Vitalik Advocates for Individual Private ETH Accounts Via ZK-Proofs

• The Ethereum network is focused on making individual privacy a key feature through ZK technology.
• Vitalik Buterin believes the next major phase for ZK-proofs on Ethereum is to enable private account abstraction.
• The rising popularity of privacy on Ethereum has helped it gain bullish macro momentum.

The Ethereum (ETH) network, led by co-founder Vitalik Buterin, is focused on enabling compliant mainstream privacy. Buterin has argued that the next logical target for the Zero Knowledge (ZK) proof is to introduce privacy at the individual level through desktop and mobile devices. 

Furthermore, institutions seeking to adopt the Ethereum ecosystem in a privacy-centric manner have already used private Ethereum Virtual Machines (EVM) like the Prividium network.

Buterin Advocates for Individual Private Transactions on Ethereum 

Buterin has argued that ZK-proofs should be implemented on the client-side to enable account abstraction. He noted that integrating ZK-proofs with mainstream wallets will enable individual users to control private funds, without revealing wallet addresses. Buterin stated, “This allows total convergence: your ETH account becomes a universal authorization mechanism, and can even secure offchain applications.”

Buterin has led the Ethereum developers in making privacy mandatory and not a privilege for the select few. Furthermore, Buterin believes that it is not possible to expose investors’ positions, cash flows, and counter parties to the entire world and still be competitive, and meet regulatory constraints.

Earlier this month, Buterin signed a Trustless Manifesto advocating for the Ethereum ecosystem to enhance user privacy. 

Expected Market Impact 

The rising adoption of privacy on the Ethereum network has increased its liquidity and traded volume, fueled by institutional investors. With the ongoing criminalization of privacy in major jurisdictions, led by some European politicians, the demand for blockchain technology as a solution has surged significantly.

Furthermore, privacy-centric crypto assets have been a hot topic in the past few weeks. Notably, Zcash (ZEC), which offers both private and non-private transaction features, has grown more than 100% in the past month.

The Ethereum network has the highest DeFi activity, whereby its current total value locked (TVL) hovered around $64 billion, and its stablecoin market cap is at about $164 billion. As such, a potential implementation of the privacy-centric transitions at the individual level would unlock the next mainstream adoption phase for the Ethereum network.

Such a move would democratize the Ethereum network and make it competitive with emerging layer one (L1) chains dubbed ‘ETH killers’. Ultimately, the ETH price will significantly benefit from rising adoption in a similar manner to other privacy-centric projects.

Related: Vitalik Backs ‘Trustless Manifesto’ and Calls Time on Centralized Relayers