The co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, has renewed calls for stronger protections in private life between emerging technologies of cryptography and artificial intelligence (AI).
In a blog article on April 14, Buterin argued that privacy is not only a personal right but a vital safeguard for decentralization, innovation and freedom.
He wrote:
“Supporting confidentiality for everyone and making necessary, universal, reliable and safe tools is one of the important challenges of our time.”
Buterin stressed that privacy allowed us to act freely without constantly guessing how others, whether governments, platforms or algorithms could judge or respond.
He also explained how he thinks that privacy is essential to support the systems of society that rely on confidentiality to function properly.
In addition, with better tools to control information sharing, confidentiality can unlock new opportunities for technological and social progress.
He concluded:
“Confidentiality can no longer be ignored.”
The growing role of AI in the centralization of data
Buterin stressed that centralization often stems from the control of information.
In his opinion, the one who has the data ultimately exercises power. This imbalance threatens the fundamental ideals of blockchain and other decentralized systems.
Although data ownership concerns are generally focused on censorship or deduction, Buterin has warned against deeper problems emerging from AI systems.
According to him, AI accelerates the centralization of data collection and analysis. The problem is aggravated by the growing quantity of personal information that individuals share online, sometimes without knowing it.
While technologies like brain interfaces develop, Buterin warned that future privacy violations could go beyond metadata to include thoughts and intentions.
He said:
“In the near future, we will probably see people making AI products that make even deeper intrusions in confidentiality: passive collection of your Internet navigation models, email and cat history, biometric data, and more. In theory, your data remains private. In practice, this does not always seem to be the case. ”
Buterin has recognized that centralization even well intentioned can lead to instability. Governments or companies can abuse or sell sensitive data, and systems designed to be secure are always vulnerable to internal abuses or external attacks.
He also warned that changes in political regimes could change how data is managed overnight.
However, he pointed out that modern cryptographic tools offer new hope to counter these events. Technologies such as zero knowledge of knowledge (ZK-Snarks), fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) and obscure techniques make it possible to protect user data without sacrificing features or confidence.
For example, ZK-Snarks allows individuals to prove their reliability without revealing their identity, while FHE allows the calculation of data without exposing the real data.
