BNB Chain has announced a major collaboration with Brevis to develop a programmable privacy layer based on zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), fundamentally shifting the network's approach to transaction privacy. The initiative, announced via BNB Chain's official X account on January 16, 2026, aims to move beyond traditional privacy systems that merely obscure sender, receiver, and amount details.
The core innovation is a framework that allows users to verify specific credentials or compliance requirements without exposing their full wallet history or sensitive activity patterns. BNB Chain stated that this design treats privacy as a programmable layer, enabling applications to select which attributes remain private while still proving conditions through cryptographic verification.
The first implementation of this technology will be an "Intelligent Privacy Pool," developed in partnership with Brevis and 0xbow, targeting a launch in Q1 2026. This pool will use "Association Sets" and ZK attestations to facilitate private transfers that are compliant with regulatory standards. Access to deposits will be limited to those meeting predefined requirements.
Eligibility for private withdrawals can be proven through two distinct, privacy-preserving pathways. The first uses on-chain provenance verification via the Brevis ZK Data Coprocessor to demonstrate funds originate from compliant sources. The second employs off-chain account verification through zkTLS, allowing a user to prove control of a verified exchange account (like Binance) without revealing their personal identity. Both methods rely on zero-knowledge proofs.
A critical feature of the Association Set model is a removal mechanism. If a deposit is later linked to sanctions or malicious activity, it can be excluded from the set, preventing future private withdrawals and maintaining the integrity of the pool.
Beyond private transfers, BNB Chain outlined broader potential use cases for the programmable privacy layer, including enabling fair prediction markets, helping SocialFi platforms verify real users while keeping holdings private, and supporting verifiable AI by allowing training on private data with proof-backed validation.
This development follows other recent technical advancements on BNB Chain, including the Fourier mainnet hardfork on opBNB, which reduced block time from 500ms to 250ms. The network's 2025 Lorentz and Maxwell updates also significantly lowered fees and increased throughput. At the time of the announcement, the BNB token was trading at $943.71, up 1% over 24 hours.
