Nocturne a privacy protocol supported by Vitalik Buterin announces closure
The team behind the privacy-focused Nocturne protocol has announced the closure of their operations just four months after discontinuing the protocol itself.
Nocturne, the company that developed a privacy-centric protocol for Ethereum, is closing its doors less than a year after receiving $6 million in funding from Bain Capital Crypto, Polychain Capital, and Vitalik Buterin.
In a recent announcement on Jun. 5, Nocturne’s team revealed that the application’s website will continue to be operational for withdrawals until the end of June. Following this deadline, the withdrawal process will be transitioned to a self-serve format through a GitHub repository. The team did not provide a specific reason for the shutdown.
This decision comes after Nocturne’s choice in February to shut down the v1 version of the protocol and redirect their focus towards “a new product in the application space.” The team explained that the early stage of the layer-2 ecosystem was a contributing factor to the closure of the protocol, stressing that the move to public layer-2 networks “must come before privacy.”
Nocturne’s goal was to facilitate private accounts on the Ethereum network, allowing users to send and receive cryptocurrency in a confidential manner.
Back in October 2023, Nocturne secured $6 million in a seed round led by Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital, with contributions from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and other members of the Ethereum community. At the time, the team had plans to utilize the funds for the deployment and development of private accounts on Ethereum.
For more information, Edward Snowden has urged privacy enhancements in Bitcoin amidst the closure of Coinjoin.
