Vitalik has launched Kohaku! The Ethereum privacy revolution has begun, with a 47-person team sprinting full speed.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has released Kohaku, a suite of privacy-protecting encryption tools designed to enhance the privacy and security of the Ethereum ecosystem. Kohaku provides a modular framework that allows developers to build secure, privacy-focused Wallets without relying on centralized third-party institutions. The Ethereum Foundation has launched a privacy cluster composed of 47 researchers, engineers, and cryptographers.

Vitalik admits Ethereum's privacy is lagging and needs to catch up

(Source: X)

Vitalik Buterin rarely publicly acknowledged the shortcomings of Ethereum in privacy protection during his speech at Devcon. “We are in the final stages,” he emphasized, “and in the final stages, we need to invest a lot of effort to improve. The same goes for security.” This candid statement is not common among blockchain founders, indicating that Vitalik's attention to privacy issues has risen to a strategic priority.

As the world's second largest blockchain, Ethereum's fully transparent transaction records have always been both an advantage and a disadvantage. Anyone can view the complete transaction history, holdings, and fund flows of any address on the block explorer. This level of transparency is valuable for auditing and compliance, but is disastrous for personal privacy. Imagine if your bank account balance and every transaction were publicly available to the world; this is the reality that Ethereum users currently face.

At the Ethereum Cryptopunk Conference, Vitalik pointed out that Ethereum is on the “Privacy Upgrade Path” to provide “real-world privacy and security.” This statement reveals the core of the issue: Ethereum needs to shift from the theoretical ideals of decentralization to practical privacy protection. “Privacy is freedom. It gives us the space to live in ways that meet our needs without constantly worrying about how our actions are perceived by various centralized and decentralized coercive political and social entities,” Vitalik said.

This high-level expression of philosophy shows that Vitalik has elevated the issue of privacy from a technical level to a fundamental human rights level. It's not just about improving the technical details of the protocol, but rather a fundamental question of whether blockchain can truly empower individual freedom. In recent months, Vitalik and the Ethereum Foundation have more clearly regarded privacy rights as a basic right and goal for blockchain developers.

Kohaku Framework Core Functions and Technical Architecture

Kohaku is a set of privacy-protecting encryption tools designed to enhance the privacy and security of the Ethereum ecosystem. This effort, led by the Ethereum Foundation and other key ecosystem stakeholders, represents Vitalik's steadfast support for privacy as a core goal for blockchain developers. Kohaku is an open-source project aimed at enhancing on-chain privacy and security. It provides a modular foundational framework that allows developers to build secure, privacy-focused Wallets without relying on centralized third-party institutions.

Kohaku's GitHub page indicates that the project is still under development. Currently, the codebase includes packages for protocols such as Railgun and Privacy Pools, allowing users to securely hide their funds and provide “proof of innocence”. This “proof of innocence” mechanism is extremely important as it addresses the contradiction between privacy and compliance: users can protect transaction details from being made public while proving that the source of their funds is legitimate and not involved in money laundering or other illegal activities.

For example, the Privacy Pools developed by 0xbow use “whitelists” to prevent bad actors from hiding their funds. This mechanism allows users to selectively prove that their funds are not associated with known illegal addresses without exposing the specific details of the transactions. This is a significant breakthrough in privacy technology, as it realizes “selective transparency” for the first time: users can demonstrate compliance to regulatory bodies or auditors while maintaining privacy from the public.

In the future, Kohaku may develop tools such as mixnets for network-level anonymity and browsers based on zero-knowledge proofs. A mixnet is a technique that obfuscates the source of network traffic, preventing third parties from tracking users' online activities. A zero-knowledge proof-based browser allows users to prove they have certain qualifications or assets when interacting with dApps without revealing their Wallet address or specific amounts.

Live demonstration on November 16 shocked the audience

During the Kohaku Wallet demonstration held on November 16, a user successfully blocked public visible funds through Railgun integration. The shocking effect of this live demonstration is comparable to the technology itself, as it showcases to the world the possibility of Ethereum privacy protection turning from theory into reality. The concept is to provide default privacy protection options for all Ethereum Wallets (such as MetaMask and Rainbow).

“Default Privacy Protection” is the keyword. Currently, Ethereum users must actively seek out and use complex privacy tools if they want privacy, which is too high a threshold for most ordinary users. Kohaku's goal is to make privacy protection a default option, just like modern browsers have HTTPS encryption enabled by default. Users do not need to understand the underlying cryptography; they just need to click a button to enjoy privacy protection.

This design philosophy of “default privacy” stands in stark contrast to the “default transparency” of currently mainstream wallets. MetaMask and Rainbow, as the most popular Ethereum wallets, have tens of millions of users. If Kohaku successfully integrates into these wallets, it will bring revolutionary changes to the entire Ethereum ecosystem. When users send transactions, they can choose to use privacy mode, and the transactions will still settle on the Ethereum main chain, but the transaction details are encrypted and hidden.

The Railgun used in the live demonstration is an operational privacy protocol that utilizes zero-knowledge proof technology to implement private transactions on Ethereum. Users can deposit funds into Railgun's privacy pool, conduct transactions within the privacy pool, and finally withdraw the funds to a new address. Throughout the whole process, external observers cannot track the flow of funds or the specifics of the transactions. Kohaku integrates this technology into a standard Wallet interface, significantly lowering the barrier to use.

Ethereum Foundation 47 People Privacy Cluster Full Speed Ahead

In addition to Vitalik increasingly publicly advocating for privacy as a fundamental right, the Ethereum Foundation has also doubled its investment in privacy research and development goals. Last month, the Ethereum Foundation launched a privacy cluster, which is a team of 47 researchers, engineers, and cryptographers dedicated to making privacy a “first-class property” of Ethereum.

A team size of 47 people is extremely rare in projects at the Ethereum Foundation, indicating that privacy issues have been elevated to the same level of priority as core protocol development. This team covers multiple professional fields: cryptographers are responsible for designing zero-knowledge proofs and other encryption primitives, engineers are tasked with implementing and optimizing code, and researchers explore new privacy protection paradigms and attack vectors.

Three Key Focus Areas of Privacy Clusters

Private Voting System: Achieve privacy protection for on-chain governance voting, preventing bribery and coercion.

Confidential DeFi: Allows users to trade within DeFi protocols without exposing their holdings and trading strategies.

Privacy Infrastructure: Develop universal privacy protection tools and standards for use across the ecosystem.

In addition, the Ethereum Foundation's Privacy and Scalability Exploration Team was renamed to the Ethereum Privacy Management Team in September, marking a shift in the team's focus from speculative exploration of new technologies to solving practical problems. This change in name may seem minor, but it fundamentally reflects a shift in strategic emphasis. “Exploration” implies researching possibilities, while “Management” means addressing privacy as a core issue that must be resolved.

The team hopes to make progress in features such as private voting and confidential DeFi. Private voting is crucial for DAO governance, as public voting is susceptible to bribery, coercion, and herd behavior. Confidential DeFi presents a greater challenge, as it requires protecting user privacy while still allowing the protocol to verify the validity and solvency of transactions. This necessitates highly complex zero-knowledge proof technology, but once realized, it will fundamentally change the game for DeFi.