Ethereum developers are pushing forward with one of the most ambitious goals for the network: building privacy directly into its core infrastructure.
A newly released roadmap from the Ethereum Foundation’s rebranded Privacy Stewards of Ethereum (PSE) lays out how the team intends to make the blockchain more secure and private without compromising scalability.
The PSE group, formerly known as Privacy & Scaling Explorations, has shifted from theoretical research to practical solutions. The updated roadmap, published by team member Sam Richards, stresses that without strong privacy guarantees, Ethereum risks becoming a system of surveillance rather than a platform for global freedom.
The roadmap sets out three long-term priorities. The first, private writes, focuses on making privacy-protected onchain transactions as seamless and inexpensive as public transfers. The second, private reads, aims to allow users to interact with blockchain data without exposing their identity or intent. The third, private proving, looks to make zero-knowledge proofs easier to generate and verify on consumer devices.
These initiatives are expected to guide Ethereum privacy development over the next several years, even as specific projects and deliverables evolve with the ecosystem.
PSE is already building out proof-of-concept systems. Work is ongoing on PlasmaFold, a Layer 2 design that introduces privacy-enabled transfers. The team hopes to showcase its progress at Devconnect, Ethereum’s upcoming developer conference in Argentina this November. Other priorities include research into confidential DeFi protocols that balance compliance with privacy and a 2025 report on the state of private voting.
On the private reads front, PSE is addressing data leaks from RPC (Remote Procedure Call) services. Standard RPC usage can expose IP addresses or account activity, so the group has convened a working group to explore privacy-preserving alternatives. Meanwhile, its private proving track — referred to internally as “prove anywhere” — is focused on making zero-knowledge proof generation cheaper and more accessible across different devices.
The roadmap credits inspiration and contributions from across the Ethereum ecosystem, including insights from Vitalik Buterin, the Silviculture Society, and independent researcher Oskar Thorén. Richards emphasized that the PSE team will continue refining its direction based on feedback and emerging technical breakthroughs.
For Ethereum’s builders, the stakes are high. As the network cements its position as a global settlement layer, the foundation believes privacy must be woven into its design. Without it, developers argue, Ethereum could fail the very users it aims to empower.
