Only the parties to a trade should see the trade.
On most public blockchains, every trade is visible to anyone who looks. Institutions will not move serious volume onto rails like that. FinP2P keeps trade data between the institutions actually in the trade, and uses each chain's own privacy at settlement, so the same guarantee holds on every chain an institution uses. This page explains how, chain by chain, with a source for every claim.
Why it matters: what public blockchains give away, and why regulators and central banks now say so →
How FinP2P keeps trades need-to-know
Privacy has to work in two places: in each institution's own systems, where trades are negotiated and recorded, and on the ledger, where they settle. FinP2P keeps those two layers apart, which is what lets the same privacy work on any chain.
- Each institution runs its own Router. Its business logic and trade data stay inside its own perimeter.
- Only the Routers in a trade see the trade. Connections are peer to peer. There is no central hub that sees everything.
- Privacy starts before settlement. Wallets, contract addresses and settlement instructions are exchanged only between the parties, at the pre-trade and trade stages.
- Settlement uses the chain's own privacy. Zero-knowledge proofs or encryption on public chains, private networks, or a custodian's omnibus accounts. Proofs go only to the parties.
- Every institution keeps its own signed record. A complete off-chain log of its trades across every chain, with proofs signed by its counterparties. If a chain fails, pauses a feature or disappears, the record does not.
Live in production
Intraday repo between J.P. Morgan and HQLAx has run on FinP2P Routers since 2025, with $5 billion traded in the first month. HQLAx 2025
Adding a chain keeps the guarantee
Because privacy is managed at the Router, adding a chain, a counterparty or an application does not change who can see a trade. Ownera developer docs 2026
Who sees what
One trade between two institutions on FinP2P, and what each party can see.
| Information | Your Router | Counterparty Router | Other institutions on the network | Ownera, as vendor | Anyone reading the chain | Your regulator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade terms: asset, price, size | yes | yes | no | no | hidden* | on request |
| Who the counterparties are | yes | yes | no | no | depends on chain | on request |
| Wallets, contract addresses, settlement instructions | yes | yes | no | no | depends on chain | on request |
| Signed proof that the trade settled | yes | yes | no | no | no | on request |
| Metadata: that a trade happened, and when | yes | yes | no | no | depends on chain | on request |
* Hidden by the chain's own privacy feature at settlement. What still shows depends on the chain: see privacy by chain. "Ownera, as vendor": Ownera supplies the Router as software, on-premises or as a managed service, and says it is not a party to any trade: no Ownera system sits between the Routers, sees the data or holds the keys. "Your regulator": an institution can hand a supervisor the trades in scope from its own signed record. This table is our reading of Ownera's public documentation and paper, not an Ownera statement.
Privacy by chain
Every network is adding privacy in its own way and on its own schedule. Some are live, some are coming, and some have pulled features back. This is the independent, sourced view of where each one stands: what it hides, what still shows, and what a transaction costs.
| Chain | Status | How it works | Hidden | Still visible | Typical fee | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canton Privacy network | live by design | Need-to-know by design. Each institution runs its own node; only the nodes in a trade see it, with messages encrypted end to end. | Trade content from every node not in the trade. | The synchronizer orders encrypted messages and sees metadata, not trade content. | about $1 median transaction, gross, before rewards returned to operators (draft CIP) | Canton Network 2026Canton docs 20265North 2026 |
| Ethereum Public L1 | live Mar 2025 (v2 Oct 2026) | Application-level privacy: Privacy Pools (0xbow), a screened shielded pool that added private in-pool payments in its October 2026 v2, plus other shielded pools; the Ethereum Foundation has committed to privacy as a protocol priority. | Sender, recipient and amount of transfers inside the pool, and the link between deposit and withdrawal. | Deposits into and withdrawals out of the pool; everything outside it is public. A screening provider approves deposits. | about $0.02 token transfer, live snapshot | The Block 2025Bankless 2026Ethereum Foundation 2025Etherscan 2026 |
| Polygon PoS Public chain | live May 2026 | Private payments for stablecoins (USDC and USDT) on the public chain, through Hinkal's shielded pool with screening on every transfer. | Sender, receiver and amount; senders and receivers cannot be linked on-chain. | That a valid transfer happened. | about $0.002 token transfer, live snapshot | Polygon 2026 |
| Solana Public L1 | live Jun 2026 (returned) | Confidential transfers in the Token-2022 program, using zero-knowledge proofs. Switched off in June 2025 after a bug in the proofs; back on with Agave 4.0 in June 2026. | Token amounts and balances. | Sender and receiver addresses. | about $0.0005 token transfer, live snapshot | Solana docs 2026Solana 2025Helius 2026 |
| Aztec Privacy L2 on Ethereum | live Mar 2026 (alpha) | Private execution: smart contracts with private state, settled to Ethereum. | Contract state and execution details, by default. | What a contract chooses to make public. | varies | Aztec 2026 |
| ZKsync Prividium Permissioned chain anchored to Ethereum | live Q1 2026 | A private, permissioned chain per operator; transaction data stays off the public chain, with validity proofs posted to Ethereum. | All transaction data from the public. | Proofs and state commitments on Ethereum; the operator controls access to the data. | varies | ZKsync 2026 |
