Key Takeaways:
- Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin argued that privacy must become a built-in feature of decentralized systems to protect users from growing surveillance threats.
- He pointed to advanced cryptographic tools like ZK-proofs and homomorphic encryption as essential to protecting data.
- His recent roadmap proposes wallet-level and network-level privacy features for Ethereum without altering its Layer-1 consensus.
- Privacy, according to Buterin, should be viewed as a pillar of freedom and resilience in Web3—not a technical afterthought.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a new article titled “Why I Support Privacy” on Monday, in which he urged the Web3 community to treat privacy as a core part of decentralization, amid growing concerns over AI-driven surveillance and data misuse.
Buterin’s essay outlined the philosophical, technical, and social arguments for embedding privacy at the foundation of Web3 design, as artificial intelligence and large-scale data harvesting have started eroding personal autonomy and civil liberties.
He explained that his shift toward privacy advocacy stemmed from a core belief: information is power—and when that power becomes centralized, it risks distorting democratic balance.
Recent advances in cryptography, combined with increasingly sophisticated AI systems, have made the call for stronger privacy more urgent than ever.
Buterin emphasized that privacy today is about more than just hiding secrets—it is about maintaining personal agency in systems that are trending toward surveillance by default.
He named fully homomorphic encryption, ZK-proofs, and code obfuscation as foundational tools for developers to build privacy-preserving decentralized systems.
Why Vitalik Buterin Sees Privacy as Essential to Freedom
In his article, Buterin framed privacy as a basic component of freedom in the digital age.
He referenced the early 2000s optimism around transparency—such as David Brin’s The Transparent Society and Scott McNealy’s infamous “privacy is dead” comment—and argued that such views had aged poorly.
Instead of promoting fairness, he wrote, transparency has increasingly allowed powerful institutions to operate without oversight, while individuals lose control over their own lives.
To illustrate this shift, Buterin shared a personal experience: he was filmed in Chiang Mai while using his laptop, and the video was later circulated online.
Although the incident may have seemed minor, it illustrated how easily personal moments can be captured and spread without consent.
He warned that this kind of hyper-visibility, once limited to celebrities or public figures, now extends to anyone—especially those vulnerable due to their job, opinions, or unexpected exposure.
In a future where AI can comb through years of digital records, even seemingly harmless data can be weaponized.
Buterin also criticized the idea that national security justifies access to private data.
He warned that building backdoors—even for well-intentioned reasons—creates long-term risks of abuse, corruption, and unchecked power.
The scale of data being collected today, he wrote, dwarfs that of previous generations, and the potential for harm has grown accordingly.
Integrating Privacy Into Decentralized Systems
On April 11, Buterin released a roadmap outlining how Ethereum could build in stronger privacy protections without modifying its Layer-1 consensus model.
@VitalikButerin proposes a new Ethereum privacy roadmap, aiming to integrate seamless privacy features into the blockchain without overhauling its core.#Ethereum #Privacyhttps://t.co/dT4wYxA2Ju
— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) April 11, 2025
The roadmap focused on four areas: anonymous payments, privacy at the application level, secure data reads, and obfuscation at the network layer.
He suggested that wallets adopt tools like Railgun and Privacy Pools to create “shielded balances,” enabling private-by-default transactions.
Additionally, Buterin advocated for generating a unique address per dApp to prevent linkability and for supporting standards such as FOCIL and EIP-7701 to reduce reliance on public transaction relays.
With this roadmap, Buterin reinforced his belief that privacy should be a design principle—not a secondary consideration—in building resilient Web3 systems.
Buterin’s ongoing influence over Ethereum’s direction highlights how Vitalik Buterin continues shaping the blockchain’s approach to individual privacy.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
They help shield data by encrypting transactions, segmenting user identities, and reducing record linkages. Academic studies affirm these methods boost privacy and secure user interactions in distributed networks.
Decentralized networks secure data by using layered encryption, strict transaction isolation, and continuous monitoring of digital flows. Expert analyses indicate such measures lower risks of unauthorized data access.
Stronger privacy protocols can reshape the digital rights environment by reducing data misuse and curbing intrusive oversight. Studies show that secure designs help maintain user freedoms in online ecosystems.
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