According to Cointelegraph, institutions are showing reluctance in adopting Web3 technologies due to the transparency inherent in public, permissionless blockchains. Avidan Abitbol, the project director for the Data Ownership Protocol (DOP) privacy solution, highlighted that zero-knowledge technology offers a solution through selective disclosure. Abitbol explained that transparency poses risks such as theft, increased targeting by scammers, and disadvantages during business negotiations. He noted that institutions prefer to keep details like payments, workflows, and financial balances private, as these are crucial to their operations and strategies.
The transparency of blockchain can also lead to market risks, as traders might use the transaction data of large institutions to influence asset prices. This issue of transparency hindering institutional adoption is not new. In September 2024, Paul Brody, the global blockchain leader at EY, emphasized the need for privacy to protect institutional operations. Brody pointed out that the lack of privacy on blockchains affects not only corporate finance but also sectors like healthcare, where confidentiality is critical.
In response to these concerns, Chainlink introduced private transaction features for institutions in October 2024. This suite includes the Blockchain Privacy Manager and the CCIP Private Transactions encryption tool. The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ Bank) was among the first to test these privacy features for settling tokenized asset transactions. Furthermore, blockchain transparency exacerbates issues related to maximal extractable value (MEV), where miners or validators manipulate transaction orders within a block for economic gain. This manipulation involves reordering transactions to maximize fees and front-run other market participants through arbitrage strategies. Data obfuscation and privacy-enhancing solutions are seen as potential mitigators of these challenges.