London, England (PinionNewswire) — As the DeFi sector rushes to integrate zero-knowledge proofs and privacy pools, defi.com CEO Neil May has issued a sharp rebuke to the industry: the vast majority of privacy solutions are solving the wrong problem.
“Privacy without identity is just hiding,” said May. “The industry has become obsessed with making transactions invisible, but it has completely ignored the user’s need for a portable, trustworthy identity. You can’t build a financial system where people are anonymous ghosts; you can’t lend to them, you can’t build relationships with them, and they can’t prove they’re not criminals without dumping their entire transaction history.”
May’s comments challenge a wave of privacy-focused protocols that have raised significant capital and attention. While acknowledging the technical achievements of projects like Tornado Cash successors and ZK-based L2s, May argues that privacy in a vacuum is incomplete; and often counterproductive.
“Anonymity pools are great for whistleblowers and political dissidents. But for everyday users and institutions, they create more problems than they solve,” May said. “How do you know you’re not receiving funds from a sanctioned wallet? How do you build a credit history if every transaction is erased? The industry has confused privacy with anonymity. Real privacy means you control what you reveal; not that you reveal nothing to everyone.”
defi.com, which has held the category-defining domain since 2018, is taking a different approach. The company is building what it calls “identity-first finance”; a system where users have a portable, human-readable DeFi ID that sits atop privacy infrastructure, enabling selective disclosure rather than blanket secrecy.
“When you have a DeFi ID, you’re not anonymous. But you’re also not exposed,” said Sam Newman, Chief Product Officer at defi.com, who joined the company after previous roles at WalletConnect and Summer.Fi. “We use stealth addresses underneath the hood so your positions and spending are private. No one can trace them back to you. But we also use verifiable credentials and ZK proofs to selectively disclose exactly what a regulator or counterparty needs; and nothing more.”
Newman drew a sharp contrast with existing privacy solutions. “The problem with pure anonymity pools is they don’t give you portability. Your reputation, your trust score, your history of good behavior; none of that travels with you. You start from zero every time you interact with a new protocol. That’s not a financial system. That’s a casino.”
May argued that the industry’s current trajectory risks repeating the failures of earlier crypto cycles, where hype outpaced structural integrity.
“We’re seeing the same pattern we saw in 2021: projects rushing to market with ‘privacy’ as a marketing term, not an architectural discipline,” May said. “If your solution doesn’t include a way for users to prove their compliance, build reputation, and selectively disclose information, you’re not building finance. You’re building a glorified anonymizer.”
defi.com is now entering its next phase of development. The company is launching a private alpha in summer 2026, opening the platform to a select group of early users by application only. The alpha will introduce the first components of its identity-first financial system, with features rolled out in stages throughout the year.
“Privacy is essential. But it’s not enough,” May said. “The next generation of DeFi needs to give users dignity: the ability to be known when they want to be, private when they need to be, and trusted because they’ve earned it. That’s what we’re building.”
defi.com is building an identity-first financial system centered around user-owned, privacy-preserving identities. The platform aims to replace fragmented wallet-based systems with a unified, cross-chain experience. Founded by technology veterans with backgrounds spanning telecom infrastructure, enterprise software, and financial systems, defi.com is focused on making crypto usable for the next generation of users. Applications for the private alpha are now open at defi.com.
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