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Privacy will unlock blockchain’s business potential

Opinion by: Eran Barak, CEO at Midnight 

It’s been almost 16 years since blockchain emerged from its esoteric fringes to enter global discourse, evidenced most recently by continued backing from Wall Street incumbents. Despite this remarkable ascendancy, the unfortunate truth is that this technology has yet to realize its true business potential. A core challenge persists: Too much sensitive data remains publicly unshielded.

The crux of the issue is that companies must keep business data confidential, and people strive to safeguard their personal information as best they can. Once data is put on a public blockchain, however, it becomes irreversibly and indefinitely exposed.

Even if a business takes every possible precaution to conceal data, mistakes made by others or vulnerabilities in the system can expose sensitive onchain data or metadata, including participants’ identities. This can lead to privacy breaches, compliance violations or both, undermining the foundational assumption that blockchain is trusted and underscoring the importance of robust measures to protect sensitive data.

On the other side of that coin, concealing activity on a blockchain can open the door to money laundering, triggering negative government responses. Instances in which this has occurred have led to a false impression that governments oppose Web3 privacy, a criterion businesses fundamentally need for them to adopt the technology. 

From whichever angle we look at it, maintaining privacy onchain is a real and complex issue for Web3. Until we solve it, businesses will not and should not be expected to cross the chasm. 

The belief that governments oppose privacy on the blockchain is wrong

Web3 entrepreneurs have grown to fear that building decentralized applications and businesses that provide financial anonymity could land them in regulatory trouble. Just look at Samourai Wallet, whose co-founders were charged with money laundering, or Tornado Cash, whose developer was sentenced to 64 months in prison for similar reasons. 

These responses have led to a consensus that governments are opposed to privacy altogether when it comes to blockchain. 

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This couldn’t be further from the truth. Governments don’t oppose privacy but mandate it across industries. Data protection laws, like the General Data Protection Regulation or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, are in place to ensure businesses protect our customer data from misuse and security threats.

The real issue these high-profile cases reveal is that Web3 measures to protect data have created opportunities for misuse, enabling the facilitation of criminal activities that have understandably raised serious concerns on behalf of governments. Blockchain data protection capabilities should not undermine established cross-jurisdictional laws safeguarding the global community from terrorism, human trafficking, fraud and other criminal offenses. 

This begs the question: What does privacy, done right, look like?

Selective disclosure

When it comes to using blockchain, protecting sensitive data is typically accomplished by either keeping the data offchain, or encrypting data onchain. The latter is not durable privacy given quantum computing’s rapid advances in cracking encryption. 

The advent of zero-knowledge (ZK) technology, a complex cryptographic technique, allows users to ensure sensitive data remains offchain by sharing attestations about the validity of the data instead. In Web3, ZK has emerged as a transformative way to enhance privacy as it enables untrusted parties to validate that a transaction has occurred without sharing any information about the transaction. 

Decentralized applications can exercise selective disclosure by choosing between putting data onchain (full disclosure), putting it onchain with encryption (disclosure via viewing keys) or using ZK to only publish attestation about the data (offering utility without any disclosure). Selective data disclosure only solves half of the puzzle. It was not designed to account for metadata.

The next privacy frontier

Metadata, the information surrounding our data, is an under-discussed component of blockchain’s exposure of sensitive information; it can be used to make inferences, creating an added layer of vulnerability even when the data itself is concealed. 

For example, through transaction metadata, investment and trading strategies can be inferred in addition to other behavioral patterns. For businesses, the implications of this can be detrimental to their growth and ability to stay ahead of competitors. They can’t afford to have trade secrets and strategies, or even the identities of other parties they are transacting with, made public.

The need to protect metadata and remove the ability to make inferences is paramount to security and can be addressed using a private token. Such capability can, however, be easily misused for money laundering.

If using a private token is not the solution, and using a public token does not provide sufficient levels of confidentiality, then the way to solve this challenge is to rethink Web3’s approach to protecting metadata altogether. We need to combine the benefits of both approaches, effectively creating a dual-asset system in which a public and a private token are used. Each asset functions independently, meaning specific restrictions can be placed to prevent illicit activities such as money laundering while retaining all the benefits.

A powerful framework

The dual-asset system enables confidentiality without the ailments shielding metadata usually brings, making compliance and business policy enforcement possible. By combining this tokenomics structure with selective disclosure, privacy and regulatory compliance can coexist on the blockchain, which will have resounding effects on adoption and innovation.

Opinion by: Eran Barak, CEO at Midnight.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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Environment secretary defends green policies – after Sir Tony Blair says net zero is ‘doomed to fail’

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Environment secretary defends green policies - after Sir Tony Blair says net zero is 'doomed to fail'

The environment secretary has defended the government’s net zero agenda after Sir Tony Blair said phasing out fossil fuels was “doomed to fail”.

The former prime minister said the approach to transitioning to a green economy wasn’t “working” and was “inadequate” in a report published yesterday by the Tony Blair Institute.

But speaking to Sky News’ Wilfred Frost on Breakfast, Steve Reed said the government was “moving away from sticking plaster solutions towards doing what’s right for the future of the economy, and for the future of households”.

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He said transitioning to a green economy was necessary for the UK to take back “control of our own energy supply” especially in light of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

In his foreword to the report, Sir Tony called the whole strategy of transitioning to a green economy “unrealistic”.

