“We are excited to announce our $6 million seed round, co-led by. 

@BainCapCrypto & @polychain with participation from @VitalikButerin and other members of the Ethereum community.This round will fund the implementation and ongoing development of private accounts on Ethereum.”

This round was led by Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital, with participation from Vitalik Buterin, Bankless Ventures, Hack VC, Robot Ventures and others. Specifically, it seems that this funding started in January 2023, with the closing in August.

Basically, the project of the startup Nocturne Labs is to develop a protocol that will allow users to make anonymous transactions within the Ethereum ecosystem. 

The new protocol is expected to be launched in the second half of November and should combine blockchain technologies such as zero-knowledge proof, account abstractions and stealth addresses to succeed in its mission. 

In this sense, Nocturne Labs could compete with other privacy-focused protocols such as Aztec or Railgun.

Ethereum News: How does the new Nocturne privacy protocol work?

Describing the idea behind Nocturne Labs, its co-founder and CEO, Luke Tchang, revealed the following:

“The accounts “function like conventional Ethereum accounts, but with built-in asset privacy.”

Specifically, Tchang says that users will be able to deposit or receive payments into their Nocturne account. They will then be able to use zero-knowledge proof technologies to prove that they own those funds and use them for other transactions, such as payments, trading and betting.

The company aims to enable privacy while using crypto. In this sense, Nocturne Labs wants everyone to be able to receive their salaries on the blockchain without revealing their earnings, make purchases without revealing their spending habits, and store their assets on the blockchain without revealing their total value.

At the moment, the privacy protocol aims to bring private accounts to Ethereum, and to support Ethereum Layer 2s in the future. 

Another not insignificant detail concerns compliance with US regulations. Tchang explained that the protocol is taking a “measured approach”:

“We are starting with a two-step, permissioned deposit process that involves filtering out illicit deposits using tools such as TRM and other data analytics providers,” he said. “The tools we build for deposit filtering will allow us to gradually transition into a more permissionless approach in the future — proof of innocence.”

Vitalik Buterin reveals he has not sold ETH for personal gain since 2018

Recently, on the decentralised social network Warpcast, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin revealed that he has not sold ETH for personal profit since 2018, which is a good five years. 

Not only that, but Buterin also stated that he would use some of his assets in ETH and some of the Shitcoins sent to him by various communities to support non-profit organisations and do charity work. 

Therefore, it is good to be careful with the information that the media also disseminates when they highlight events in which transactions have taken place from Buterin’s wallet. 

In fact, it should be noted whether the creator of Ethereum is spending his crypto, sending it as a donation, or whether, as is often erroneously reported, the outgoing crypto is destined for crypto exchanges to trade and make a profit.