Nocturne a privacy protocol supported by Vitalik Buterin ceases operations
The closure of the company responsible for the privacy-focused protocol Nocturne has been announced just four months after the discontinuation of the protocol itself.
Nocturne, the developer of a privacy-centric protocol for Ethereum, is ceasing operations less than a year after receiving $6 million in funding from Bain Capital Crypto, Polychain Capital, and Vitalik Buterin.
In a statement released on Jun. 5, the Nocturne team revealed that the website will remain active for withdrawals until the end of June. Following this deadline, the withdrawal process will transition to a self-serve format accessible through a GitHub repository. No reason was given for the decision to shut down.
This closure comes after Nocturne’s previous announcement in February to end the v1 version of the protocol and focus on a new product within the application sector. The team explained that the early stage of the layer-2 ecosystem was a contributing factor to the closure, emphasizing that the shift to public layer-2 networks must take precedence over privacy.
Nocturne’s goal was to facilitate private accounts on the Ethereum network, enabling users to send and receive cryptocurrency confidentially.
In October 2023, Nocturne secured $6 million in a seed round co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital, with support from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and other members of the Ethereum community. The funds were initially intended for the deployment and development of private accounts on Ethereum.
For more information, Edward Snowden has advocated for privacy enhancements in Bitcoin following the closure of Coinjoin.
