Rethinking Privacy for Blockchain Adoption

Why blockchain needs privacy?

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When people talk about blockchain, the word "privacy" often sparks debate. On one hand, blockchain is praised for its transparency, but does that mean privacy is a problem or a feature?

At Parfin, we believe privacy is not just important -it’s essential to enable real-world adoption, especially for enterprises and institutions. But to understand why, we first need to define what privacy truly means in the context of blockchain.

Rethinking Privacy for Blockchain Adoption

Our thinking around privacy was shaped by our collaboration with JP Morgan on the EPIC project, a foundational exploration of privacy, identity, and composability in distributed ledger technology. EPIC outlines three core dimensions of blockchain privacy:

• Anonymity — shielding addresses and identities
• Confidentiality — protecting transaction details
• Auditability — enabling compliance and selective disclosure for regulators

To these three, I propose adding a fourth: scalability.

As described by Paul Brody in Ethereum for Business, scalability in privacy means your privacy guarantees don’t degrade as transaction volume increases. In practical terms, if a participant sends a significantly higher number of transactions than others, their identity or role might be inferred, even if the contents of their transactions are encrypted. Scalable privacy must ensure that the system remains resistant to such inference, no matter the load.

To explain this more intuitively, imagine living in a house made of plain glass. You might be okay with people watching you make dinner for your family — but what if you were developing a secret recipe for a national baking contest? In that case, you’d probably want a smart glass window, one that lets only a trusted few see through when needed, while keeping your process and ingredients private from everyone else.

That’s what privacy in blockchain should be: programmable transparency and verifiable compliance — not total opacity, but control.

As Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin put it:

Privacy is freedom

It’s the freedom to choose what you share, with whom, and when — without giving up the benefits of verifiability and trust. In a world where data is power, privacy protects your autonomy.

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Privacy that scales with you

Over the past few years, the demand for privacy has shifted from niche use cases to institutional mandates. Enterprises, governments, and financial platforms need infrastructure that is private by default, transparent by design, and compliant by configuration.

Inspired by the EPIC framework and the need for scalable, programmable privacy, we began developing Rayls Enygma — our “smart glass” solution for blockchain.

We’re combining technologies like Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) and Homomorphic Encryption (HE), Private messaging tags, and consolidation transactions. Rayls Enygma empowers users to keep their data private, while still providing verifiable trust to the ecosystem.

It’s the privacy layer solution essential for enterprise-grade blockchain adoption. Like smart the glass, it offers selective visibility: transparent when needed, opaque by default, and always under your control.

We’re building the smart glass that protects your process, whether that’s a family recipe or a multi-million dollar transaction.

This is just the beginning. In my next blog, we’ll dive deeper into what Rayls Enygm is and how it addresses the core privacy challenges outlined above — not just in theory, but in practice.

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Follow along as we unpack the future of programmable privacy in blockchain.

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^{(1) Rayls: A step ahead in achieving Vitalik’s Ethereum privacy vision}

^{(2) Rayls selected to participate in Kinexys by J.P. Morgan’s Project EPIC} ‍

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