• Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin has proposed a general approach to stealth addresses, which hide the recipient of certain blockchain transactions.
• Buterin suggested two solutions to the issue of transaction fees, one involving ZK-SNARKS and the other involving specialized transaction aggregators.
• Buterin also noted that stealth addresses could make it more difficult to create social recovery wallets.
Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin has put forward a new approach to stealth addresses to provide greater privacy for blockchain users. Stealth addresses are a way to hide the recipient of certain transactions, making them more difficult to trace. Buterin noted that while stealth addresses provide a privacy benefit, they come with the issue of transaction fees. To solve this issue, Buterin proposed two solutions. The first solution involves the use of ZK-SNARKS, which is an expensive approach. The second involves using specialized transaction aggregators, which is a more economical option.
Buterin also noted that stealth addresses can make it difficult to create social recovery wallets, which are wallets that can be recovered by third parties if the main holder loses their private key. To address this issue, Buterin proposed various solutions, though he acknowledged that recovering a wallet can be expensive. He also distinguished stealth addresses from the privacy-focused protocol Tornado Cash.
In conclusion, Buterin’s proposal offers an interesting approach to providing greater privacy for blockchain users. Though there are still some challenges to address, it offers an interesting solution to the issue of privacy on public blockchains. Whether or not this feature will be added to Ethereum remains to be seen.