Where the startup differs is that it plans to advise institutions on privacy architecture, build custom infrastructure where necessary, and publish open source research on institutional adoption of blockchain. The company says it does not seek to compete with existing privacy projects, but intends to work alongside them, recommending and integrating technologies based on customer needs.
“We don’t have one specific product, we have several, and we will work with the existing privacy ecosystem rather than rebuilding the entire privacy stack,” Jalil said.
EthSystems began as one of several organizations to emerge from the Ethereum Foundation as part of a broader restructuring aimed at distributing responsibilities previously housed within the nonprofit. Unlike sister organizations EthLabs, which focuses on protocol development, and Ethereum Institutional, which coordinates institutional engagement, EthSystems is dedicated to privacy and cryptography for institutional users.
The decision to become a for-profit company was driven by the demand the team encountered while still at the foundation. “We would build these proofs of concept, and then institutions would ask, ‘Can we pay your team to put this into production?’ “, Jalil said. “Every time I had to say, ‘This is not something we do.'”
According to him, operating as a commercial enterprise makes it easier both to finance the company’s work and to participate in the procurement processes of large financial institutions.