Vitalik Buterin Backs Privacy Messaging Revolution With 256 ETH Donation

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This article was first published on The Bit Journal. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has issued a low-profile but symbolically significant 256 ETH grant to two niche privacy-focused messaging projects, Session and SimpleX Chat. Though the contribution is small by the standards of the crypto-industry, it casts a light on a type of digital infrastructure that is not typically subject to mainstream investment: communication systems that are resistant to metadata surveillance and enhance metadata privacy.

Encrypted messaging, like @signalapp, is critical for preserving our digital privacy. Two important next steps for the space are (i) permissionless account creation and (ii) metadata privacy.@session_app and @SimpleXChat are two messaging apps pushing these directions forward.…

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 26, 2025

Mainstream Platforms Overlook Metadata Privacy Threats

Although end-to-end encryption is becoming a standard, it does not obstruct the trends of communication whereby a person communicates with whom, how often, and which servers. Metadata privacy is fundamentally based on these trends, which is not a concern of the mainstream platforms. The contribution made by Butterin points to two initiatives that are facing this hidden aspect of exposure. Both apps are not Ethereum based or blockchain identity based; both are independent efforts to bring metadata privacy on a protocol-level.

Session: Privacy Through Hardened Routing

The approach of Session focuses on protecting metadata by designing advanced networks. The whitepaper of the project states that users work by operating with cryptographic keypairs instead of using phone numbers or emails, breaking the identity connections that undermine privacy in metadata.

The messages are routed by a multi-hop onion path where each relay that is going to be passed by cannot be able to see the sender and the destination of the message. Messages sent in encrypted form are stored in swarms which are decentralized, ensuring that the user is not exposed when not online. Routing and storage options provided by the protocol are aimed at preserving metadata privacy as much as possible to limit the information that can be gathered by the intermediaries about communication patterns.

SimpleX: Privacy by Erasing Persistent Identity

SimpleX follows a more radical path. Rather than concealing metadata, it stops the metadata appearance entirely. The protocol does away with any persistent identifiers no usernames, no numbers, no global account structures. The design allows metadata privacy to drastically, as the servers have no way to correlate the behavior of users or their social networks.

All relationships are treated as single cryptographic channels and all the state is stored locally. Servers simply pass packets without understanding any information about contactlists or message graphs or user identities. There is no global namespace, giving the normal metadata faces an easy disappearance, and provides a strong metadata privacy by default.

Complementary Designs for a Narrow But Crucial Problem

These two models, Session and SimpleX, are two complementary models of privacy engineering. Whereas one of them hides tracks of routing by hardening routes and swarm storage, the other strips identifiers completely to ensure metadata maximizes privacy. Both show how messaging systems can be built to the next level, to reduce noticeable communication footprints.

Their contribution arrives when blockchain ecosystems are becoming more sensitive to the issue of privacy, yet fail to implement the principles of metadata privacy in the transparent, publicly visible ledgers. Off-chain messaging solutions are thus very important in maintaining the privacy of users in online interactions.

A Small Grant With a Clear Message

The donation amount of 256 ETH is significantly less than the type of funding round common in the crypto industry. Yet its purpose is clear: to reinforce the means of protecting metadata privacy in normal communication. Both Session and SimpleX are community-based open-source projects where even small financial backing can greatly impact the development and the reliability of the infrastructure.

The donation does not indicate the long-term privacy roadmap of Ethereum. Rather, it highlights a larger reality: a healthy internet is reliant on communication systems that focus on metadata privacy, regardless of whether they overlap with blockchain technologies.

By shaping resources toward those projects that are taking the metadata protection seriously at the protocol level, Buterin is building up a component of the internet that has traditionally been underserved by funding but plays a vital role in ensuring digital independence.

Conclusion

Vitalik Buterin’s donation, though modest, underscores the importance of privacy-first messaging. By supporting Session and SimpleX, he highlights how protocol-level design can safeguard metadata privacy and reduce observable communication footprints. Such undertakings are the future of safe and sovereign messaging systems to safeguard users outside blockchain ecosystems.

Summary

Vitalik Buterin donated 256 ETH to Session and SimpleX, two metadata-resistant messaging projects.
Session uses onion routing and decentralized swarms to obscure sender–recipient links.
SimpleX removes persistent identifiers, using isolated cryptographic channels to eliminate metadata.
The grant highlights the need for strong, off-chain privacy tools built at the protocol level.