- Vitalik Buterin has noted privacy must remain a focus for the Ethereum development team since transparency will not be enough to protect users.
- He said that governments and corporations have a tendency to collect much data and misuse it and that such systems should gather as little data as possible.
- Buterin proposed zero-knowledge proofs and privacy pools which help protect users’ information without compliance and security compromise.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has emphasized that privacy should be a critical focus for developers, warning that relying on transparency and good intentions in global politics is unrealistic in the current environment.
In a blog post dated April 14th, Buterin stated that privacy is the key to free choice, given the growing authority of state and corporate entities. They criticized the idea that rulers have good intentions and that the social culture is evolving in the right way.
As Buterin pointed out, trust in political leaders today has eroded significantly in major economies around the world. He also noted that cultural acceptance was getting worse, as he pointed to search requests for bullies as indicative of a deterioration in social manners.
Buterin’s Personal Concerns Reflect Growing Privacy Challenges
Vitalik Buterin noted that he regards himself as a victim of privacy loss and that this statement applies to other people, too. He said he sometimes feels uncomfortable about the fact that his actions in public can suddenly become news headlines.
He noted that it is not just the ‘bad guys’ who need privacy. Anyone can become a public target without warning. Buterin envisions that privacy will be more precious in future applications like a brain-computer interface, making thoughts vulnerable to artificial intelligence systems.
He also cautioned against corporations wielding the power of data to extract higher prices from customers that they may unfairly consider as having the ability to pay. This case illustrates how privacy loss affects consumers and the company as a result.
Government Backdoors Undermine True Privacy
Buterin also argued against the government’s involvement in autonomous privacy-preserving systems due to the instability of backdoors. He explained that Know Your Customer (KYC) is retrieved not only by governments but by corporations, banks, and intermediaries as well.
He argued that companies that obtain sensitive information are encouraged to use the information in the wrong ways. This can pose a risk even to trusted institutions as they transition and make data that is highly private to an individual a liability in the future.
To minimize such risks, Buterin said that there was a need to avoid the accumulation of personal information in central authorities. He identified this as the best strategy, which is to seek permission to gather only relevant and necessary data.
Zero-Knowledge Proofs Offer Practical Privacy Solutions
Buterin also mentioned that the future of blockchain technology relies on the privacy-preserving aspects of zero-knowledge proofs, or the ZK-proofs. These cryptographic methods enable one to prove statements without providing proper details.
One of his proposals includes ZK-proof-based proof of personhood, which allows users to prove that they are really unique without exposing their identities. This system could use biometric data or government-recognizable documents with the help of decentralized technologies.
He also talked about privacy pools that enable compliant Ethereum (ETH) anonymization. These privacy pools help the user achieve anonymity while satisfying compliance laws. Moreover, he proposed on-device fraud detection tools that check all received messages for scams and fake news without sharing the user data outside of the device.
Buterin pointed out that Ethereum has a privacy roadmap built into it, but the problem is that privacy tools need to be implemented in developers’ protocols and ecosystems. He said that these solutions are imperative as people’s freedoms have to be safeguarded with advancements in technology.
