the network’s evolution. The introduction of PSE highlights that Ethereum’s leadership views privacy as indispensable for its role as global digital infrastructure.
With regulators pushing for surveillance, the foundation’s roadmap reflects a bold stance: keeping Ethereum open, secure, and private, while making it more efficient and interconnected across its fragmented ecosystem.
