privacy

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a new article introducing a novel cryptographic obfuscation technology called Diamond iO. This technology aims to address the extremely low efficiency of traditional indistinguishable obfuscation schemes, allowing programs to run while hiding internal logic and critical data. Although traditional iO technology possesses strong privacy protection capabilities, its operational costs are prohibitively high, making it nearly impractical. Diamond iO, by adopting more aggressive new cryptographic assumptions, enhances computational efficiency from "universe-level time consumption" to "planet-level time consumption," bringing it closer to practical application.Diamond iO is built on technologies such as Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE) and Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE). By encrypting programs, it allows users to execute the encrypted programs and obtain correct outputs without being able to view the internal code or hidden keys. This solution introduces a new input encoding mechanism and conditional decryption method, reducing computational complexity while ensuring the program logic remains hidden. Its core application scenarios include protecting programs that contain private keys, enabling secure software licensing, constructing trustless cryptographic services, and supporting blockchain and artificial intelligence systems with stronger privacy protection.However, Diamond iO is still in the early research stage, and its security relies on new cryptographic assumptions, including All-Product LWE and Evasive LWE, which require further research validation. At the same time, the technology still faces efficiency challenges such as high computational overhead and circuit depth limitations. Researchers believe that by optimizing underlying hash functions, improving homomorphic encryption schemes, and reducing security parameter requirements, Diamond iO is expected to become an important direction for advancing practical program obfuscation technology in the future.

According to official social media news, Huobi HTX will hold a themed debate titled "The Life and Death of Privacy and Regulation: Will Privacy Coins Eventually Be Eliminated, or Will They Experience a Dark Explosion?" today at 8 PM. At that time, representatives from the affirmative side, including Yi Ge, Dog Treasure, Draco, and Qiang Ge, will engage in a heated exchange with representatives from the opposing side, DaDa, Sasaki Hoshino, Volcano Brother, and FomoDao, focusing on hot topics such as the future development of privacy coins, regulatory pressure, technological value, and market demand.

Ethereum Improvement Proposal EIP-8222 aims to separate staking deposits from withdrawals through a STARK-based cryptographic mechanism and to re-anonymize validators to reduce the traceability of validator activities. Currently, about one-third of ETH is staked.Thibault Dubuis, Head of Staking and Decentralized Finance Products at Sygnum Bank, stated that the current deposit addresses, validators, and withdrawal credentials create visible links, making institutional holdings, entry times, and staking strategies nearly public. This proposal is still in the discussion phase and has not yet scheduled a deployment time. Its design may involve arrangements such as fixed deposit denominations and asset withdrawal waiting periods, and institutional users may need to bear higher execution costs, process delays, and compliance work.

According to The Block, the Ethereum privacy infrastructure project Aztec has announced the launch of the complete v5 Execution Layer Alpha version, bringing multiple cryptographic optimizations aimed at achieving client-side ZK Proving with second-level generation on mobile phones and consumer-grade laptops.Aztec stated that the v5 Execution Layer reduces the computational burden required for local proof generation by optimizing the zero-knowledge proof generation process, allowing users to complete privacy transaction proofs without relying on large servers. This improvement is expected to further promote the widespread application of zero-knowledge technology.

The privacy network Dash announced on the X platform that the Orchard privacy pool has officially launched on its mainnet, with technology derived from the Zcash Orchard protocol, supporting 1-second confirmations and approximately 20 seconds for wallet synchronization.Dash stated that the privacy features for privacy stablecoins and other assets will be launched subsequently.

According to the Ethereum Magicians forum, developer Leo Glisic officially released Privacy Guardians 2 and announced the open-sourcing of its design. The project is positioned as a decentralized privacy payment system aimed at maximizing privacy protection for on-chain payments to combat issues such as freezing and monitoring present in centralized payment solutions (like OUSD launched by Corpo Consortium).The current V1 version includes multiple modules such as private payment mechanisms, insurance mechanisms, honeypot designs, exchange rate management, liquidity pools, and metadata processing. Glisic stated that this version is still in the early stages and has significant room for optimization in areas such as cryptographic security, incentive mechanism alignment, and capital efficiency, and he called on the community to participate in its improvement. The white paper has been simultaneously published on glisic.xyz.

Starknet announced the opening of its privacy development stack to developers, launching a privacy SDK and privacy wallet API, allowing applications, wallets, and protocols to integrate private balances, private transfers, and related DeFi interaction features based on STRK20.

