Aztec CEO Spills Ethereum Privacy Secrets: Why Your Blockchain is Basically a Glass House

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If you think privacy on the blockchain is just for shadowy super coders and paranoid doomsday preppers, let me introduce you to Zac Williamson, CEO of Aztec Labs: a man so focused on secrecy that if he’d been born in the 1500s, he’d probably have invented a cloak made entirely out of locked briefcases. 🕵️‍♂️

Zac, whose résumé includes about forty-seven more IQ points than mine (Oxford, CERN, and now co-inventing PLONK, the ZK proof system—not an obscure sound effect, I checked), sat down with crypto.news to address the Big Truth: Ethereum desperately needs privacy. Not in a “slap a padlock on it and call it a day” sense, but more like your data is currently streaking through Times Square during rush hour, wallet address flapping in the breeze. 🍑

CN: What’s blockchain privacy, really? Are we hunting anonymity, selective reveal, or just trying not to be caught naked on-chain?

The Aztec approach is kind of a holy trinity, minus the guilt and family gatherings. You’ve got user privacy (who sent and received—the “it wasn’t me” defense), data privacy (how much, because nobody likes public math), and code privacy (not even your smart contract’s logic is showing its super secret moves).

Combined, it’s the blockchain’s version of a Witness Protection Program. It’s not just for night owls and professional poker faces: the whole point, Zac argues, is that privacy is information asymmetry. The mystical “I know something you don’t know”—basically the guiding principle behind every awkward Thanksgiving argument and your parents’ refusal to talk about college tuition.

Voting, financial choices, your strange obsession with on-chain NFTs shaped like sandwiches… privacy is your right to keep these things delightfully mysterious.

CN: Any huge misunderstandings about privacy in crypto?

Big surprise: most people treat privacy like a weird cousin who shows up to the wrong parties. Some think it’s just about private tokens, and others stick it in a box called “stuff I’ll forget exists after this next airdrop.” Wrong.

Privacy, Zac insists, is intertwined with everything. If crypto is ever going to take its phone off airplane mode and call the real world, privacy has to become normal. He calls this “composable privacy”—not because Ethereum devs are all failed jazz musicians, but because you should be able to write the rules, set the terms, and still keep your dirty laundry off Etherscan.

Imagine DeFi where your embarrassing memecoin gambling habit isn’t just an open book for everyone’s judgment. 🎲

CN: Should blockchains morally offer privacy—especially for people with overbearing governments?

Here’s where Zac refuses to go full philosopher king. Blockchains, in his worldview, are like Switzerland: neutral and happy to let you do your thing. He doesn’t want to define “legitimate privacy” for the whole planet. Instead, he draws the line at “don’t make life easier for criminals”—so, if you’re using Tornado Cash, congrats, you might be unwittingly BFFs with villains everywhere. But privacy pools? Not so much.

This is less about custom ethics and more about keeping out the true weirdos.

CN: And what about censorship?

Blockchains should resist censorship like your grandmother resists online banking. Apps built on blockchains, though, can have their own rules. You want to build a contract that only lets people named “Steve” participate? Go for it. Privacy is a right, but entropy is the rule.

CN: Privacy Pools: game changer or nice try?

Zac thinks Privacy Pools are fine for now, but their technology is, let’s say, still using training wheels. The dream? Full programmability. Enter ZKPassport, a real project where your phone reads your passport chip and spits out a ZK proof so selective KYC doesn’t mean sharing your high school yearbook photos by accident. 🛂

Basically, imagine walking into a club and proving you’re over 21 without having to broadcast your embarrassing 90s haircut to the bouncer. That’s what privacy tech should do.

CN: Will private transactions ever be as easy as ordering a pizza?

Maybe, but right now it’s like ordering a pizza with sixteen secret handshakes and a decoder ring. The burden? Until recently, it was all dumped on app devs and users, because, guess what, keeping secrets is hard work. But the Aztec crew thinks cryptography researchers should sweat it out—not you. That’s why things have sped up since ‘19 (PLONK went from “snail” to “cheetah” in four short years).

Languages like Noir are aiming to make private contracts as intuitive as sending a meme. (Well, borderline.)

CN: Should Ethereum itself get a privacy overhaul, or leave it to side projects?

Let’s be honest: if Ethereum had shipped with full privacy by default, it might’ve taken so long to launch that we’d all be using AOL again and calling dial-up “blazing fast.” So yeah, privacy belongs in the layer-2s for now—think of them as privacy’s weird science labs, trying all the mad experiments so your main chain can keep its pants on.

CN: Do ZK proofs do it all, or do you need more network magic?

Oh, we need it all: network privacy, private mempools, the whole buffet of defensive tools. If you’re moving mortgage money or hiding DAO participation from your nosy neighbor, you deserve privacy that goes all the way, not just halfway and a sheepish shrug.

CN: The ZK tech alphabet soup—bad for progress, or actually useful?

Zac is clear: we’re at the “let’s try everything and see what explodes” stage. Standardizing now would be like France’s Minitel: too centralized, too early, now just a trivia question in obscure tech podcasts. ZK needs wild experimentation, so we’ll know what works after the dust settles (if it settles).

CN: Homomorphic encryption—hype beast or is it actually useful yet?

“Needs more oven time,” Zac says. FHE right now is like cooking a Thanksgiving turkey with a single match: technically possible, but only if you’ve got a decade to spare and questionable priorities. Give it a few years, and maybe, just maybe, your fully-homomorphic Christmas wish will come true.

For now, privacy’s a work-in-progress—less cloak and dagger, more lab coat and awkward test net failures. But give it some time: one day, we’ll look back on transparent blockchains with nostalgia, like VHS tapes and dial-up tones, mostly wondering what we were so proud of.

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2025-04-30 14:46