World’s First Private Transactions Done Over the Ethereum Public Blockchain

Accounting firm EY has announced they are developing their Ops Chain Public Edition (PE) prototype, a zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology built on the Ethereum public blockchain. The technology will allow for companies to securely create and sell products and services privately on a public blockchain.

EY has been working with zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology to be able to enable private token transfers without breaking the Ethereum consensus algorithm, the firm has announced. With the help of the EY blockchain labs in both Paris and London, the technology will support the transfer of both ERC-20 and ERC-721 tokens on what will be called the “Ops Chain Public Edition (PE).”

EY Ops Chain was launched in April of 2017 and now boasts a range of applications and services aimed at helping blockchain’s commercialization across many different industries.

The firm has announced that they will be soon releasing the roadmap for EY Ops Chain PE and a production offering in 2019.

Bringing Private Transactions to Ethereum

Ethereum is not known for privacy. In fact, many enterprises are currently building their own enterprise blockchain-systems on Ethereum to account for this fact. JPMorgan Chase, for one, is building their own enterprise blockchain called “Quorum” on Ethereum.

EY, however, is the first to construct a tool that will allow for enterprises to have private transactions on Ethereum’s public blockchain. EY’s product would allow companies to keep private records on a public chain. Through the use of ZKP technology, two parties would verify data without that data being visible on the public chain. This way, companies will not have to forgo the security of the public chain if they wanted to create their own, private chain.

EY’s solutions has significant ramifications for the security token industry as well, which will likely rely on Ethereum to store the data for real-world assets. These private solutions on-chain will pave the way for a world with widespread blockchain-based adoption.

What do you think about EY’s announcement? Does their product have significant ramifications for the security token industry? Leave a comment below.