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

- Speakers: Andy Guzman
- Channel: [Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress](https://streameth.org/ethereum-cypherpunk-congress)
- Date: 2025-11-09
- Duration: 18:15
- Topics: web3, privacy, now, crypto, cryptography, blockchain, data, security, human right, rights, tech, technology, internet, open source, free, freedom, ethereum, hackers, ethics, cypherpunk, dev, developer, dapp, decentralization, bitcoin, computer, surveillance, cyber, peer2peer, p2p, love, solidity, zk, zero knowledge, education, academy, w3pn, Education
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-aOwv1tRtyUY
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOwv1tRtyUY

## Description

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!

## Transcript

[Music] Hi everyone, I'm Andy and I work at PSC, a team that does privacy data foundation. [Music] >> Okay, Andy. Hi, thanks for coming. >> Hi people. Um, yeah, for people who don't know who you are, can you tell a bit like about yourself? What do you do? >> Sure. So, I'm Andy. I work at PSC. PSC is the team within the Ethereum foundation who is uh in charge of more focus on the privacy on Ethereum especially in the app layer where we touch other parts of the start. >> PSC is privacy stewards of Ethereum. Yeah. Just to explain when it starts. >> Yeah. >> Can you Yeah. Can you expand a bit on that like how it merged actually? >> Right. >> So it's actually like an older team within the Ethereum foundation. It was called definitely before KC used to stand for uh privacy and scaling explorations and it was a team started by Barry Whitehat like an OG like Dow hack like white hat hacker. It's like very very interesting and he would just like kept doing like really interesting experiments especially on these very new thing field called like snarks and CK snarks back in 2019 or no 2017. So like >> wow very early and and basically Vitalic Path like started funding him and then eventually in 2019 officially if I if I remember the dates correctly like it was established as a team part of the Ethereum foundation. >> So the main mandate was explore this new technology and what thing can it unlock within Ethereum. So it was a much more R&D experimental team versus what we're doing right now. But in that you know this came like the first rollup like it was like or one of the first like came with with very like ideas one of the first like identity protocols semaphor you know PSC helped kickstarted the whole CK TLS space with with TLS notary um the first CKVN kind like project not production but like community like project started there >> and there are a few other examples it's just like I I think was like actually very impactful um and gave grants and supported a bunch of other like key infrastructure technologies. But of course the thankfully the space has expanded. There's a lot more teams. There's a lot of like expertise and and investment. So now we needed we have shifted especially this year into more problem first in privacy instead of exploration and you know scaling and other type of things. So yeah it just like feels good to you know be more focused but there's like a long history about this this team and how it has evolved. Yeah, that's impressive. I didn't know that. But my question is like why and how it transformed from like R&D which is white to just really privacy focused. >> Yeah. So I'll still say we're a research and development team but we now um do some other stuff like more coordination more like um ecosystem I guess like collaboration and the reason is two twofold. point is like be you know the the space has matured a lot more right there's like much bigger teams much better funded um there are like validated use cases for for CK both on the scaling and the privacy side there's like new technologies coming out like NPC FPG so we're like for the last like last year 2024 we just like scratching our heads trying to like solve like where where's the place for this team within the ecosystem and we said like there wasn't a team within the foundation 100% focus of private and and privacy is one of the core values of Ethereum. It's like an enabler for freedom, decentralization, censorship persistence, so many other things. And it's also like a critical point for adoption both for retail, which most people don't know, but like you know, we need privacy, you know, like stable coin like the everything like that you do, you need privacy. Um otherwise, we're building like an awful surveillance machine and we also even like institutions were demanding this. So like I feel like it's um a good inflection point for Ethereum to double down, Ethereum Foundation to double down on privacy and it was just like a clear nice opportunity and transition for PHC to focus on the problems and the needs first instead of just exploring technology >> and do you remember like when was the point when you realized not you personally but like the foundation that privacy is something we should go for? Yeah, I think it has always been in the line. You know, I recently had a chat with a colleague who were saying like, "Oh, we need to add privacy on the validators with Thor." Like 10 years ago, it was like a PR or like an idea. So it has always been part of the DNA but over the years it has been you know rep prioritized under prioritized rep you know it it's like the ecosystem in general kind of has the growth of like the pain of growing and scaling and now there's the the pain of like okay how do we maintain our values like core values within the the protocol and I think we're on that stage now and yeah so I think like for for our team particularly it was like this year especially at the beginning of the year this transformation from like more of an exploration to like a problem solution ecosystem coordination first team. Um so that has been our transition this 2025. And I think for the Ethereum Foundation it's just like this is the year that is just like double doubling down on privacy. There's just like so much like um tailwind. There's so much like new new things up. There's like I don't know this big nar push. There's like great orgs as well as you guys and others like collaborating. So it just feels like the right time to put that gas on the pedal and like accelerate the the road map. Yeah. >> And what are the core challenges or problems that you tackle and that you see as some obstacles for making the whole ecosystem private like basically what do you work on? