Ethereum News Today: Ethereum Declares Privacy a "First-Class Property" to Drive Adoption

The Ethereum Foundation has announced the formation of a 47-member Privacy Cluster, led by Igor Barinov, to advance privacy-focused research and development across the Ethereum ecosystem. This initiative consolidates existing projects such as Semaphore (anonymous signaling) and MACI (private voting) under a unified framework while introducing new tools like Kohaku, a privacy-preserving wallet and SDK. The cluster aims to balance privacy with regulatory compliance, addressing concerns around illicit finance while ensuring users and institutions can transact, govern, and build without exposing sensitive data [1].

The Privacy Cluster operates across five key areas: private reads and writes for seamless payments and interactions, portable proofs for identity and asset ownership, private identities through selective disclosure, improved user experience (UX) for privacy tools, and institutional adoption via a dedicated task force. These efforts extend the work of the Privacy and Scaling Explorations (PSE) team, which has produced over 50 open-source projects since 2018. The cluster's approach emphasizes open-source research, institution-facing task forces, and user-centric tools to normalize privacy usage [2].

A central component of the cluster is Kohaku, a modular SDK and reference wallet designed to enhance wallet privacy and security. Developed in collaboration with teams like Ambire and Railgun, Kohaku aims to reduce reliance on centralized services by enabling private sending and receiving, IP address concealment, and social recovery via zero-knowledge proofs (e.g., ZK Email). The project's first iteration, a browser extension-based wallet, targets advanced users and prioritizes cryptographic accessibility. Long-term goals include integrating privacy features at the device level, such as a native Ethereum browser for decentralized applications (DApps) [3].

The Ethereum Foundation frames privacy as a "first-class property" essential to the network's credibility and adoption. With over 700 privacy-focused projects in the broader crypto ecosystem, Ethereum's primitives-due to its size and influence-often set de facto standards. The cluster's work, including projects like Private Proving and Institutional Privacy Task Force (IPTF), seeks to translate regulatory requirements into privacy specifications for enterprise use cases. This aligns with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin's advocacy for privacy as a core tenet of decentralization, emphasizing its role in preventing surveillance and data misuse [4].

Challenges remain, as privacy features must navigate regulatory scrutiny, particularly around mixers and shielded transactions. The Foundation's cautious approach combines open-source development with institution-specific solutions, such as Kohaku's institutional-grade privacy tools. By integrating privacy into both protocol-level innovations and user-facing applications, the cluster aims to address adoption barriers for institutions while maintaining Ethereum's open and neutral infrastructure [5].

Sources:

[1] Coindesk (https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2025/10/09/ethereum-foundation-expands-privacy-push-with-dedicated-research-cluster)

[2] Cointelegraph (https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-devs-unveil-kohaku-wallet-privacy-roadmap)

[3] Cryptonews.com (https://cryptonews.com/news/ethereum-foundation-forms-47-member-privacy-cluster-to-make-privacy-first-class-property/)

[4] Decrypt.co (https://decrypt.co/343614/ethereum-foundation-launches-new-cluster-focused-on-privacy)

[5] Ethereum Foundation Blog (https://blog.ethereum.org/2025/10/08/privacy-commitment)