A renowned X developer, Ameen Soleimani, has criticized Ethereum’s reluctance to implement Poseidon precompile. in a update Shared recently, Soleimani expressed concern about Ethereum’s hesitation to implement this hash function, which is necessary for efficient zk testing.
Information about Poseidon precompile delays
According to Soleimani, this same feature has been on other blockchains such as Solana, Starknet, and Stellar since 2020-2022. He criticized the Ethereum community for always talking about “privacy by default” but refusing to carry out the necessary technical update that would guarantee it.
Soleimani insists that the key element, which is the zkEVM function, is missing and if conditions remain like this, privacy will not truly be enabled on Ethereum.
The developer claimed that the Starknet team attempted to offer some level of support to the Ethereum chain, but was rejected. Soleimani insists that Ethereum has a privacy gap and it appears to be a call to action for the Ethereum team.
He opines that Ethereum needs to live up to the current zk accumulation demands and improve its chain. Notably, EIP-5988 has been proposed since 2022 to add Poseidon to EVM addresses, but it has not happened. The trend remains stagnant and is causing delays in local armored transfers.
It is important to clarify that a “precompile” is a low-cost built-in feature that could significantly reduce gas fees on Ethereum. Therefore, Ethereum’s continued use of Poseidon without precompile makes application privacy impractical at layer 1.
Soleimani argued that Poseidon is already the “most battle-tested” hash function and enjoys utility in zk systems. Given its reliability, he opined that there is no genuinely acceptable reason to delay the deployment.
He condemned Ethereum’s roadmap, which has continued to push privacy to Layer 2 instead of Layer 1. Soleimani wants Layer 1 to continue to have core zk primitives because, without them, private transaction costs will still be too high.
Privacy roadmap promises clash with slow rollout
The developer’s arguments are well-founded, considering that the founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, had outlined, in April 2025, a new privacy roadmap.
Despite promises to take serious action, implementation remains a challenge and has continued to be an issue that avoids debates in the space.
Recognizing the cost-prohibitive nature of privacy features on Ethereum, Ernst & Young’s Paul Brody expressed hope that the blockchain could actually work in 2026. Brody stated that he wants to see privacy implementation becoming something common for users and institutions.