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it it is it is it is very broad right because privacy as as I I would like to define it is like your ability to control what information to show to who by when for how long etc. So what information is just like everything right like how you interact with with the blockchain how you query data like what type of actions you take in which wallets your IP there's like so many like information elements or personal identifiable information then you can leak that you would want to add privacy right so how I see this is there's the privacy at the base Ethereum layer as a protocol layer there's privacy on the application layer that you can build and there's privacy that you can build on layer and both right so I think I don't know at this moment PSC is focusing on the application layer we will still like try to support some like EIP some like process try to analyze what things might negatively impact uh privacy if we like start you know doing hard forks for Ethereum uh we're also not not focusing there as much and we're also not focusing as much on like layer 2 constructions which are like phenomenal teams are also tackling this >> so that is one like on the application layer so it's like from the application layer, what type of like use cases have the most net port and where are the gaps, right? The good thing is like this ecosystem has expanded so much that they're like great teams following different technologies, different approaches just to mention some, right? Uh like from CK that is one of the most mature, the first ones to mature to like um NPC and FH and TE and threshold encryption and IO and garbble circuits. These are all just like fancy words to say there are many ways to approach a problem many different technologies and within PSSE I think we want to do two things one is map out what is the problem space it's like what do people need and where we're not being able to to meet that those those needs and then map out the solution space which is like which teams are working on what >> and then we can try to fill the gaps maybe it's connecting people maybe it's creating standards maybe it's creating I don't know shared shared practices um and then or maybe just like creating this piece of technology that if PC kind like puts the pedal accelerates it it benefits everyone. So I I feel that's kind of like our mind shift our way we want to collaborate and like steward guide support the ecosystem and yeah there's like just so many things we could be doing but this is just like high level like answer to that. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's that's fine. You just have like 20 minutes perfectly. Maybe the next interview we'll make it will be more expanded. I hope we'll have time somewhere sometime. >> But uh so I imagine that like a lot of people who are watching this now they're like privacy savvy and maybe they would like to contribute or to help or to be a part of PSC. Uh is it possible and like is there any space for contribution on being a part of it? Yeah, that's amazing. So the first thing I would say is very recently we published our privacy road mapap like just searching if if the fellowship of ethereum magicians um PSC road map for 2025 and beyond and and to make it easier to understand we basically divided our work in three big buckets. One is private reads, >> private rights and private proving. So private reads is like all the interactions that you do with the blockchain when you query data, right? Like how do you query your balance, the assets, your wallet, what do you connect, how do you send those through the network layer, like a lot of RPC stuff. So there's a lot of work to be done there. The other one is private rights, which is like for when you're doing actions, how do you maintain privacy there? And those are things like transfers, right? like I want to send ETH or like a ERC20 token or whatever or you want a voting or I want to do DeFi or I want to do you know swapping lending auctions whatever social there's just so many elements of like acting on the block and the other one is private proving which is like all the things that support these interaction like how do you take data from web two and maintain privacy how do you um accelerate that proving how do you like just benchmark what is like the technologies that exist here how do you do development And so we have basically this road map these three columns or buckets and the goal is to work with the community to find where are the gaps where where where are people working already how can we accelerate their development or our development in the space development. Mhm. >> So yeah, definitely looking a lot of of people to kind of like read this. They're like more specific, you know, action items that that we can take like oh, we want to accelerate client side proving like which teams are building this and like where are the gaps? Uh maybe we need more GPU acceleration on Android. So like who has this skill set or maybe we need I don't know more awareness. Maybe we need to clearly map out like what is the the trade-offs between the different technologies. So like there's like so many so much work to do and so many people who have the right skills and the right minds and the right values. So maybe it's just like posting like hey come and chat and and the next step will be to create working groups just you know build an open channel chat forum where like you work with a couple people from PS from the rest of the ecosystem to really tackle this problem by this date. Um I think that's the best way to collaborate, contribute, but just even even before you know committing just go there, read it, give feedback, tell us what is missing and what things kind of