Crypto infrastructure firm Startale Group has picked Sunnyside Labs’ Privacy Boost as the privacy partner for its Startale App, which runs on Soneium, a Sony-linked blockchain network.
Startale said the integration will introduce self-custodial private transfer capabilities to the app, including shielded balances, private peer-to-peer transfers and privacy-enabled payment flows on Soneium. The addition provides a consumer-facing privacy layer to Startale’s Sony-linked ecosystem as crypto applications seek to give users greater control over visible on-chain activity while retaining compliance tools for operators.
Sunnyside Labs co-founder and CEO Taem Park told Cointelegraph that the system’s selective auditability keeps transaction details hidden from the public but lets authorized service operators inspect them via a feature called Audit View. He likened the model to traditional finance, where banks can access customer transactions for compliance, saying it enables AML and regulatory obligations to be met without making all activity publicly transparent. “This is a fundamentally different architecture from privacy tools that obscure transactions from everyone, including the operator,” Park said.
That design raises questions about who ultimately controls access to private transaction records. While Privacy Boost conceals details from the public, Audit View preserves operator-level visibility for compliance, meaning users depend both on cryptography and on Sunnyside Labs’ policies governing when and how shielded records can be reviewed.
Selective disclosure faces privacy–compliance trade-offs
Audit View places Startale’s approach alongside other privacy systems that hide data from general view while permitting review by trusted or authorized parties. Early privacy-focused networks like Zcash use zero-knowledge proofs and support selective disclosure through viewing keys. Secret Network applies a similar access-control concept for private smart contract data, describing viewing keys as encrypted passwords tied to a specific contract and key.
Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs noted in a Feb. 19 report that transaction view keys offer “strong privacy but weak compliance utility,” particularly for high-value transfers, rapid fund movements or systemic monitoring. Privacy Boost’s Audit View takes a different tack by granting authorized operators access to private transaction records to satisfy compliance needs. That can make the system more practical for regulated consumer use cases but means disclosure isn’t governed solely by users.
TRM Labs concluded that “no single privacy regime satisfies all stakeholder needs,” and suggested hybrid approaches that combine visibility, access controls and limits around private-asset conversions may be the most workable path forward.
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