Tom Lehman, co-founder of Layer 2 network Facet, has formally pitched EIP-8182 for inclusion in Ethereum’s upcoming Hegota upgrade. The proposal, first introduced in March, aims to deliver native private ETH and ERC-20 transfers through a protocol-managed shielded pool.
The design calls for deploying the shared pool as a system contract with no admin key, proxy, or pause mechanism, utilizing a UTXO-based architecture and fork-managed Groth16 BN254 zero-knowledge proof verification. A new precompile would allow clients to process private transaction proofs directly at the base layer.
Lehman argues existing privacy solutions suffer from a structural flaw: pools need a critical mass of users to offer meaningful anonymity, yet users avoid joining pools with weak privacy guarantees. “Competition among pools fragments anonymity sets, weakening privacy protections,” he stated. EIP-8182 would create a single, shared anonymity set for the entire Ethereum ecosystem, enabling private sends to any standard address or ENS name without requiring separate privacy-specific formats.
The proposal also supports atomic transaction flows, allowing users to deposit assets into the shielded pool, interact with public smart contracts, and move assets back to private balances in one sequence. However, Lehman acknowledged that full transaction privacy still depends on encrypted mempools and network-layer improvements outside the EIP’s scope.
EIP-8182 is part of a broader privacy push for Hegota, joined by EIP-8141 (allowing withdrawal fees from private funds) and EIP-8250 (adding keyed nonces for shared-sender privacy). Hegota, Ethereum’s planned second-half 2026 upgrade, already includes the FOCIL censorship-resistance mechanism, a move Vitalik Buterin called part of building a “cypherpunk principled” Ethereum. Developers are increasingly prioritizing compliant privacy systems ahead of expected institutional adoption and tokenization growth.
