Ethereum

There have been efforts to add privacy to Ethereum L1, such as stealth addresses[1] and EIP-7503[2].

[1]: https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/01/20/stealth.html
[2]:

There have been efforts to add privacy to Ethereum L1, such as stealth addresses[1] and EIP-7503[2].

[1]: https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/01/20/stealth.html
[2]: https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-7503

However, the state of L1 privacy today is:

- No Ethereum wallet supports stealth addresses.
- EIP-7503 isn't slated for inclusion.
- Tornado Cash is sanctioned by OFAC.
- Its developers are in jail.
- There is nothing on Vitalik's roadmap[3] around privacy.

[3]:

L2s can't have real privacy if L1 doesn't have privacy.

Since rollups' security properties requires the ability for an L1 user to force inclusion of a transaction in a rollup, then true L2 privacy only exists if there is a way to do force-inclusion without revealing the identity of the L1 or L2 user in the process.

It seems clear that this is an under-researched area of Ethereum.

Yet it is an area that, if Ethereum is maximally successful but nothing is done on L1 privacy before Ethereum ossifies, Ethereum would have created a surveillance dystopia.

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a ton of interest for L1 privacy. It’s obviously extremely complex, but I really wish we spent like 20% of the brainpower that we spend on “solving MEV” towards L1 privacy. 

The extent to which we may all just be building surveillance infrastructure is underrated.

Tim Beiko (@tim) has stated as such in a recent AMA, and wishes that folks would spend 20% of the brainpower spent on solving MEV towards solving L1 privacy[4].

[4]:

Tim Beiko (@tim) has stated as such in a recent AMA, and wishes that folks would spend 20% of the brainpower spent on solving MEV towards solving L1 privacy[4].

[4]: https://warpcast.com/tim/0x01dc4ab8

Can you explain the state of L1 privacy as you see it?
How do you think about its prioritization on the Ethereum roadmap?
How can I, as a non-cryptography-expert Ethereum user who care about privacy, help make L1 privacy become a serious consideration for the evolution of Ethereum R&D going forward?

This post is meant as a question for @justindrake's orb at https://justin.orb.land/ but doesn't fit in 140 characters (the Orb's question length limit), so I posted it here instead.

As per the Orb's terms, I understand that this means Justin is technically no longer bound to actually answer this question, unless he wishes to do so anyway. I'm hoping he does :)

The SHA-256 hash of the above question is 5ad309be5a8d2ece94c65fcccdc5238d1913e9da088e9fd082e8c879fd9b60a6, as can be verified with the following command:

```
$ ipfs cat QmSqMAsNdvLMbL9AmAQWSZAchEFrkkr8Ux6NLumcqk2cDn | sha256sum
```

(Yes, I realize the IPFS CID is itself a hash and that this is redundant.)

This question is now onchain as per Ethereum transaction 0xc6771c3bddcdb04efec80ebf39948f33c2ced74bdf04fbe7d59fa567dd8ce7c3.

This question is now onchain as per Ethereum transaction 0xc6771c3bddcdb04efec80ebf39948f33c2ced74bdf04fbe7d59fa567dd8ce7c3.
https://etherscan.io/tx/0xc6771c3bddcdb04efec80ebf39948f33c2ced74bdf04fbe7d59fa567dd8ce7c3

However, the state of L1 privacy today is:

- No Ethereum wallet supports stealth addresses.
- EIP-7503 isn't slated for inclusion.
- Tornado Cash is sanctioned by OFAC.
- Its developers are in jail.
- There is nothing on Vitalik's roadmap[3] around privacy.

[3]: https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1741190491578810445