Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin has emphasised the critical need for robust privacy solutions to safeguard individual freedoms and counterbalance increasing governmental and corporate power.
In an April 14 blog post, Buterin argued that excessive reliance on transparency is based on outdated assumptions about human nature and global leadership.
“These assumptions include believing that global political leadership is generally well-intentioned and sane, and that social culture continues to progress in a positive direction,” Buterin wrote.
He added that such beliefs are increasingly proving untrue, citing cultural regression and misuse of data as key concerns.
Buterin shared his personal unease with the lack of privacy, noting that even routine actions can unexpectedly become public.
“Every single action I take outside has some nonzero chance of unexpectedly becoming a public media story,” he explained.
He warned that privacy is not just for those outside societal norms, as anyone could face scrutiny unexpectedly.
The blog post also highlighted the risks of government backdoors in privacy systems.
Buterin argued that such measures are inherently unstable, as they allow not only governments but also corporations and intermediaries to access sensitive data.
“A trustworthy government today can become untrustworthy tomorrow, inheriting all the sensitive data,” he cautioned.
To address these challenges, Buterin proposed solutions centered on zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs), which enable selective disclosure of information without compromising privacy.
He suggested applications like ZK-proof-based proof of personhood to verify uniqueness without revealing identity and privacy pools for regulatory-compliant anonymisation of Ether (CRYPTO:ETH).
Buterin also raised concerns about the increasing volume of data available to authorities compared to historical norms.
He noted that even with advanced privacy measures, traditional methods of surveillance would remain intact, but the scale of accessible data would be significantly reduced.