The Ethereum Foundation has thrown open the doors to a new chapter in blockchain privacy, unveiling the “Privacy Stewards of Ethereum” initiative on September 13, 2025. This move, which replaces the previous “Privacy & Scaling Explorations” team, signals a fundamental shift in the Foundation’s approach: away from experimental research and toward practical, user-focused solutions for privacy on the world’s second-largest blockchain. As governments ramp up oversight of digital assets, Ethereum is betting big on privacy as its next competitive edge.
According to multiple sources, including CryptoSlate and Brave New Coin, the newly minted Privacy Stewards of Ethereum (PSE) team has set out a bold roadmap. Their mission? To make privacy “the norm rather than the exception” across Ethereum’s technical stack—from protocols and infrastructure to applications and wallets. The team’s vision is clear: privacy should be woven into every major Ethereum use case, including finance, identity, and governance, all while maintaining compliance with evolving global regulations.
The timing of this initiative is no accident. The U.S. Treasury Department, led by Secretary Scott Bessent, is reportedly exploring proposals to embed government identity checks into smart contracts. This has stirred unease within the crypto community, which has long championed privacy as a core value. In the words of the PSE team, “Ethereum is on the path to becoming the settlement layer for the world, but without strong privacy, it risks becoming the backbone of global surveillance rather than global freedom.”
At the heart of the new roadmap are three interlocking tracks: Private Writes, Private Reads, and Private Proving. Each addresses a different privacy pain point for Ethereum users and developers.
Private Writes focuses on making private transactions as seamless and affordable as regular ones. The flagship project here is PlasmaFold, an experimental Layer 2 network tailored for private transfers. PlasmaFold uses a clever approach: servers handle block proofs, while users keep balance proofs on their own devices. This setup allows for instant exits—no drawn-out or complicated withdrawal processes. According to Brave New Coin, the team plans to showcase a PlasmaFold proof-of-concept at Devconnect in Argentina on November 17, 2025, a major milestone that could set the tone for privacy innovation in the coming year.
Private Reads is all about plugging the leaks that occur when users interact with Ethereum applications. Traditional Remote Procedure Call (RPC) services can inadvertently expose sensitive data, such as users’ IP addresses or which accounts they’re interested in. To tackle this, the Privacy Stewards have formed a dedicated working group—including internal researchers, engineers, and outside advisors—to develop privacy-preserving RPC solutions. The goal? To ensure users can read from Ethereum without tipping their hand to potential snoops or surveillance actors.
The third prong, Private Proving, aims to democratize zero-knowledge proofs—cryptographic tools that let users verify information without revealing the underlying data. The ambition is to make these proofs easy and cheap to generate on everyday devices, not just high-powered computers. This “prove anywhere” capability could unlock a new era of privacy-preserving applications, from confidential voting to secure identity verification.
But the roadmap doesn’t stop there. The PSE team has set a brisk pace for the next three to six months. In addition to the PlasmaFold demo, they plan to publish a comprehensive “State of Private Voting 2025” report, collaborate with Aragon on private voting systems for decentralized governance, and roll out confidential DeFi protocols aimed at institutional clients. Another highlight is Kohaku, a privacy wallet in development that leverages zero-knowledge tools for account recovery and transactions—no identity disclosure required.
This surge of activity is not happening in a vacuum. The roadmap draws inspiration from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who has long argued that privacy is essential not just for users, but for the security and resilience of the network itself. As Live Bitcoin News reported, Buterin and other researchers, including Oskar Thorén and the Silviculture Society, have played a key role in shaping the Foundation’s privacy strategy. Their collective input has helped ensure the roadmap is both ambitious and grounded in the realities of blockchain development.
Sam Richards, who leads the Privacy Stewards team, put it bluntly: “Ethereum deserves to become core infrastructure for global digital commerce, identity, collaboration, and the internet of value. But this potential is impossible without private data, transactions, and identity.” That sense of urgency is echoed by industry leaders like Cathie Wood, founder of ARK Invest, who has publicly endorsed the initiative. Wood argues that robust privacy features could cement Ethereum’s dominance in the institutional market, much as previous upgrades like Ethereum 2.0 did for scalability and security.
So, what does all this mean for everyday users? If the roadmap succeeds, privacy will shift from an optional add-on to the default state on Ethereum. Users could enjoy private transfers as easily as regular transactions, shield their personal data when interacting with apps, participate in confidential voting, browse blockchain data anonymously, and verify their identity securely—without ever revealing more than necessary.
The team is also acutely aware of the challenges ahead. Network speed, regulatory hurdles, and the looming threat of quantum computing all pose risks to Ethereum’s privacy ambitions. But by embedding privacy at every layer and maintaining open lines of communication—through newsletters, meetings, and direct engagement with developers—the Foundation hopes to keep the community informed and involved every step of the way.
Looking ahead, the Ethereum Foundation has set its sights on integrating a native Layer 1 zkEVM (zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine) by the end of 2025. If achieved, this would bring privacy features directly to Ethereum’s core, setting a new standard for blockchain confidentiality and compliance. The move is seen by many as a mature, ecosystem-wide response to the mounting pressures of digital financial surveillance and regulatory scrutiny.
Ultimately, the Privacy Stewards initiative could prove decisive in Ethereum’s quest to remain the leading smart contract platform. By making privacy a foundational feature—rather than an afterthought—Ethereum is positioning itself not just to weather the regulatory storm, but to lead the way in building a more secure, user-friendly, and private internet of value.
