EEA launches its privacy working group

As Enterprise Ethereum moves from experimentation to production, privacy is at the center and determines what comes next.

Although mature privacy technologies exist in the Ethereum ecosystem, institutions lack structured clarity. They need a framework to evaluate approaches, understand trade-offs, and determine which models align with regulatory, operational, and fiduciary requirements.

The EEA Privacy Working Group was established to address this need for clarity.

Financial institutions and businesses are no longer debating whether to deploy on Ethereum, but rather how to do so. Confidentiality is the critical factor that determines whether the deployment moves from pilot to production.

Institutional deployment requires rigorous confidentiality. For example, a bank that tokenizes assets on Ethereum must ensure transaction confidentiality so that counterparties, amounts and instrument details are not visible to all participants. A regulated fund using on-chain settlement must demonstrate compliance without disclosing sensitive position data. Likewise, a company managing supply chain operations on Ethereum must protect its proprietary business relationships while maintaining auditability and data integrity.

These are not exceptional cases; These are basic requirements for institutions subject to fiduciary duties, data protection regulations, and competing privacy constraints. Without privacy infrastructure, Ethereum’s institutional deployment cannot progress, regardless of progress in other areas.

The Privacy Working Group brings together organizations developing cutting-edge privacy solutions within the Ethereum ecosystem:

Applied Blockchain (Silent Data): Confidential computing and trusted execution environments supporting privacy-preserving data verification.

Consensys (Linea): Layer 2 infrastructure designed to support enterprise deployments with privacy capabilities.

COTI: Privacy-focused Layer 2 architecture specifically designed for confidential transactions and enterprise applications on Ethereum.

EY (Nightfall): Zero-knowledge infrastructure enabling private transactions on public Ethereum, developed for enterprise use by one of the Big Four accounting firms.

Polygon: Scalable Layer 2 infrastructure supporting institutional payment and settlement flows with privacy considerations.

Kaleido (Paladin): Privacy-preserving token transfer infrastructure designed for regulated enterprise environments.

ZKsync: zero-knowledge rollup technology enabling scalable, privacy-enhanced transaction execution on Ethereum.

The Ethereum Foundation’s Privacy & Scaling Explorations (PSE) team and the Institutional Privacy Task Force (IPTF) also contribute, providing perspective on the Ethereum mainnet privacy roadmap.

This is a collaborative initiative, not limited to a single supplier. It brings together expertise in confidential computing, zero-knowledge proofs, privacy-focused Layer 2s, and enterprise middleware, reflecting the range of approaches institutions should consider for production deployments.

The group’s initial mandate is to map the current landscape of enterprise-relevant privacy solutions on the Ethereum mainnet and Layer 2 environments.

The result will be a structured publication that supports institutional decision-making by providing greater clarity and shared standards.

The publication will provide:

• A structured overview of available privacy approaches: what each technology enables, how it works, and where it is currently deployed.
• Implementation considerations: operational, regulatory, and technical trade-offs translated for institutional decision-makers rather than protocol researchers.
• Deployment Context: Map privacy architectures to business requirements, including transaction privacy, regulatory compliance, auditability, and data protection.

The first version of this publication is currently under development. Due to rapid innovation in privacy infrastructure, the working group will regularly update this resource to reflect new technical developments, production deployments, and evolving regulatory frameworks.

“Privacy is one of the biggest barriers to serious enterprise adoption of Ethereum. The Ethereum Foundation’s Privacy Exploration and Scaling team and Institutional Privacy Working Group are focused on advancing open, interoperable privacy building blocks across the stack. We’re excited to see the EEA Privacy Working Group bring the ecosystem together.”

— Mo Jalil, Head of Institutional Privacy, Ethereum Foundation

The participation of the Ethereum Foundation marks an important change. Privacy becomes a core part of the protocol roadmap, rather than an external business requirement. The AEE serves as a coordination layer, linking evolving protocol capabilities to institutional implementation needs.

“The formation of this Privacy Working Group reflects the market’s transition to true institutional deployment. The role of the AEE is to bring together ecosystem leaders to coordinate privacy innovation while supporting Ethereum’s open ethics and enabling enterprise-grade privacy, compliance, and scalability requirements.”

— Redwan Meslem, Executive Director, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance

Privacy is often described as a feature, but for institutions it is essential infrastructure.

Organizations subject to regulatory oversight, fiduciary accountability, and competitive pressures cannot deploy systems that make sensitive information widely visible by default. Transaction details, positions, counterparties and business relationships must be protected, while enabling auditability, compliance and interoperability.

Addressing these challenges requires more than individual technical solutions; it requires coordination. Institutions need common standards, clear implementation pathways, and better alignment between technology providers developing privacy solutions for Ethereum.

The EEA fulfills this role by providing a neutral forum where organizations can address these challenges collectively, supported by governance structures that enable cooperation while protecting intellectual property and competitive interests.

For companies evaluating Ethereum deployment, the privacy landscape is becoming clearer. The working group’s findings will provide the structured clarity institutional decision-makers need to move from assessment to production. The Privacy Working Group aims to accelerate this process by translating technical advances into practical guidance for production deployment.

The Privacy Working Group welcomes organizations interested in contributing to the development of enterprise privacy standards and implementation guidance for Ethereum.

Organizations building privacy infrastructure, deploying privacy-aware solutions, or assessing institutional privacy requirements are encouraged to participate in the working group’s efforts. To find out more about contributing to the Privacy Working Group or joining the AEE, please contact the AEE team directly.