“Present policy solutions are inadequate and, worse, are distorting the debate into a quest for a climate platform that is unrealistic and therefore unworkable,” he wrote.

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“Too often, political leaders fear saying what many know to be true: the current approach isn’t working.”

Asked whether he believed Sir Tony was right to say the focus shouldn’t be on using less fossil fuels but on using methods such as carbon capture, Mr Reed conceded that “we’ll still be using fossil fuels… for some time to come”.

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He added: “For many decades to come. The transition is so, so transition isn’t gonna happen overnight.”

Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins told Sky News that Sir Tony’s message should prompt a “rethink” in government.

“If even Tony Blair doesn’t agree with the Labour government, then that is quite a clear message. I would imagine to them that they have got to rethink this.”

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SEC drops investigation into PayPal’s stablecoin

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SEC drops investigation into PayPal’s stablecoin

SEC drops investigation into PayPal’s stablecoin

PayPal says the US Securities and Exchange Commission has abandoned its investigation into the payment giant’s US-dollar stablecoin.

PayPal said in an April 29 regulatory filing that the SEC concluded its investigation into PayPal USD (PYUSD) and wouldn’t be taking any action.

The company said it received a subpoena from the SEC’s Division of Enforcement over its stablecoin in November 2023. 

“The subpoena requests the production of documents. We are cooperating with the SEC in connection with this request,” PayPal stated at the time.

In its latest filing, the firm said the SEC notified it in February that the agency “was closing this inquiry without enforcement action.”

PayPal has said its stablecoin is 100% redeemable for US dollars and “fully backed” by dollar deposits, including short-term treasuries and cash equivalents. 

However, the stablecoin has struggled to gain momentum in a crowded market dominated by rivals Tether and Circle. PYUSD has a market capitalization of just $880 million, less than 1% of Tether’s (USDT) $148.5 billion.

PayPal’s stablecoin has seen better growth this year with a 75% increase in PYUSD circulating supply since the beginning of 2025, according to CoinGecko. It remains down 14% from its peak supply of just over $1 billion in August 2024. 

SEC drops investigation into PayPal’s stablecoin
PayPal USD market capitalization. Source: CoinGecko

Earnings on PYUSD, Coinbase partnership

That growth could be bolstered by a company announcement on April 23 introducing rewards for PYUSD in a new loyalty offering that will enable US users to earn 3.7% annually for holding the asset on the platform. 

Meanwhile, on April 24, PayPal announced a partnership with Coinbase to increase the adoption of PYUSD. 

“We are excited to drive new, exciting, and innovative use cases together with Coinbase and the entire cryptocurrency community, putting PYUSD at the center,”  said Alex Chriss, PayPal President and CEO.

Related: PayPal to offer 3.7% yield on stablecoin balances: Report

The payments giant also reported robust first-quarter earnings and the completion of significant share repurchase activities. 

The firm beat Wall Street estimates, earning $1.33 per share in the first quarter, topping analyst expectations of $1.16. Revenue rose 1% from a year before to $7.8 billion. 

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BlackRock files to create digital shares tracking one of its money market funds

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BlackRock files to create digital shares tracking one of its money market funds

BlackRock files to create digital shares tracking one of its money market funds

Asset manager BlackRock has filed to create digital ledger technology shares from one of the firm’s money market funds, which will leverage blockchain technology to maintain a mirror record of share ownership for investors.

The DLT shares will track BlackRock’s BLF Treasury Trust Fund (TTTXX), which may only be purchased from BlackRock Advisors and The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), the firm said in its April 29 Form N-1A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The money market fund holds over $150 million worth of assets, invested almost entirely in US Treasury bills and cash.

BlackRock said that the shares “are expected to be purchased and held through BNY, which intends to use blockchain technology to maintain a mirror record of share ownership for its customers.”

Unlike the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), DLT shares won’t be tokenized but will instead be used as a transparency tool to verify ownership.

BlackRock will continue to maintain traditional book-entry records as the official ownership ledger.

BlackRock didn’t propose a ticker or set a management fee for the DLT shares in its filing.

A minimum initial investment of $3 million worth of DLT is required for institutions seeking to purchase the digital shares.

BlackRock follows Fidelity’s March 21 filing to list an Ethereum-based OnChain share class, which seeks to track the Fidelity Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX) — an $80 million fund consisting almost entirely of US Treasury bills.

While the OnChain share class filing is pending regulatory approval, Fidelity expects it to take effect on May 30.

Wall Street heavyweights continue to explore blockchain use cases

Asset managers have increasingly turned to blockchain to tokenize Treasury bills, bonds and private credit over the past few years.

Related: BlackRock Bitcoin ETF buys $970M in BTC as inflows surge, boost market

The treasury tokenization market is currently valued at $6.16 billion, led by BlackRock’s BUIDL at $2.55 billion, while the Franklin Templeton-issued Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (BENJI) secures over $700 million worth of real-world assets, according to rwa.xyz.

BlackRock files to create digital shares tracking one of its money market funds
Market caps of blockchain-based Treasury products. Source: rwa.xyz

Ethereum remains the chain of choice for tokenizing treasury assets, and currently houses over $4.55 billion worth, while the Stellar network and Solana round out the top three at $474.9 million and $274.5 million, respectively.

The potential of RWA tokenization has also been championed by BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, who believes the technology could revolutionize investing.

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