Ethereum Foundation’s Privacy Team Rebrands as PSE, Unveils End-to-End Onchain Privacy Roadmap

The Ethereum Foundation’s Privacy & Scaling Explorations team rebranded as Privacy Stewards for Ethereum (PSE), unveiling an ambitious roadmap to make privacy the default rather than exception across Ethereum’s technical ￰2￱ transformation shifts focus from cryptography exploration to problem-first solutions addressing Ethereum’s surveillance vulnerabilities. PSE’s new mission centers on three core tracks: private writes to make on-chain actions as cheap and seamless as public ones, private reads enabling surveillance-free blockchain queries, and private proving for accessible data ￰3￱ initiative follows Vitalik Buterin’s April advocacy for privacy as essential to Ethereum’s survival as a global settlement ￰4￱ roadmap warns that without robust privacy protections, Ethereum risks becoming “ the backbone of global surveillance rather than global freedom .” PSE emphasizes that institutions and users will migrate elsewhere if private transactions, identity, and data remain compromised by public blockchain ￰5￱ ￰6￱ ￰7￱ PSE @PrivacyEthereum ￰0￱ — ￰8￱ (@samonchain) September 12, 2025 From Cryptography Lab to Privacy Stewardship Mission PSE abandoned its previous approach of pursuing “cool tech” for concrete problem-solving focused on ecosystem outcomes rather than internal ￰9￱ rebrand includes website updates to ￰10￱ and restructured team goals with particular emphasis on subtraction by default and problem-driven resource ￰11￱ strategy involves continuous problem mapping, execution decisions across lead-support-monitor engagement levels, and public communication through newsletters, community calls, and working ￰12￱ draws inspiration from Protocol and EcoDev announcement simplicity while addressing feedback from Vitalik Buterin, Silviculture Society, and EF ￰13￱ initiatives include PlasmaFold development for private transfers using PCD and folding, targeting proof-of-concept by ￰14￱ team continues to develop the Kohaku privacy wallet, focusing on zk account recovery frameworks and keystore implementation for stealth ￰15￱ governance efforts focus on a “State of private voting 2025” report while collaborating with Aragon on protocol ￰16￱ Institutional Privacy Task Force launches with the EF EcoDev Enterprise team to unblock adoption through privacy specifications and ￰17￱ key aspect of this new direct is PSE’s data ￰18￱ tracks advances in TLSNotary development for production-ready zkTLS protocols, while building SDKs that enable seamless integration across mobile, server, and browser platforms.

Additionally, network privacy initiatives include Private RPC working groups, ORAM solution integration for privacy-preserving state reads, and sphinx mixing protocol implementation for broadcast ￰19￱ team has stated that it will methodically study ORAM and PIR state-of-the-art techniques while translating research into practical wallet and browser ￰20￱ Experts Warn Public Ledgers Threaten Mass Adoption The privacy push addresses growing concerns from industry veterans about Ethereum’s transparency ￰21￱ an interview with Cryptonews in August, British Gold Trust’s Petro Golovko argues public blockchains expose salaries, business deals, and balance sheets, making crypto “unusable for regular people and impossible for institutions. “ Golovko compares current blockchain transparency to the pre-SSL internet, when users refused to enter credit card numbers due to a lack of ￰22￱ maintains that crypto remains stuck in this vulnerable phase, preventing the scaling that transformed e-commerce into a $6 trillion ￰23￱ if your bank account had a public URL.

That’s the reality of crypto today, and why it "will never scale beyond a niche,” says Petro Golovko. #Crypto #Blockchain #Privacy ￰1￱ — ￰24￱ (@cryptonews) August 25, 2025 Institutional adoption concerns center on the exposure of trade secrets and the competitive disadvantage resulting from visible treasury ￰25￱ warns that no board will approve systems exposing supply chains or financial operations globally, limiting crypto to speculation rather than serious ￰26￱ Buterin’s April privacy advocacy stemmed from similar concerns about AI-driven surveillance and data misuse eroding personal ￰27￱ roadmap outlined four areas for enhancing privacy: anonymous payments, application-level privacy, secure data access, and network ￰28￱ Ethereum co-founder advocated for wallets to integrate tools like Railgun and Privacy Pools, creating “ shielded balances ” that enable private-by-default ￰29￱ emphasized that separate addresses per dApp would eliminate traceable links between applications while maintaining ￰30￱ regulatory pressure adds urgency to the development of ￰31￱ member Eugenio Reggianini outlined GDPR compliance practices that require personal data to remain off-chain, with blockchain nodes relaying only encrypted references or proofs, rather than identifiable ￰32￱ forward, the team aims to accelerate ecosystem adoption through community initiatives with privacy and robust security at the center of its decentralized identity systems.