Private State, Public Network: The Tradeoffs Behind Privacy

Duration: NaN:NaN:NaN

Speaker: Zachary Williamson

Type: Talk

Expertise: Some familiarity with the topic

Event: Devcon

Date: Nov 2026

Public blockchains require public data and execution. Multiple technologies, cryptographic or otherwise, seek to fulfil these requirements while obfuscating fundamental information required to reconstruct a transaction's intent and the data it operates on. At application boundaries, private execution faces distinct challenges. Fees, node queries, timing and public calls can make hidden payloads linkable. For private user-controlled state, transaction architectures that allow dapps to read contract state creates consent challenges This talk compares the challenges and trade-offs of current technologies that aim to enable private transactions on public networks, and looks into the future to what blockchains that enshrine 'privacy' as a core value will truly look like.