Vitalik Buterin Proposes ZK-Payments as Global Standard on May 10

According to a research post published on May 10, 2026, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed Zero-Knowledge (ZK) Payments as the essential next standard for the global digital economy. Buterin argued that crypto-payments must transition from pseudonymity to default privacy, particularly for autonomous AI agents paying for services without exposing their transaction history. He outlined using recursive SNARKs and ZK API Usage Credits on Ethereum’s Layer 2 solutions to enable private payments at comparable speed and cost to transparent transactions. The proposal includes selective disclosure and proof of innocence mechanisms to address Anti-Money Laundering regulations, allowing users to provide compliance proofs to authorities without exposing data to the public.