StarkWare is integrating Nightfall — a zero-knowledge privacy solution developed by Ernst & Young — into the Starknet Layer 2 network to enable confidential institutional transactions on public blockchain infrastructure.

The integration addresses a key barrier to enterprise adoption: public blockchain transparency that exposes balances, counterparties, and strategies. Nightfall allows private-by-default transactions with selective disclosure, so institutions can execute B2B payments, treasury operations, tokenized asset transfers, and DeFi activities while still meeting compliance and audit requirements.

Built with zero-knowledge rollups and compatible with Ethereum, Nightfall links blockchain addresses to enterprise certificates to support regulatory controls alongside transaction privacy. StarkWare says this will support use cases such as private cross-border payments and confidential treasury management.

CEO Eli Ben-Sasson called the move a milestone for institutional blockchain adoption, while EY’s blockchain lead Paul Brody described privacy as the missing component for large-scale onchain enterprise payments.