Where the startup differs is that it plans to advise institutions on privacy architecture, build custom infrastructure where needed, and publish open-source research on institutional blockchain adoption. It says it’s not looking to compete with existing privacy projects, but intends to work alongside them, recommending and integrating technologies based on customers’ needs.
“We don’t have one specific product, we have several, and we’ll work with the existing privacy ecosystem rather than rebuild the entire privacy stack,” Jalil said.
EthSystems started as one of several organizations to emerge from the Ethereum Foundation amid a broader restructuring aimed at distributing responsibilities previously housed within the nonprofit. Unlike sister organizations EthLabs, which focuses on protocol development, and Ethereum Institutional, which coordinates enterprise engagement, EthSystems is dedicated to privacy and cryptography for institutional users.
The decision to become a for-profit company was driven by demand the team encountered while still inside the foundation. “We’d build these proof-of-concepts, and then institutions would ask, ‘Can we pay your team to take this into production?'” Jalil said. “Every time I’d have to say, ‘That’s not something we do.'”
Operating as a commercial business, he said, makes it easier both to fund the company’s work and to engage with procurement processes at large financial institutions.
