Blockchain Privacy

Public blockchains are transparent by design, yet users, businesses, and regulators all expect privacy, and that gap only widens as enforcement accelerates. Drawing on running a privacy program at a major exchange, I will talk about where traditional privacy principles must be redefined for an immutable, permissionless ledger: minimization becomes deciding what never touches L1 rather than collecting less; erasure becomes cryptographic (key deletion, off-chain pointers) rather than deletion; consent becomes meaningless once broadcast is irreversible. I will map where AML/KYC obligations collide with minimization, where ZK proofs and selective disclosure genuinely resolve that collision, and where they do not. This is not a cryptography talk, it is a working definition of privacy-by-design for a ledger that cannot forget.

Speakers: Asha Shankar

Track: Privacy & Consent