Increased Privacy On Ethereum’s Public Chain

Increased Security

Big name Public Service Firm Ernst & Young have innovated a solution for businesses interested in blockchain utilization and technology to adopt.

Ernst & Young (EY), one of the four biggest Public Service firms, have crafted a cryptographic solution to many of the worries blockchain business transactions present, known as EY Ops Chain Public Edition (PE). EY’s PE would allow businesses to enjoy the full benefits of private transactions on Ethereum’s public chain over operating on unsecured private blockchains. 

The solution leverages the privacy benefits of Zero-Knowledge Proofing (ZKP) which is a system which allows individuals to verify each parties’ transaction authenticity without the exchanging of passwords.

Essentially, PE works by proving a secret true without revealing the secret, in other words, when nothing changes hands nothing can be stolen thus guaranteeing security. EY’s PE would utilize the added security of Ethereum’s blockchain in such a way which would ignite enterprise adoption of blockchain technology through tokenization. Standardizing the manner of transfers would reduce the barriers of entry businesses face when considering blockchain adoption.

EY’s PE is simply a prototype but has not stopped the company from creating other similar innovations such as EY Blockchain Private Transaction Monitor which would capture transaction the history of private transactions for internal records. However, EY is not the only big-name company to become involved in ZKP as ING Bank in early October launched their own simplified ZKP technology with a potential use for future banking processes via the blockchain called Zero-Knowledge Set Membership (ZKSM).

Any ZKP provides protection and security for both parties involved in a private transaction and retains a company’s blockchain transaction records private. During private blockchain transactions, communication is key. However, businesses unfamiliar with blockchain may accidentally initiate unsecure transactions which would lead to security breaches, ZKP resolves such an issue by providing a secure tool.

EY’s PE ZKP solution is the first of its kind which is implementable and more advanced than what is currently available. Potentially, adopting enterprises who utilize ZKP or EY’s PE could standardize their offerings via token and transfer the same token over a secure platform such as Ethereum’s without breaking any consensus algorithms. This could have potentially enormous implications on how industries and markets interact on the blockchain with other businesses.