Technology company StarkWare announced that Nightfall was deployed on the Ethereum Layer 2 network Starknet. Nightfall is a zero‑knowledge privacy protocol developed by consulting firm EY for the public domain. The deployment is being introduced today at an educational event hosted at EY’s Hudson Yards office in New York.
Starknet’s performance and composability position it as a foundation for onchain applications that need to operate at real‑world scale. With Nightfall added to the stack, the network gains a capability that has been missing from most public blockchain environments: privacy‑preserving transaction flows that remain compatible with institutional requirements. This includes KYC‑aligned private payments and settlement processes that can run on public infrastructure without exposing sensitive data.
Nightfall is structured as a Layer 3 privacy environment built on top of Starknet. In practice, it functions like an appchain‑style system that enterprises can deploy to manage private transaction flows while relying on Starknet for verification and settlement. The model aligns with the needs of traditional financial institutions that want users to onramp and rebalance larger amounts discreetly, while still retaining the option to interact with public liquidity when necessary. Zero‑knowledge proofs provide the privacy layer, and Starknet supplies efficient verification on a public chain.
This approach opens the door to use cases such as corporate treasury operations, tokenized assets, and institution‑to‑public liquidity workflows. These scenarios require a balance between confidentiality and interoperability, allowing enterprise funds to remain productive while limiting data exposure. As more financial activity moves onchain, privacy is increasingly viewed not as an enhancement but as a fundamental requirement for regulated environments.
1/ The Starknet stack now enables confidential payments & DeFi for institutions.
— StarkWare (BTCFi arc)
Today, we’re bringing Nightfall, EY’s ZK privacy layer, to Starknet.
Ethereum-secured rails, now ready for enterprise scalepic.twitter.com/irme37L276
(@StarkWareLtd) February 17, 2026
The Role Of Nightfall And EY
Nightfall is open‑source and available in the public domain. EY does not own or control the protocol, yet its involvement in developing Nightfall and supporting its deployment on Starknet offers institutions a tangible example of how privacy‑preserving workflows can function through a dedicated Layer 3 path on public blockchain infrastructure. The rollout spans several phases, from testnet to mainnet, with an emphasis on integration support, technical education, and practical evaluation. StarkWare and EY plan to collaborate on guiding early institutional users through these stages.
The deployment of Nightfall on Starknet reflects a broader industry shift in which institutional privacy is moving from theoretical discussion to active implementation. Following today’s event, StarkWare intends to continue working with institutions through education, targeted conversations, and focused exploration of near‑term applications such as payments, stablecoins, and tokenization. As teams progress beyond experimentation, privacy‑capable infrastructure is expected to become a prerequisite for production‑grade onchain workflows in regulated settings.
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Source: Mpost.io
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