PlasmaCon 2024 Recap: Focus Toward Scalable Privacy

PlasmaCon, the much anticipated Web3 event focused on the resurgence of Plasma, was a major success on July 31st. Held in Tokyo and attracting a number of legends in the crypto industry, the event discussed a number of topics that have spurred the need for scalable privacy solutions in our daily lives. Although first proposed for Ethereum in 2017, the Plasma framework (designed for fast, scalable, secure transactions) was not able to break free of the technological hurdles at the time. However, the rise of supporting technologies such as ZK SNARKs has given Plasma new life, creating a path forward for Plasma as an integral part of Ethereum and Web3 as a whole. PlasmaCon's purpose was to bring together key players in the industry who are experts in areas such as Plasma, encryption, scalability, and privacy. Together, they presented strong ideas for what our biggest challenges are today in blockchain and participated in panels to discuss a roadmap for how we can develop solutions that are privacy-focused, scalable, and future-proof. The conference was hosted by INTMAX, which is itself a pioneer of Plasma innovation, with the goal of sparking Plasma development across Web3.

Key Themes: Plasma, Privacy, Scalability

With 20 experts and 10 lectures, the concentrated topic space allowed the conference to dive deep into the key topics of privacy, scalability, and Plasma's role in both. Speakers included several legends, including Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and cryptography pioneer David Chaum. A number of industry leaders spoke on the issues, including INTMAX Co-Founder Leona Hioki, developer of ZK Email Sora Suegami, founder of Borderless Africa Yoseph Ayele, and key researchers from the Ethereum foundation Justin Drake and Barry Whitehat.

It is clear that the original message of transparency as blockchain's greatest strength is changing. Not because transparency isn't important but because of the problem it was actually meant to solve. The combination of transparent immutability meant that we could verify transactions that occur on-chain, giving blockchain ironclad verifiability that can change entire industries. The problem with this, however, is that with transparency, privacy is lost. We want to verify transactions, but without privacy, many use cases are impossible. Technologies like Plasma, along with supporting innovations like ZK computing, are able to provide the holy grail: verifiability without compromising privacy. It was this excitement that drove the underlying energy of the PlasmaCon discussions.

Vitalik Buterin provided a refreshing update on "Return of Plasma," which was especially powerful as he had first developed the idea seven years ago. He shared the history of Plasma, its shortcomings at the time, and how ZK-SNARKs are key to overcoming many of the original limitations. Plasma with upgraded validity proofs could finally accomplish its original goal of near-instant transactions, but using an architecture that can scale. He also discussed the idea of "EVM-compatible Plasma" and how it could transform the industry as a whole. While there are still technical challenges that need to be solved, the roadmap for this innovation is clearer and more attainable than ever before.

The keynote address from David Chaum, cryptography leader and CEO of Elixxir, focused on various use cases that illustrate just how transformative privacy-enhancing technology would be compared to our current societal norms. He showed that we allow much more of our privacy to be taken away than we realize and that AI and cryptography could help us regain some of that privacy. However, these same technologies will be used against privacy advocates as well, and there is a lot of work ahead if we want to reclaim control of our digital lives.

Scalability for privacy solutions was discussed on many levels, with Ethereum researcher Justin Drake discussing how to combine Plasma with minimalistic design to maximize privacy. INTMAX co-founder Leona Hioki focused on "Scaling Privacy," utilizing a unique stateless design to strike an optimum balance between the two goals.

Panel of Legends

A particular highlight of the conference was the panel discussing "Privacy Is Normal," which reminds us just how recently our lives were largely private, what the digital world has done to violate this, and what we can do to regain the privacy that we need in our lives. Vitalik Buterin, Leona Hioki, David Chaum, and Sora Suegami all shared their thoughts with the audience.

Vitalik reminded the audience how the commonplace today once seemed impossible. "15 years ago HTTPS was not mainstream. And today everything is HTTPS by default. 15 years ago, something like Signal did not exist. And today, Signal exists. 15 years ago, privacy preserving internet payments did not really exist. Today we have Zcash and we have all of the Ethereum based systems."

David Chaum agreed, focusing on the challenges that the innovators of Web3 will need to resolve. "Privacy is a difficult problem. You cannot really meaningfully solve it by just addressing one application area, let's say payments. But if you don't have privacy in messaging ... it can undo the privacy that you do obtain. So we need a comprehensive solution. We have to address privacy in all the main areas in order to really achieve meaningful results."

Final Thoughts

PlasmaCon 2024 was a strong reminder of the threat faced by diminishing privacy in all areas of our lives, from conversations to transactions. This lack of privacy, though it seems like it has become a permanent part of our society, is a relatively recent trend, increasing dramatically in the last few decades as technology has transitioned more and more of our daily activities into the digital world. This attack on privacy will not stop because companies are able to profit from it, and governments are able to exert control over it. It is up to us to innovate our way back to a world where we can reclaim our personal data and our individual privacy. Will Plasma be core to this? It certainly seems to have what it takes to make a big difference. As more and more attention is given to Plasma and its revitalized place for scalable privacy, it will be exciting to see what the Web3 community can accomplish before PlasmaCon 2025.