Zama, a French startup developing blockchain privacy solutions, has recently completed a $57 million Series B funding round. Thanks to this investment the company’s valuation has skyrocketed over $1 billion. Founded in 2020, Zama is at the forefront of making fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) production ready. This technology unlocks encrypted smart contracts and confidential blockchain applications. Their patented technology enables secure, on-chain computation while keeping sensitive data private—a major breakthrough for blockchain technology. Zama’s protocol lays out a new and very promising idea called “programmable confidentiality.” This gives developers greater control over who is able to decrypt on-chain data within the smart contract.

Revolutionizing Blockchain Privacy with FHE

Zama’s main innovation is found in the use of fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) on blockchain technology. This unique approach allows complex computations to be performed on encrypted data without any need to decrypt it. As such, sensitive information remains masked at every step of the process. Zama’s technology goes beyond conventional approaches to privacy protection.

"With Tornado Cash, you make the transaction untraceable, but the content is public," - Rand Hindi

Zama’s approach to the ZK system centers around protecting the content of each transaction while still allowing each transaction to remain visible.

"FHE, on the other hand, hides the on-chain data, not the transaction trace. You can see who interacted with whom, but you cannot see their balances, amounts, etc. This means you can always trace back the transaction to a KYC’d wallet if needed," - Rand Hindi

Maintaining this equilibrium of privacy and traceability is key to achieving regulatory compliance as well as fostering consumer confidence in blockchain applications.

Launch on Ethereum and Solana Integration

Zama is preparing to release its protocol onto the Ethereum network in July. This event will be the first large scale deployment of their unique technology. As for the underlying technology, Zama CEO Rand Hindi has recently disclosed that Zama is aiming for an integration with Solana in 2026. The company is in the process of adapting its technology to the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM). They are making sure it is going through rigorous auditing.

"First, we need to adapt our technology to the SVM and have it audited, which takes time," - Rand Hindi

With this expansion, we hope to deliver these new privacy tools across the Solana ecosystem, which is recognized for its high-speed transactions and scalability.

Programmable Confidentiality and Compliance

Zama's protocol introduces a concept called "programmable confidentiality," which offers developers granular control over data decryption permissions within smart contracts. This feature is useful to build applications that comply with necessary compliance regulations.

"For example, a stablecoin issuer could allow a user to see their own balance, but also a compliance officer," - Rand Hindi

This kind of control is absolutely key for enterprise-grade blockchain applications that need to be built within tightly-regulated industries.

"The Zama protocol basically doesn’t enforce anything—it’s completely up to the developer to decide what compliance rules they want to follow," - Rand Hindi

This flexibility allows developers the freedom to innovate and create systems that serve both privacy goals and regulatory requirements.