Ethereum Foundation Assembles Team to Enhance Privacy

The team will focus on developing solutions for confidential operations and decentralized identification.

The non-profit Ethereum Foundation (EF) has assembled a team of 47 specialists to enhance the privacy of the network’s base layer.

The Ethereum Foundation is committed to working alongside the ecosystem to make privacy a priority.

Privacy is normal. Privacy is for everyone.https://t.co/xwBT5WvwhJ

— Ethereum Foundation (@ethereumfndn) October 8, 2025

The team includes leading researchers, engineers, and cryptographers from the ecosystem. Blockchain expert Igor Barinov will lead the group.

The so-called Privacy Cluster will focus on developing solutions for confidential operations and decentralized identification. Other key areas of work include:

• implementing selective data disclosure mechanisms and ZKID technologies;
• optimizing the user experience with private protocols;
• creating the secure Kohaku wallet and an open SDK, which will provide access to advanced cryptography for ordinary users and developers.

The program will build on the work of the Privacy Stewards for Ethereum (PSE, formerly Privacy & Scaling Explorations) team. Since its inception in 2018, the team has created over 50 open-source projects, including the Semaphore protocol for anonymous signaling and MACI for private voting.

“Improving privacy in Ethereum is a significant responsibility. By enhancing it at all levels, we will protect users and open new opportunities for developers and institutions,” EF representatives stated.

In September, the European Union proposed the “Chat Control” bill, which could grant authorities unlimited access to user communications.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin criticized the initiative, stating that it threatens citizens’ right to privacy in digital communications.