like make a sound. Yeah. Amazing. Okay. like short take on like the future of Sar like how do you think it will look like let's say in five years and where are we moving now and what we should expect and what are the major I don't know vectors we should expect right so I expect Ethereum to continue to continue to scale and grow um that is one of the main focus for for the Ethereum foundation in general and and the ecosystem the other one is to really tackle the problem of interoperability ility and just making sure like the layer twos and all the layer and everything like feels like one Ethereum um and have like great UX great privacy but the third one or the fourth one is to have privacy embedded seamlessly across the stack. So I would expect like in two to three years most of the transfers that happen most of the actions like the critical actions that happen which for me are like if transfers your C20 trans like stable coin transfers and DeFi happen on privacy protocols by people and that does not mean necessarily that the layer 1 will be private like other like blockchains but that users wallets infrastructure teams prefer to use privacy protocols that have great UX s that have great cost or like you know almost the same as like transpiring actions um that they have optional compliance if they want to you know comply with whatever regulator but the people feel comfortable and prefer to use this mechanisms that is the vision that is the goal that is the like the dream where it should be in two to five years yeah it's beautiful vision and talking about vision um let's mention that uh the ideal internet future that You want not just Ethereum but like in general the whole web infrastructure. >> How would it like imagine we want we have it private, secure, resilient, decentralized like yeah all all the like the dreams that we have like how would it look like and how would the life of people change in this circumstances like ideal ideal world of web. Yeah. is the the ability to own your assets like your money and the ability to take it wherever you want. The ability to take your identity and your digital you know history with you. I think it's it's the most important promise without being surveillance you know captured without being like um censor or enforced and that is the vision that we're building towards right so like if I'm a normal person like I can escape my inflation or I can escape my you know monetary controls for my country if I need to right and if I want to collaborate I don't know with with whatever like a compliance agency like I have the freedom to do it but It's returning much of the information, knowledge and value and ownership back to to the individual. I think that's the vision of like self sovereignty the that you know people will be will be able to get. So like it will feel almost like cash like that's that's almost a vision that I I think for these private transfers like people it's you know it's composable it's atomic it's like u fungeible it's private it's just like something that you and I can like agreed and receive and and see the see the effects of our actions instead of the whole world seeing the whole history you know that the right now it's in blockchain and the same with defi right like you can escape your own country or local local like you know financial situation for better or for worse with a global defy market that you permissionlessly use without you know big track down and and and you know put the pressure on on you um if if you utilize them. So I think that those are the kind of like the two two ideas and then it's just like this third one which is like your identity right you can take it over to another system if you don't like like your social networks you are not being you know tracked down cookies you know profile without these elements you know monetary financial and non-financial use cases like we cannot build a better future and we need you know we need privacy to be part of that >> 100%. Yeah, 100% that's why we are doing what we are doing, right? >> I agree. >> Okay. Unfortunately, I mean I love the discussion with you. Unfortunately, we have to round up. So, it's will be just the last one. >> Yeah. >> Uh I wanted to ask your uh vision on cyrop punk because it's like this term is getting like hyped back. >> Yeah. >> But I feel it's very different now from like the 80s when it emerged. So, how do you feel uh cy punk now? What does it mean to be a cypher punk now? >> Yeah. So cipher poets are the foundation I feel of all this movement and we have drawn so much inspiration and ide ideology from you know best past history and heroes. So it's like pay ominous to that but it's also I have seen that it is not enough to preach a message of confrontation secrecy uh anti-government or like anarchism necessarily. I my at least my personal view of like how this new generation is absorbing cypher funk is like we are looking for for privacy to enable us to give freedom to enable us to give democracy to enable us to like unlock all these positive aspects of our life that without it we couldn't have it. So so I like the new kind like cipher punk movement si sapphire punk like deep punk. It's just like all these like newer branches or newer reinterpretations of of the cypher punk movement in a more positive light I guess more as an enabler versus like a defender necessarily. Thankfully, you know, the crypto wars like the cryptography wars like were fought and won the last two. So maybe we're on a different we're lucky to be on a different you know environment. But in my view, yeah, like the cypher punk movement, it's it's it's global now. It's more on the positive aspects. It's more highlighting all the things that we gain with privacy versus all the things that we are defending and like we could lose if we don't have it. I I I much rather prefer this kind of new messaging, new vibe, new like push from these newer generations. >> Yeah. Perfect. Okay. Thanks for sharing. >> Yeah. >> Thanks for having Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah, it was a pleasure. Yeah, likewise. >> Thanks for watching. Ciao. Ciao. [Music]