Privacy Is the Missing Layer — And the Next Crypto Power Shift
Ali Yahya, a general partner at a16z crypto, has delivered a blunt assessment of today’s blockchain landscape: without native privacy, mass adoption will remain out of reach.
According to Yahya, most blockchains treat privacy as an add-on rather than a foundation. Tokens can move seamlessly across chains, but sensitive data cannot. Every transaction, balance, and interaction remains exposed by default — a design choice that clashes with how real financial systems operate in the real world.
He argues that privacy isn’t about hiding wrongdoing; it’s about enabling normal economic behavior. Enterprises, institutions, governments, and even everyday users cannot operate at scale on systems where every action is permanently public. This gap, Yahya believes, explains why blockchain still struggles to onboard global finance despite its technical maturity.
The key insight:
> Chains that bake privacy into their core architecture will not be niche — they will be dominant.
As regulations evolve and real-world assets, payments, and identity systems migrate on-chain, demand will grow for networks that can balance transparency with confidentiality. Yahya predicts that only a small number of privacy-first blockchains will ultimately capture this demand — and in doing so, lead the next phase of the crypto market.
Bottom line:
The next crypto winners won’t just be faster or cheaper. They’ll be private by design.
