Privacy returns to focus as Ethereum developers explore new token standards
Ethereum developers are revisiting privacy with new token standards like pERC-20 and STRK20 that aim to hide balances and transfers while preserving network verification.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
The article says privacy is reemerging as a serious Ethereum design goal, with pERC-20 and Starknet’s STRK20 showing two different approaches. One emphasizes private token transfers; the other extends confidentiality into DeFi while keeping compliance and usability in view.
Ethereum is trying out new ways to let people use digital money without everyone seeing every detail, like keeping some parts of a piggy bank hidden while still proving the money is real. One idea only hides transfers, while another tries to keep borrowing, swapping, and staking private too.
Analysis
Privacy is back on the table
The piece argues that privacy is moving from the margins of crypto back into mainstream Ethereum design. For years, attention shifted toward scaling and away from private transacting, especially as regulators scrutinized privacy tools such as Tornado Cash. Now, new token frameworks are reopening the debate.
Two different models
The headline example is pERC-20, a proposed Ethereum token standard that would let users hold and transfer tokens without publicly exposing balances, transaction amounts, or counterparties. The article contrasts that with standard ERC-20 tokens, which make balances and transaction history visible onchain. In the proposal, tokens would behave more like encrypted cryptographic notes, while still letting the network verify that transactions remain valid.
The design does not make everything secret. The total supply would still be public, so observers could confirm that no hidden minting occurred. It also includes a compliance feature that would let issuers freeze specific notes through a cryptographic blacklist without exposing ordinary users’ histories.
Beyond private payments
Starknet’s recently launched STRK20 framework is presented as a broader answer to the same problem. According to StarkWare co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson, the hardest issue is not cryptography but user experience. He says privacy systems fail when they are cumbersome or used by too few people, because anonymity depends on large participation.
STRK20 is designed to support more than transfers. It aims to let users swap, borrow, and stake while keeping activity private, and it uses post-quantum secure cryptography as a forward-looking security measure.
The bigger debate
The article frames the current moment as a debate over what privacy in crypto should mean. One camp wants private payments with some transparency preserved. Another wants privacy as a default layer across a wider set of financial actions. Either way, the discussion suggests privacy is becoming a serious infrastructure topic again, not just a niche concern.
Key points
- Ethereum developers are revisiting privacy after years of focus on scaling and regulatory pressure.
- pERC-20 would hide balances, transfer amounts, and counterparties while keeping total supply visible.
- The proposal also includes a cryptographic blacklist so issuers can freeze specific notes.
- Starknet’s STRK20 aims to extend privacy beyond transfers into lending, staking, and swapping.
- Eli Ben-Sasson said user experience, not cryptography, is the biggest obstacle to privacy adoption.
If these standards advance, Ethereum could support private payments and private DeFi without giving up basic network checks like total supply. That could make privacy tools easier to use and more appealing to a wider set of users.
The article also shows the main obstacles: privacy tools can fail if they are hard to use or if too few people adopt them. The proposals still have to survive review and, in pERC-20’s case, the long Ethereum improvement process before they matter in practice.
