Nicole Yeh

Today we're launching EthSystems. We build confidential systems for institutional Ethereum. Institutions want to use Ethereum, but one of the biggest problems is the lack of built-in, modular privacy tools. We were the Ethereum Foundation's Institutional Privacy Task Force (IPTF) for the past year. We had hundreds of conversations with central banks, regulators, tier-one banks, and asset managers, shipping open source work the whole time. Wall Street has found crypto as an asset class, but not yet as commercial infrastructure. Institutions want to run real flows on Ethereum: stablecoins, tokenized assets, settlement. These are businesses with billions of dollars on the line, and no bank will operate in full public view. On a public ledger, confidentiality is the hard part: each party to a transaction should see what it has a right to see, and nothing more. We have a year of proof of work: private bonds, confidential stablecoin transfers, private settlement across chains, the Ethereum Privacy Map, and more. All with protocol specs and security properties, at our website. We've spent a decade working on privacy in crypto. We know there's no silver bullet. Different use cases need different systems, each designed, specified, and hardened properly, and someone has to do that work. That's why EthSystems exists. We're an independent, for-profit company, backed by long-term Ethereum-aligned investors. This is a decade-long transition, and we aren't going anywhere. If you're an institution that wants to build on Ethereum, talk to us. We're hiring: BD in New York, protocol engineers, ops: join@ethsystems.org

Yesterday was my last day at the Ethereum Foundation. Today we are launching EthSystems. We build confidential systems for institutional Ethereum. I've spent close to a decade building privacy infrastructure in crypto: p2p messaging at @ethstatus, developing Waku protocols at Vac (both now part of @logos_network), mobile proving tooling with @zkmopro, teaching zero-knowledge proofs with my zkintro primer, and advising @ethereumfndn on privacy and access layer strategy. Most of that was aimed at individuals. The past year at EF's Institutional Privacy Task Force (IPTF) we've been looking at privacy for institutions. On the surface this might seem different, but there are a lot of similarities. There's also a very strong market need for it, and the timing is right. I've written in the past about the tension and overlap between cypherpunks and institutions. Twitter is not exactly the best medium for nuance, but right now we are at a sensitive point in time: the defaults for the next generation of financial infrastructure are being set, with or without us. I believe we need cypherpunks in the room when that happens. Excited to start @eth_systems together with my co-founder @motypes and @_rymnc as part of the founding team. See quoted announcement thread for more details. x.com/eth_systems/st…

We built a real-world OpenAC implementation for privacy-preserving proof of personhood. It uses an existing government-issued credential, proves eligibility in zero knowledge, supports revocation checks, and runs the proof flow on mobile devices. Check threads for links and summary 🔗

Today, the Foundation’s Board released the EF Mandate. This document, which was first intended for EF members, reaffirms the promise of Ethereum, and the role of EF within this ecosystem.

GMILADY

See you all next year 🫶 @ETHGlobal

🏃‍♂️ AlibudaHabitBuilde Start a new habit! Stake your commitment; succeed to keep it, or half your stake supports public goods and rewards consistent participants if you fail. @cc03668 @antonttc @ryanycwEth @JunoChiu4 ethglobal.com/showcase/alibu…