Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin on Wednesday detailed three short-term initiatives to bring privacy directly onto the blockchain, addressing a key institutional requirement highlighted at Consensus Hong Kong. The proposals come amid a turbulent internal transition at the Ethereum Foundation, but signal a clear technical direction.
1. Uncensorable Private Transactions: FOCIL and Account Abstraction
Currently, private transactions sent via mixers like Tornado Cash first enter the public mempool, where block builders can see and exclude them. FOCIL (fork-choice enforced inclusion lists) counters this by allowing a validator committee to propose a mandatory transaction list; ignoring it risks block rejection. Account abstraction further enhances privacy by enabling smart-contract-based accounts with multisig, social recovery, and fee sponsorship, reducing reliance on third-party tools.
2. Keyed Nonces: Breaking Transaction Linkability
Every Ethereum account uses a sequential nonce (e.g., ticket #5, #6), allowing observers to link transactions from the same user even if content is hidden. The fix replaces the single counter with a (nonce_key, nonce_seq) structure, giving each account multiple independent counters for different activity types. As researcher soispoke.eth explained, this “gives frame transactions independent replay domains,” making onchain correlation far harder.
3. Access-Layer Privacy: Kohaku for Private Reads
Querying the blockchain exposes users’ IP addresses and wallet identities to RPC node providers. Kohaku, an open-source toolkit introduced in 2025, employs private information retrieval (PIR) technology so wallets can request data without revealing which address or contract they are querying. The node still serves the request but learns nothing about the specific data sought, eliminating metadata leakage at the access layer.
Buterin described these three measures as near-term priorities to rebuild Ethereum’s privacy infrastructure. While the Ethereum Foundation navigates leadership changes, the technical roadmap remains on course. If successfully implemented, Ethereum could offer native private transactions meeting institutional compliance standards, potentially positioning it as the go-to platform for enterprise blockchain applications.