Vitalik Buterin Supports Encrypted Messaging With $390,000 Donation To Session

In Brief

Vitalik Buterin donated 128 ETH to support the privacy-focused messaging app Session, highlighting its role in advancing permissionless accounts and metadata privacy.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has contributed 128 ETH, valued at approximately $390,000, to the privacy-focused messaging application Session, recognizing it as one of the projects advancing permissionless account creation and enhanced metadata privacy in encrypted communication.

“Encrypted messaging, like Signal, is critical for preserving our digital privacy,” Vitalik Buterin wrote in a post on social media platform X. “Two important next steps for the space are (i) permissionless account creation and (ii) metadata privacy. Session and SimpleX are two messaging apps advancing these directions,” he added.

Session is a decentralized, end-to-end encrypted messaging platform designed to minimize metadata leakage, which includes contextual information such as IP addresses or timestamps associated with messages

The platform also features its native token, SESH, which has seen a increase of 371% in a single day, reaching a market capitalization of $15 million, following the news. As of the time of writing, the token is trading at $0.1181, down 13.89%, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Vitalik Buterin Strengthens Crypto Privacy Advocacy Amid Global Surveillance Concerns

Vitalik Buterin has increasingly spoken out in support of privacy solutions within the cryptocurrency sector, highlighting concerns over expanding global surveillance and the desire of individuals to maintain personal privacy.

Earlier this month, he described privacy as “hygiene” in the context of a security breach affecting several major US banks. In October, the Ethereum Foundation established a dedicated privacy team of 28 members, with plans to broaden its privacy-focused initiatives and projects.

The latest privacy-focused donation comes amid weeks of debate over Europe’s Chat Control legislation and rising concerns about vulnerabilities in encrypted messaging. Last Wednesday, the Council of the European Union approved measures allowing messaging applications to scan content to protect children online, a move critics have termed “Chat Control.”