Nocturne a privacy protocol supported by Vitalik Buterin ceases operations
The developers of the privacy-focused protocol Nocturne have announced the closure of their company, just four months after discontinuing the protocol itself.
Nocturne, the creators of a privacy-centric protocol for Ethereum, is shutting down 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, the Nocturne team revealed that the application’s website will remain accessible for withdrawals until the end of June. After this date, the withdrawal process will be shifted to a self-serve format through a GitHub repository. The team did not provide a specific reason for the shutdown.
The decision to close the company follows Nocturne’s previous move in February to shut down the v1 version of the protocol and focus on developing a new product in the application space. The team mentioned the early stage of the layer-2 ecosystem as a factor in the closure of the protocol, stressing the importance of the transition to public layer-2 networks before addressing privacy concerns.
Nocturne’s goal was to enable private accounts on the Ethereum network, allowing users to transact cryptocurrency privately.
Back in October 2023, Nocturne secured $6 million in a seed funding round led by Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital, with support from Vitalik Buterin and other members of the Ethereum community. The funding was intended for the deployment and advancement of private accounts on Ethereum.
For more information, Edward Snowden has advocated for privacy enhancements in Bitcoin following the closure of Coinjoin.
