Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has presented a nine-step roadmap aimed at improving privacy for users on the Ethereum blockchain.
He revealed this plan, designed to make Ethereum better at protecting user privacy, in a recent announcement.
Buterin outlined what he terms a “maximally simple L1 privacy roadmap” in a blog post on April 10th.
This roadmap details methods to “practically improve the state of privacy experienced by Ethereum’s users” without requiring substantial changes to the core Ethereum consensus.
Integrating User-Friendly Privacy Tools
The roadmap begins with integrating privacy tools, like Privacy Pools and those used by the Railway Private DeFi Wallet, directly into existing cryptocurrency wallets.
Buterin wrote that “wallets should incorporate a ‘shielded balance’ feature.”
He further suggested that the option to “send from shielded balance” should be present when users make transactions, and ideally, this option should be activated by default.
He emphasized these tools should be easy to use, removing the necessity to download separate privacy-focused wallets.
Buterin’s stated goal is to achieve an environment where “a large portion of sends are private” and “private sends are default in numerous instances.”
He clarified that while activity within individual applications might remain public, the connection between a user’s activity across different applications should be private.
The “One Address per Application” Strategy
Buterin suggested a shift to a “one address per application” standard as the default for the Ethereum ecosystem.
He acknowledged this move “entails significant convenience sacrifices” but argued it represents the most practical approach to severing public links between a user’s activities across various applications.
According to Buterin, this method aligns well with in-application wallets, and the required workflows are similar to those already necessary for cross-chain interoperability, like depositing funds from multiple sources to a single chain.
He pointed out this strategy necessitates making privacy-preserving send-to-self transfers the default.
Technical Upgrades and Ecosystem Support for Privacy
Buterin also proposed incorporating trusted execution environment (TEE) security module-based RPC privacy into current wallets.
RPC nodes act as servers providing the interface for applications and users to interact with the blockchain.
While TEEs are a temporary solution, he suggested that private information retrieval (PIR), which provides stronger cryptographic security, should eventually replace them.
He explained PIR is currently not efficient enough for large datasets, thus necessitating the interim use of TEEs.
Beyond TEEs, Buterin suggested wallets should connect to multiple RPC nodes, with the option of utilizing a mixnet.
Ideally, this configuration would employ a distinct RPC node for each decentralized application (DApp).
Buterin additionally recommended implementing several proposals to facilitate the development, operation, and maintenance of privacy protocols such as Railway and Tornado Cash.
Finally, Buterin proposed efforts to enable multiple privacy protocol transactions to share a single on-chain proof and to develop privacy-preserving keystore wallets.
He emphasized that an overarching aim is to establish privacy guarantees that hold firm “against adversaries operating RPC nodes.”
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