| Hedera Public network, plus private networks | live May 2026 | HashSphere private networks for institutions, alongside Hedera's published transaction privacy design. | Everything on a private network from outsiders. | What the network operator chooses to anchor or share. | about $0.001 public network, token transfer (published fee schedule) | Hashgraph 2026Hedera docs 2026 |
| Avalanche Public L1 | live Mar 2025 (contract standard) | Encrypted ERC-20 (eERC): zero-knowledge proofs plus homomorphic encryption in an ordinary contract, with no protocol change. Can issue a private token or wrap an existing ERC-20. Private permissioned Avalanche L1s are also available. | Balances and transfer amounts. | The transaction and the accounts that send it, as with any contract call. | about $0.02 encrypted transfer (about 947,000 gas), live snapshot | Ava Labs 2025 |
| Aptos Public L1 | live Apr 2026 (APT only) | Confidential APT: balances held encrypted in a protocol pool, with proofs checked by validators. Only APT so far. | Amounts and balances. | Addresses, asset type, timing, and amounts moving in or out of the pool. An optional governance-set auditor can read amounts. | varies | CertiK 2026 |
| Aleo Privacy L1 | live Jan 2026 (USDCx) | Private by default: a zero-knowledge chain where transfers spend encrypted records. Circle's USDCx stablecoin is live, backed 1:1 through Circle's xReserve. | Sender, receiver and amount. | That a transaction happened, and transfers between public and private balances. USDCx includes compliance monitoring and a freeze-list check. | varies | Aleo 2026Cointelegraph 2026 |
| Stellar Public L1 | coming testnet Aug 2026, audited Oct 2026 | X-Ray zero-knowledge building blocks went live on mainnet in January 2026 (Protocol 25); confidential tokens reached testnet in August 2026, and OpenZeppelin shipped the audited contracts in October. Not yet approved for mainnet. | Planned: token amounts and balances. | Today, transfers are public. When live: addresses, and amounts moving in or out of confidential balances. | about $0.000002 base fee, live snapshot | Stellar 2026Stellar 2026OpenZeppelin 2026Stellar 2026 |
| XRP Ledger Public L1 | coming in validator vote (21 of 35 for, 28 needed, Nov 2026) | Confidential multi-purpose tokens (XLS-96), proposed as a protocol amendment. | Planned: token amounts. | Today, transfers are public. | about $0.00001 reference transaction cost | XRPL Standards 2026XRPL docs 2026XRPScan 2026 |
| Arc (Circle) Public L1 | coming mainnet Sep 2026, privacy later | Opt-in privacy with built-in auditability, on the roadmap; mainnet launched without it. | Planned: selected transaction details. | Today, transfers are public. | varies | Arc docs 2026The Block 2026 |
| Hyperledger Besu Private networks | changed Jun 2025 | Private networks are private by nature: only members can read them. Built-in private transactions (Tessera) were removed in release 25.6.0. | The whole network from non-members. | Every member of the network sees every transaction unless access is restricted further. | $0 free-gas private network | LF Decentralized Trust 2025Besu docs 2026 |
Status as of 2026-11-06. Fees are typical network fees for one token transfer from a live snapshot, not quotes, and exclude on- and off-ramp costs. FinP2P's Routers reach many of these chains through adapters (see the network page); a chain appearing here does not mean it is connected to FinP2P today. Know of a change? Email alon@dgb.vc with a public source.
What a transaction costs
Even the highest-fee blockchains are far cheaper than legacy rails.
Euroclear's 2025 fee income works out to roughly $6 per settled transaction. The highest-fee chain here costs about a dollar; on most, a transfer costs a fraction of a cent. At institutional volumes, that is the difference between a budget line and a rounding error, and privacy should not mean giving it up.
One chain or many: the trade-offs
Canton deserves real credit: it was the first network to build need-to-know privacy into its design for institutions, and it delivers it well. On the question that matters most, who can see my trade, both models give the same answer. The differences are scope and economics. FinP2P supports Canton as one of its chains, including delivery versus payment between Canton and other ledgers.
| Need-to-know on one chain | Need-to-know across chains (FinP2P) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sees the trade | Only the chain's nodes in the trade | Only the institutions' Routers in the trade |
| Where privacy applies | Assets on that chain | Every connected chain and legacy ledger, including delivery versus payment between chains |
| Where assets and cash live | On, or moved to, that chain | Wherever they already are |
| Liquidity and throughput | One chain's | The sum of the connected chains |
| Application language | That chain's smart-contract language | Business logic written once, settled on any chain |
| Fee per transaction | That chain's fee model | The fee of whichever chain the trade settles on |
| Record of trades | On that chain | Each institution's own off-chain record, with counterparty-signed proofs for every trade |
Summarised from Ownera's white paper, Multi-Chain Need-to-Know Privacy (v1.2, October 2026), and Canton's own documentation. Canton Network 2026Canton docs 2026
Six questions to ask any privacy vendor
Whatever infrastructure you are looking at, FinP2P or anyone else's, these questions separate real privacy from marketing. Tick them off as you go.
- Not "is it encrypted," but exactly which parties can read price, size and asset.
- Even private systems can show who traded, when and how often. Ask for the list.
- The answer should be no, or governed by a contract you have read.
- Precisely and on request, from records you control, not through a back door.
- It has happened. Your record of the trade should not depend on any single chain surviving.
- Privacy that stops at the edge of one chain does not help if your cash lives on another.
Read more
Ownera's white paper: Multi-Chain Need-to-Know Privacy ↗ Who sees what in one transaction Privacy FAQ