Vitalik co-authored a paper with researchers titled "Blockchain Privacy and Regulatory Compliance: Towards a Practical Balance."

ChainCatcher news, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, along with researchers from Chainalysis, the University of Basel, and other institutions, jointly published a paper titled "Blockchain Privacy and Regulatory Compliance: Towards a Practical Equilibrium."

The paper studies Privacy Pools, an enhanced privacy protocol based on smart contracts. It discusses the advantages and disadvantages of this protocol and demonstrates how it can be applied to create a separating equilibrium between honest and dishonest users.

The core idea of the paper is to allow users to publish zero-knowledge proofs to demonstrate that their funds originate from known (or not) legitimate sources without publicly revealing their entire transaction graph. This is achieved by proving membership in a custom association set that satisfies certain attribute requirements, which are stipulated by regulatory or social consensus. This paper may represent a first step towards a future where individuals can prove compliance with regulatory requirements without disclosing their entire transaction history.