The Ethereum Foundation, which oversees the development of the Ethereum network, announced the “Privacy Cluster,” a team of 47 experts across the blockchain industry tasked with bringing privacy features to the layer-1 smart contract network.
Ethereum’s privacy cluster brings together researchers, engineers and cryptographers to develop protocol-level privacy features, including private payments and private decentralized identity solutions, according to a Wednesday announcement.
The Foundation introduced Privacy Stewards for Ethereum (PSE), a privacy-focused research and development initiative, in September, and the Privacy Cluster will work closely with PSE to build out privacy-preserving enhancements.
These privacy-preserving developments include developing zero-knowledge infrastructure, a way of verifying information without revealing its specific contents, confidential transfers via the PlasmaFold layer-2 network, and preventing remote procedure call (RPC) nodes from relaying user metadata.
Privacy is central to the cypherpunk ethos that underpins cryptocurrencies and data encryption, and has seen a renewed focus in the crypto community due to the increasing sophistication of digital surveillance techniques and their effect on individual freedom.
Related: Vitalik slams EU’s Chat Control: ‘We all deserve privacy and security’
The importance of privacy magnifies in 2025
Privacy has seen a renewed focus from the crypto industry as global governments push for increased financial surveillance of citizens, and artificial intelligence creates a new threat vector for user privacy.
The European Union’s proposed Chat Control law, legislation that would allow the governments of Europe unfettered access to all messaging traffic, could drive adoption of Web3 alternatives as users seek privacy and control over their own data.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin urged the crypto community to “fight Chat Control,” warning of the potential for misuse of collected data or leaking sensitive user information through hacks.
“You cannot make society secure by making people insecure. We all deserve privacy and security, without inevitably hackable backdoors, for our private communications,” Buterin said.
Information stored on a centralized server makes it a honeypot for hackers and cybercriminals, David Holtzman, a former military intelligence professional and chief strategy officer of the Naoris decentralized security protocol, told Cointelegraph.
Discord, an online communication platform, became the target of hackers who breached a database where user age verification photos were stored, including government-issued identification cards and passports, on Wednesday.
The hackers are attempting to extort the platform and have threatened to leak the information belonging to an estimated 2.1 million users if their ransom demands are not met.
Magazine: EU’s privacy-killing Chat Control bill delayed — but fight isn’t over