"Ethereum’s Next Revolution: Privacy by Default".- Andy Guzman. PSE lead, Ethereum Foundation

Sun, Nov 2, 2025, 12:00 AM

Andy Guzman (PSE lead, Ethereum Foundation) explains how Ethereum’s privacy team evolved from early ZK experiments into a mission to make privacy seamless across the stack. He outlines PSE’s new focus on real-world problems, ecosystem coordination, and its roadmap pillars - Private Reads, Private Writes, and Private Proving - aiming for privacy-by-default UX and optional compliance. Andy shares a vision of self-sovereign money and identity, and a new, positive cypherpunk ethos: privacy as freedom, not secrecy. Timecodes 00:00 – Intro: Andy & PSE (Privacy for Ethereum’s app layer) 00:49 – PSE origins: from “Privacy & Scaling Explorations” to today 01:23 – Early outputs: rollup ideas, Semaphore, TLSNotary, early zkVM work 02:27 – Why shift to privacy focus now (ecosystem maturity, real needs) 03:30 – EF doubling down on privacy; 2025 pivot to problem - solution coordination 05:45 – What “privacy” means; layers (L1, L2, app) and PSE’s current scope 07:05 – Mapping the solution space: ZK, MPC, FHE, TEEs, threshold encryption, more 08:25 – Filling gaps: standards, shared practices, targeted tech to unblock teams 08:55 – PSE Roadmap: Private Reads, Private Writes, Private Proving 10:26 – How to contribute: read the roadmap, feedback, working groups 11:31 – Next 2-5 years: scaling, interoperability, privacy embedded by default 12:18 – Vision: most transfers & DeFi via privacy protocols; optional compliance 13:11 – Ideal web: self-sovereign assets & identity; cash-like private transfers 15:49 – Modern cypherpunk: privacy as a positive enabler (freedom, democracy) 17:56 – Wrap-up .. This conversation is part of Privacy Academy Interviews - a peer-to-peer knowledge project exploring the most important ideas in Web3, privacy, and digital freedom. Learn more: https://academy.web3privacy.info/p/interviews A W3PN Media House production. Directed by Federico Marchi https://x.com/BabyBitProd Interview by Peter Farbey https://x.com/0xfarbey Let privacy be with you!