1-4-2025 – A groundbreaking privacy tool named Privacy Pools has emerged on the Ethereum blockchain, offering users a way to shield their transactions from prying eyes while ensuring their funds remain untainted by criminal activity. Unveiled on 31 March by Ethereum developers at 0xbow.io, this semi-permissionless innovation has already garnered praise and participation from prominent figures, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who was among the first to deposit funds into the platform.
The initiative, backed by an array of investors such as Number Group, BanklessVC, Public Works, and several angel contributors, seeks to restore privacy as a standard feature of blockchain transactions. At its core, Privacy Pools employs a novel mechanism called “Association Sets,” which groups transactions into anonymised batches. A rigorous screening process ensures that no funds linked to nefarious players—think hackers, scammers, or phishers—slip through the net. Should a transaction later be flagged as illicit, the system’s dynamic design allows it to be excised from the set without unsettling other users’ deposits. In such cases, a handy “ragequit” option lets affected users swiftly retrieve their funds to their original address.
https://t.co/yj4FHCgmpa pic.twitter.com/vjPlmqCeqU
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) March 31, 2025
This development arrives against a backdrop of heightened regulatory scrutiny. Privacy tools have faced fierce criticism from authorities in recent years, largely due to their exploitation by wrongdoers for money laundering. Take Tornado Cash, for instance: between August 2022 and March 2025, it fell under sanctions from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) after being tied to roughly $7 billion laundered by North Korea’s Lazarus Group. However, a US appeals court overturned those sanctions in January 2025, deeming them unlawful—a ruling that has since seen Tornado Cash struck from OFAC’s blacklist.
Privacy Pools, by contrast, strives to strike a balance between user anonymity and regulatory compliance, forming part of 0xbow.io’s broader mission to “Make Privacy Normal Again.” The tool’s code has earned a stamp of approval from Audit Wizard, a smart contract auditing outfit established by ex-Apple engineer Joe van Loon. Initial deposits are capped at 1 Ether (ETH), valued at $1,839, though 0xbow.io plans to lift this ceiling as the system proves its resilience. Already, over 21 ETH from 69 deposits—including at least one from Buterin—has flowed into the platform.
The concept traces its roots to a September 2023 white paper co-authored by Buterin, Chainalysis Chief Scientist Jacob Illum, two University of Basel academics, and 0xbow.io strategic adviser Ameen Soleimani. Downloaded over 12,000 times and referenced in nine subsequent studies, the paper laid the intellectual groundwork for Privacy Pools’ creation. Meanwhile, Chainalysis’ 2025 Crypto Crime report, released on 15 January, paints a broader picture: illicit transfers hit $41 billion in 2024, accounting for just 0.14% of total on-chain volume—a drop of about 11% from the previous year. Yet, the firm cautions that this figure could rise to $51 billion as more dubious addresses come to light.
With its blend of cutting-edge tech and a nod to compliance, Privacy Pools signals a bold step forward in the quest for privacy without compromising integrity on the blockchain.