The Solana Foundation is launching a new pitch to large institutions: privacy as a customizable feature, not a trade-off.
In a report released Monday by the foundation, “Privacy at Solana: A Full Spectrum Approach for the Modern Enterprise“ The organization argued that the next phase of cryptocurrency adoption will depend less on transparency alone and more on giving companies control over what they disclose and to whom.
The framework marks a change from the initial spirit of cryptocurrencies. Public blockchains have traditionally emphasized openness, where transactions are visible and traceable, even if users are represented only by wallet addresses. The report recognized that this “pseudonym” model, while critical, is not sufficient for many real-world use cases. Financial institutions, for example, may need to demonstrate that transactions were made without exposing counterparties, while companies that process payroll must avoid disclosing employee salaries.
Behind the proposal is a technical claim: that Solana’s speed makes advanced privacy techniques practical. The team argued that the network’s high throughput and low latency allow these methods to run at near web speeds, opening the door to use cases like encrypted order books or private credit risk calculations.
But rather than offering a single solution for privacy, the foundation presented privacy as a spectrum composed of four different modes: pseudonymity, confidentiality, anonymity, and completely private systems.
At the basic level, pseudonymity keeps identities hidden behind wallet addresses and leaves transaction data visible. Moving further down the spectrum, confidentiality allows participants to be known while encrypting sensitive information such as balances and transfer amounts.
Anonymity reverses that dynamic, hiding participants’ identities while allowing transaction data to remain visible. At the other extreme are completely private systems, where both identities and transaction data are protected using techniques such as zero-knowledge proofs and multi-party computing.
The message is that no privacy model fits all. “For businesses, privacy is a spectrum, not a switch,” the report says.
What Solana is trying to do is bring all of these privacy options into one system. Instead of choosing a single approach, companies can mix and match tools (such as hiding transaction amounts, proving that something is valid without revealing details, or controlling who can access certain data) depending on what they need.
In practice, that could mean executing trades without revealing the order size, sharing risk data between banks without exposing individual balance sheets, or allowing users to demonstrate compliance without revealing personal information.
The report leans heavily on the idea that privacy and regulation can coexist. The team pointed to mechanisms like “auditor keys,” which allow designated parties to decrypt transactions when necessary. Other systems would allow wallets to demonstrate their compliance status without revealing their identity. These features are framed as a response to increasing regulatory scrutiny, particularly around anti-money laundering rules and financial surveillance.
“Privacy is a market requirement,” the report says. “Customers expect it and applications require it. At Solana, you choose your level of privacy, from encrypted balances to zero-knowledge anonymity to confidential multi-party computing. Each level maps to a compliance path, and each is composable with the broader ecosystem.”
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