New POAPrivacy Tools are developed by ETH developers ahead of the 10th anniversary

As ETH celebrates its 10th anniversary, it brings into focus everything that the project has accomplished — enabling DeFi, smart contracts, and sprouting a vibrant ecosystem of dApps built on privacy.

The Ethereum (also known as As Ethereum)ETH) celebrates its 10th anniversary, it brings into focus everything that the project has accomplished — enabling DeFi, smart contracts, and sprouting a vibrant ecosystem of dApps. It also puts the spotlight on challenges still to be overcome. Privacy, which is a keystone to digital freedom but remains difficult on a blockchain that’s open.

Ethereum is still struggling to protect the personal information of its users, despite more than a decade’s worth of innovations. Transparency on the blockchain, which was once seen as an advantage, has become a liability.

Privacy advocate Migle Rakitaite, who publicly spoke out against the ETHCC at Berlin in Berlin this summer. challenged The Ethereum Foundation, for not prioritizing or funding crypto-native technologies that protect deeply personal data such as reproductive health.

That exchange not only inspired the creation of PrivyCycle — an app that ranked among ETHCC’s top 10 projects out of 334 entries and won three separate sponsor prizes — but, more importantly, highlighted how underprepared the Ethereum ecosystem remains for handling sensitive, non-financial information.

Privacy on the chain is a concern

Privacy on the blockchain has never been more important in an age of increasing surveillance and dwindling personal boundaries. Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin highlighted the stakes in late may. stating: “On a civilizational level, there’s quite a lot of urgency in us figuring out privacy.” The developer called for developers to concentrate on four main pillars privacy: Privat money, identity and voting.

POAPrivacy, as demonstrated at ETHGlobal Cannes, is a new frontier for privacy on the blockchain. Private Presence

POAPs — short for Proof of Attendance Protocols — were designed as digital mementos, allowing users to collect NFTs that prove they attended specific events. They’re used at everything from hackathons and crypto conferences to show community involvement, participation or even as an eligibility indicator for governance.

But, underneath that convenience lies a serious but quiet privacy threat. On-chain POAP links the wallet of a user to an exact location and time.

“Anyone can basically track your footsteps,” A developer explained the features during the demonstration. “We love POAPs, but they come at a cost of privacy.”

In an environment where wallet addresses are easily traced and cross-referenced, this can compromise not only personal privacy but also safety — especially for activists, public figures, or anyone seeking to separate their digital and physical lives.

Protecting presence on blockchain

To address this overlooked vulnerability, a team at ETHGlobal Cannes unveiled POAPrivacy — a tool designed to verify presence on-chain without exposing users’ real-world locations or linking back to their primary wallet addresses.

At the heart of the system is a clever use of stealth addresses — a cryptographic technique that enables users to receive tokens at unique, one-time addresses that are unlinkable to their main wallet.

It works as follows:

• At an event, users can scan the QR code.
• Instead of minting at their main address they create a random address using a meta-address derived by their ENS (EthereumNameService) identity.
• It generates 2 cryptographic key:
  • A spending key (for later claiming)
  • Viewing key for selectively showing POAPs only to selected parties
• Because minting takes place off of the main address for the wallet, observers are unable to trace the POAP.

Project participants also showed a dashboard that allows users to log into their accounts with passkeys and view the POAPs stored in private storage. They can then retrieve these files as required. The cryptography is based on a standard Ethereum introduced several years back but seldom deployed in large scale.

“Magic and cryptography is happening,” This is what the team said. “and you’ll be able to see your POAPs — but others won’t.”

While still a prototype, the project received praise for addressing a major privacy vulnerability in POAPs — one of Ethereum’s most widely used features for event attendance verification, community engagement, and access to exclusive rewards or governance.

The project was named one of the top 10 finalists out of 334 entries at ETHGlobal Cannes 2025 — alongside other privacy-focused builds like the previously mentioned PrivyCycle and PrivacyLinks — highlighting a growing push to strengthen Ethereum’s social layer with privacy-preserving infrastructure.