Just last month, accounting powerhouse EY, part of the prominent 'Big Four', confirmed they would be making their Nightfall privacy tool available, a promise they've now fulfilled as of late May 2019. Ethereum With just a few hours left on the deadline, EY has successfully rolled out its commitment to the public domain.
On May 31st, the firm has officially added their repository for the Nightfall system to the public domain, a project they also showcased at the EY Global Blockchain Summit earlier that year.
Nightfall employs zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) to mask transaction information on Ethereum's main network. This technology is crafted to provide large-scale organizations and institutions with the ability to leverage the public Ethereum blockchain securely and privately, without branching off into a private version.
Ernst & Young has deployed the Nightfall codebase, crafted by their team of over 200 blockchain developers. The system utilizes zero-knowledge proofs to support EY's corporate clients in maintaining security and privacy, all the while allowing them to harness the Ethereum public blockchain in compliance with regulations. https://t.co/xxHHCweF6v
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The creators behind Nightfall describe it as still being in an experimental phase, but its release aims to expedite the adoption of blockchain technology by mainstream society.
Nightfall brings together an assemblage of smart contracts, microservices, and the ZoKrates zk-snark toolkit, enabling the transaction of standard ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain with complete privacy. Even though it's an evolving solution, EY hopes sharing their research will facilitate the acceptance of public blockchains.
Why is EY's extensive team of blockchain experts so confident that Nightfall could revolutionize the sector? The technology offers large enterprises both the privacy they crave and the transparency regulators require, particularly benefiting those aiming to integrate Ethereum, as articulated in EY's announcement last month.
As clarified by EY, enterprises can maintain comprehensive traceability and audit history for oversight purposes, without disclosing sensitive transaction data.
Paul Brody, who heads up blockchain innovation globally for EY, confirmed that Nightfall will soon be integrated into two of EY's proprietary platforms: the EY Blockchain Analyzer, designed for auditing and taxes, and EY OpsChain, which supports businesses in tokenizing their operations.
With EY's decision to place Nightfall in the public domain, innovators worldwide are given the green light to alter the tool's source code to fit their needs. It's expected that various projects will spring up, leveraging or expanding Nightfall due to its open and flexible nature.
Nightfall is most likely just the beginning for EY, as they appear ready to come forward with additional blockchain solutions, given their ever-expanding role in the cryptoeconomy.
JP Morgan Unveils Its Own Privacy Platform, Anonymous Zether
EY stands among the major players introducing new cryptocurrency privacy mechanisms.
This week, the prominent financial institution JP Morgan made public its Anonymous Zether tool —an in-house adaptation of Zether, another privacy tool based on ZKP integrating advanced privacy features for systems like Ethereum and Stellar.
Zether itself first made waves back in February. The innovation with Anonymous Zether allows for a more comprehensive privacy strategy by concealing both participant identities and transaction specifics.
Underpinning both Zether and its offshoot Anonymous Zether is smart contract technology, particularly the Zether Smart Contract (ZSC). For instance, users can convert their ether (ETH) into ZTH via the ZSC to achieve complete anonymity over their holdings.
With banking juggernauts like EY and JP Morgan diving into the blockchain privacy sphere, the backing for enhancing privacy on public blockchains is receiving substantial support from notable industry leaders. This backing can play a pivotal role in unlocking the promises offered by blockchain technology for large-scale institutions.
The next fascinating development is: what are JP Morgan and EY going to venture into next?
