Ethereum Co-Founder Buterin Calls for Stronger Privacy in Web3

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has called for a rethinking of privacy in the Web3 space, emphasizing the need for stronger privacy measures as data collection and AI scrutiny intensify. In a recent article titled “Why I Support Privacy,” Buterin argued that privacy must be a core feature of decentralized systems to protect users from growing surveillance threats. He highlighted the importance of advanced cryptographic tools such as ZK-proofs and homomorphic encryption in safeguarding data.

Buterin's essay outlined the philosophical, technical, and social arguments for embedding privacy at the foundation of Web3 design. He noted that recent advances in cryptography, combined with increasingly sophisticated AI systems, have made the call for stronger privacy more urgent than ever. Buterin emphasized that privacy today is about more than just hiding secrets—it is about maintaining personal agency in systems that are trending toward surveillance by default.

He named fully homomorphic encryption, ZK-proofs, and code obfuscation as foundational tools for developers to build privacy-preserving decentralized systems. Buterin framed privacy as a basic component of freedom in the digital age, referencing the early 2000s optimism around transparency and arguing that such views had aged poorly. Instead of promoting fairness, transparency has increasingly allowed powerful institutions to operate without oversight, while individuals lose control over their own lives.

To illustrate this shift, Buterin shared a personal experience where he was filmed in Chiang Mai while using his laptop, and the video was later circulated online. Although the incident may have seemed minor, it illustrated how easily personal moments can be captured and spread without consent. He warned that this kind of hyper-visibility, once limited to celebrities or public figures, now extends to anyone—especially those vulnerable due to their job, opinions, or unexpected exposure.

In a future where AI can comb through years of digital records, even seemingly harmless data can be weaponized. Buterin also criticized the idea that national security justifies access to private data. He warned that building backdoors—even for well-intentioned reasons—creates long-term risks of abuse, corruption, and unchecked power. The scale of data being collected today, he wrote, dwarfs that of previous generations, and the potential for harm has grown accordingly.

On April 11, Buterin released a roadmap outlining how Ethereum could build in stronger privacy protections without modifying its Layer-1 consensus model. The roadmap focused on four areas: anonymous payments, privacy at the application level, secure data reads, and obfuscation at the network layer. He suggested that wallets adopt tools like Railgun and Privacy Pools to create “shielded balances,” enabling private-by-default transactions. Additionally, Buterin advocated for generating a unique address per dApp to prevent linkability and for supporting standards such as FOCIL and EIP-7701 to reduce reliance on public transaction relays.

With this roadmap, Buterin reinforced his belief that privacy should be a design principle—not a secondary consideration—in building resilient Web3 systems. Buterin’s ongoing influence over Ethereum’s direction highlights how he continues shaping the blockchain’s approach to individual privacy. His call for stronger privacy measures underscores the growing concern over data misuse and the need for robust privacy protections in the digital age.