Base Makes Strategic Bet on Privacy With Iron Fish Acqui-Hire

Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based centralized cryptocurrency exchange, has acquired the team behind the privacy-focused Iron Fish blockchain to accelerate privacy efforts on Base, its Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain.

Saying that privacy is a right not a feature, Coinbase said it is “critical for unlocking the full potential of crypto” the company said in a blog post.

By bringing the Iron Fish team aboard, Base is making “a long-term investment in privacy as a core pillar of the onchain economy,” it added. “This team brings a strong track record of helping builders by developing privacy-preserving tools and technology that are safe, accessible, and compliance-friendly.”

The team will be developing new privacy-preserving primitives across Base. Primitives are low-level, well-tested cryptographic algorithms that are the building blocks of more complex security protocols. They each handle one aspect of security, such as encryption, decryption, hashing, or digital signature generation.

Iron Fish uses zero-knowledge proofs called zk-SNARKS to ensure private transactions, which the team will be bringing to Base.

Coinbase has not acquired the Iron Fish blockchain or token, which will continue under the auspices of the Iron Fish Foundation. Team co-leader Elena Nadolinski will remain on the Iron Fish Foundation board.

What it Means

The addition of the team has three main aspects.

For builders, Base’s scalability and privacy stack will help create a new generation of private, secure and compliant onchain apps.

For the industry, Coinbase says it is setting “a new standard for privacy by integrating strong privacy guarantees into Base.”

And as privacy tools get easier to use, users will gain more control while keeping transactions fast and cheap.

“This means anyone can trade, transact, and engage onchain while protecting sensitive information,” Coinbase said.