# Private Atomic DvP on Ethereum No More Trade offs | Alex Gluchowski (Matter Labs) at ETHConf

- Speakers: [Alex Gluchowski](https://streameth.org/speakers/alex-gluchowski)
- Channel: [ETHGlobal](https://streameth.org/ethglobal)
- Date: 2026-07-09
- Duration: 14:58
- Topics: Matter Labs, Alex Gluchowski, zkSync, Prividium, ETHCom, DvP, delivery versus payment, atomic swaps, private chains, institutional finance, banks, FMI, Ethereum, settlement layer, zero knowledge proofs, ZK, L2, data availability, commitments, escrow, cross chain, interoperability, permissioned chains, bridges, FHE, fully homomorphic encryption, Kerry network, Deutsche Bank, tokenization, capital efficiency, counterparty risk, OIDC, KYC, KYB, compliance, privacy, smart contracts, Web3
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-o42lZpy9pyU
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o42lZpy9pyU

## Description

In this talk, Alex Gluchowski, co-founder of Matter Labs and zkSync, presents Prividium, a framework for private atomic delivery versus payment (DvP) on Ethereum. He frames DvP, a term from institutional finance meaning token swap settlement, as one of the most important and unsolved problems for institutions adopting blockchain. Alex walks through why each existing solution falls short: public chains like Ethereum have great properties but expose all positions and transactions, ruling them out for banks bound by secrecy rules. Private permissioned chains offer perfect privacy but are not interconnected, limiting their value since the whole point of blockchains is being the internet of value. External bridges connecting private chains become the de facto settlement layer with their own trust assumptions, losing the security of both origin and target chains. Mediated networks using operator attestation or fully homomorphic encryption still rely on contractual or threshold trust in operators.

Alex introduces Prividium as a framework where institutions run their own cryptographically secured private chains on their own infrastructure with absolute physical data privacy, while settling on Ethereum as the credibly neutral settlement layer. Zero knowledge proofs guarantee that even a dishonest or compromised operator cannot finalize invalid transactions. He highlights the ability to deploy a smart contract once that virtually mirrors into all zones and enforces rules automatically without the issuer ever seeing the underlying data. He then walks through the technical flow of private atomic DvP: parties agree on a transaction, generate a cryptographic commitment hash, post it to a data availability layer and Ethereum settlement layer, lock assets on both sides, and use the canonical L2 state roots on Ethereum to verify execution and either release funds or revert atomically. He closes by noting the network is growing with the Kerry network consortium of five US regional banks plus participation from Deutsche Bank and other FMIs.

00:00 Introduction
00:11 What Is DvP and Why It Matters
00:48 The Tradeoffs in Existing Blockchain Solutions
01:07 Public Chains Are Too Public for Institutions
01:54 Private Chains Are Isolated and Disconnected
02:33 External Bridges Become the Settlement Layer
03:14 Mediated Networks and Their Trust Assumptions
03:35 Operator Attested and FHE Limitations
04:40 Introducing Prividium
05:09 Cryptographically Secured Private Chains on Ethereum
05:42 Permissioning, Roles, and OIDC Integration
06:16 Zero Knowledge Proofs Guarantee Execution Correctness
06:50 Rules That Apply Beyond Your Zone
07:30 The Old Way: Bilateral Agreements and Rulebooks
07:52 Virtual Mirrored Smart Contracts Enforce Rules Automatically
08:16 Why Private DvP Is the Hardest Cross Zone Example
08:51 Traditional Sequential DvP and Counterparty Risk
09:40 Atomic Swaps Collapse Settlement Risk
10:10 How Private Atomic DvP Works Step by Step
10:36 Cryptographic Commitments and Mutual Intent
11:17 Posting Commitments to DA and Settlement Layer
11:50 Locking Assets in Escrow Contracts
12:26 Reading L2 State Roots from Ethereum
12:55 Verifying Cross Chain Execution
13:25 Happy Path Release vs Revert Path
14:04 Multi Zone Chained Transactions
14:36 The Kerry Network and Growing Adoption
14:48 Closing

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