Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has emphasized the critical role of end-to-end encrypted messaging in safeguarding digital privacy. He has identified permissionless account creation and metadata privacy as the next significant priorities for the sector.
Buterin highlighted Session and SimpleX as two projects actively working in these crucial areas. He also revealed that he has personally donated 128 ETH to each of these initiatives.
Major ETH Donations Support Privacy-Focused Messaging
In a recent post on X, Buterin stated that both Session and SimpleX are striving to enhance decentralization and bolster user protections. A key aspect of their work is enabling users to operate without relying on phone numbers. Additionally, these projects are addressing complex challenges such as facilitating multi-device support and building resistance against Sybil and denial-of-service attacks.
Buterin clarified that the donation addresses for these projects are publicly accessible on their respective websites. He acknowledged that while the platforms are not yet flawless, they represent tangible and ongoing efforts to advance privacy-preserving communication technologies. He also issued a call for more developers to contribute their expertise to overcome the remaining technical hurdles, emphasizing that these issues “need more eyes on them.”
It is worth noting that while Signal has become a widely adopted encrypted messaging application, it encountered renewed scrutiny following an incident in March. During this event, senior U.S. national security officials inadvertently included a reporter in a Signal group chat that was discussing strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. Days after this incident, a Pentagon-wide advisory cautioned against using the app for any non-public information, citing a vulnerability linked to its linked-devices feature.
The Pentagon memo further indicated that Russian hacking groups were reportedly targeting Signal users through phishing tactics. Signal subsequently attributed the issue to user-targeted attacks rather than inherent flaws in its encryption, and confirmed that the company had already implemented safeguards and warnings to mitigate such risks.
Buterin's Ongoing Commitment to Digital Privacy
Throughout the current year, the Ethereum co-founder has consistently advocated for treating privacy as a fundamental necessity for digital systems. Following a recent data breach that affected major U.S. banks, where client information from institutions like JPMorgan, Citi, and Morgan Stanley may have been compromised due to a cyberattack on mortgage technology vendor Situs AMC, Buterin responded by characterizing privacy as a form of essential “hygiene.”
In an essay published in April, he articulated the argument that “privacy is an important guarantor of decentralization.” He also outlined a potential roadmap for Ethereum to incorporate features such as stealth addresses, selective disclosure, and application-level zero-knowledge tools, all aimed at minimizing unnecessary data exposure.
More recently, Buterin expressed concerns regarding X’s new geo-inference system. This system assigns country labels to user accounts, which he warned poses significant privacy risks. He explained that such systems can still reveal sensitive location information and potentially endanger vulnerable users, even when only broad geographical regions are disclosed.