The Ethereum institutional privacy technology company EthSystems has officially launched and received strategic funding support from ecosystem backers such as Bitmine, Sharplink Gaming, Joe Lubin, and SNZ Holding.EthSystems focuses on developing privacy technologies for banks, asset management companies, and other regulated entities, enabling institutions to execute financial transactions on the Ethereum network at scale while protecting sensitive information such as transaction details and client identities.The company was founded by the core team of the Institutional Privacy Task Force (IPTF) of the Ethereum Foundation. The team has previously conducted a year-long open-source research and development publicly on the EthSystems website and has established partnerships with several central banks, regulatory agencies, large banks, and asset management institutions. EthSystems stated that while institutions have begun exploring stablecoins, tokenized assets, and Ethereum-based settlement solutions, large-scale adoption still faces privacy and compliance challenges.Financial institutions need more than just access to blockchain networks; they require a complete infrastructure that meets business confidentiality protection, regulatory requirements, and compatibility with existing financial systems. The goal is to create a "selective disclosure" privacy architecture that allows transaction participants to view only the information they are authorized to access, while retaining the core advantages of Ethereum's decentralization, security, and openness, and complementing two other organizations: Ethlabs, which focuses on the research and development of Ethereum's core protocol and infrastructure; Ethereum Institutional, responsible for institutional collaboration, education, market research, and ecosystem coordination; and EthSystems, which focuses on application layer technology, transforming institutional needs into practical privacy protocols and financial systems.

According to official news, Starknet announced that STRK20 is officially launched, positioned as a privacy framework suitable for any assets in the Starknet ecosystem.This solution supports users to transfer assets into the privacy pool with one click, and developers can also integrate privacy features at a lower development cost through the software development kit and wallet application interface.

According to official news, the privacy public chain project MOBLUS STRIP (MS) announced the completion of a $50 million strategic financing round, led by Ventures. It is reported that this financing round was successfully closed after a six-month technical due diligence, and due to oversubscription, the project has officially launched a new round of institutional financing.It is reported that MOBLUS STRIP is a vertical field project under the global Web3 industry ecosystem alliance Crypto Oasis (Dubai Crypto Valley), mainly dedicated to developing a full-spectrum privacy public chain. This underlying blockchain natively integrates zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), ring signatures, and distributed mixing protocols, while equipped with five sets of closed-loop decentralized application solutions, capable of providing security guarantees for any EVM-compatible blockchain or enterprise system without the need for hard forks.

The Zcash development team announced plans to introduce formal verification through the upcoming new privacy pool Ironwood, using mathematical proofs to eliminate the risk of "undetectable inflation vulnerabilities."According to previous news, although the vulnerabilities in the Orchard shielded pool have been fixed and there is no evidence of exploitation, the community decided to launch a brand new Ironwood shielded pool and conduct comprehensive formal verification of its protocol, as it is theoretically impossible to confirm whether hidden inflation has occurred through on-chain history.

According to TechCrunch, the privacy-focused artificial intelligence platform Venice AI has completed a $65 million Series A funding round, achieving a valuation of $1 billion and becoming a unicorn. This round of financing was led by the crypto venture capital firm Dragonfly, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, North Island Ventures, and others.Venice AI stated that the platform provides access to over 200 artificial intelligence models and emphasizes user data privacy protection along with a "low censorship" experience. The company claims to currently have over 3 million active users, an annual revenue exceeding $70 million, and has achieved profitability.The company plans to use the new funds to purchase graphics processing units and build its own data centers to reduce reliance on leased computing power and improve gross margins.

USDC announced on platform X that the USDC privacy feature is now live on Starknet, implemented through STRK20------this is the privacy feature Starknet provides for ERC-20 tokens, with built-in compliance capabilities. Users can mask, send, and unmask USDC while keeping balance, amount, and counterparty information private on the public ledger. USDC remains a dollar-pegged stablecoin, and the new privacy feature is applicable to payments, fund flows, payroll, and on-chain financial activities on Starknet.

StarkWare launches the STRK20 privacy token standard, allowing users to hide on-chain balances and transaction details while maintaining compliance checks and regulatory disclosure mechanisms.

Members of the management team of the Ethereum Foundation (EF) and CSA Operator Aerugo published a systematic explanation of EF's mission. Aerugo stated that EF's core mission is to ensure that Ethereum becomes and continues to be a truly permissionless sovereign infrastructure: censorship-resistant, capture-resistant, open-source, private, and secure, capable of supporting large-scale trustless coordination.He emphasized that EF's focus is on eliminating extraction and capture risks that may arise at the protocol layer of Ethereum, particularly the two core challenges of MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) issues and the lack of default privacy. Aerugo described MEV as "the main battleground of the next cypherpunk war," and pointed out that "a public ledger without serious default privacy is a monitoring infrastructure with settlement guarantees."In addition, EF will move some of its work out of the foundation through spin-offs in the future, but will maintain strict standards for external funding. The recent departure of some personnel is part of normal organizational adjustments, and EF will handle it in a dignified manner without making personnel issues public.

The privacy public chain Namada officially announced a vulnerability incident. The team is currently investigating the related issues and has contacted relevant parties for collaborative handling. If the operator behind this attack is a white hat hacker, we hope they will proactively contact the team to further understand the vulnerability situation and promote problem resolution.On-chain data shows that some ATOM assets related to the incident are suspected to have been transferred out to a Cosmos Hub network address via IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol). Approximately 228,517 ATOM funds related to that address were subsequently cleared within a few hours through IBC transfers and multiple withdrawal operations. Currently, that address has only a small remaining balance.