The Ethereum Foundation last month said it was taking its privacy efforts a step further. It announced the Privacy Cluster, a group of 47 coordinators, cryptographers, engineers and researchers with one mission: to make privacy “a first-class property of the Ethereum Ecosystem.”

At Ethereum DevConnect, the EF's Andy Guzman and Oskar Thorén join Unchained to discuss the formation of the group in the context of Zcash's recent resurgence, why privacy is important for crypto and the motivations behind Ethereum's recent push.

They also delve into the difference between the current privacy push and past efforts, as well as how it could unlock new use cases and the reaction of institutions. Additionally, they talk about competition with Zcash, reveal implementation timelines and delve into the impact on crypto data analysis.

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Guests:

Andy Guzman, PSE Lead at Ethereum Foundation
Oskar Thorén, Technical Lead of IPTF (Institutional Privacy Task Force) at Ethereum Foundation

Links:

Unchained:

Timestamps:

🚀 00:00 Introduction

🥷1:33 What is the Ethereum Foundation Privacy Cluster?

🤔 3:49 Did Zcash's resurgence inspire the launch of the Privacy Cluster?

📽 6:29 How the Privacy Stewards of Ethereum has grown over the years

🔗 8:39 How the Institutional Privacy Task Force's got started

💡 10:10 Why privacy is important in crypto

🔮 13:54 What is driving Ethereum's recent privacy push

📝 15:21 Andy and Oskar discuss their backgrounds

🤔 16:48 The difference between Ethereum's current privacy efforts and past efforts like Tornado Cash

🤞18:43 How Ethereum's privacy push could unlock new use cases

🛣 25:09 Andy and Oskar outline different approaches to privacy

🤔 29:52 What are private reads and writes?

👀 35:16 Why Andy says adopting onchain privacy is a question of risk for institutions

🫆 36:39 Why private identities are important

🤔 40:13 What happens if identity proofs are stolen

📺 43:27 How the Ethereum Foundation wants to improve privacy experience

🧏 45:44 How the IPTF’s role is unique

⁉️ 47:51 What is Kohaku?

👀 51:02 Is Ethereum competing with Zcash?

💡 1:01:29 The Ethereum Foundation's thoughts on private viewing keys

🗓 1:03:44 Implementation timeline

🔮 1:05:50 How the crypto privacy push could impact blockchain data analysis

💥 1:08:46 Final thoughts

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