Startale Brings Native Privacy to Soneium Through Privacy Boost Partnership

Startale Group is bringing onchain privacy directly into the consumer experience on Startale App through a new partnership with Sunnyside Labs, the team behind Privacy Boost.

—

The integration makes Privacy Boost the official privacy infrastructure provider for the Startale App while also marking the protocol’s first deployment inside a consumer-facing crypto application.

The move adds self-custodial privacy tools directly into the growing Soneium ecosystem — the blockchain developed by Sony Block Solutions Labs.

As crypto apps push toward mainstream adoption, Startale is positioning privacy as a native feature rather than an optional add-on.

Loading tweet...

View Tweet

Why Privacy Matters for Consumer Crypto

The Startale App is being developed as an all-in-one gateway into Soneium, combining wallet functionality, payments, Mini Apps, ecosystem rewards, and broader onchain activity into a single platform.

But with blockchain transactions remaining publicly visible by default, users often expose balances, wallet activity, transaction amounts, and counterparties simply by interacting onchain.

Privacy Boost is designed to address that issue.

The protocol combines zero-knowledge proofs with trusted execution environments (TEEs) to support private transactions while maintaining user self-custody. According to the companies, the infrastructure can generate proofs in under 500 milliseconds while supporting throughput above 1,800 transactions per second.

Rather than making all activity private by default, the system focuses on optional privacy controls and selective auditability — an increasingly important balance as crypto platforms navigate compliance requirements alongside user privacy.

Building Privacy Directly Into Soneium

“Not every transaction needs to be private, but every user should have the choice,” said Sota Watanabe, CEO of Startale Group.

“With Privacy Boost integrated into the Startale App, privacy becomes something users can enable when it matters. It puts control in their hands to decide when and how they protect their onchain activity. That is what a true SuperApp should deliver.”

As part of the partnership, Privacy Boost will deploy its full infrastructure stack directly on Soneium, including smart contracts and TEE infrastructure, allowing developers across the network to integrate privacy functionality natively into their own applications.

Inside the Startale App, the integration will initially support features like shielding assets into private pools, private transfers that conceal balances and counterparties, and privacy-preserving payment flows designed for future crypto card functionality.

Loading tweet...

View Tweet

The Bigger Push Toward Private Payments

The broader goal appears to be embedding privacy into everyday crypto interactions instead of limiting it to niche tooling.

“Startale is serious about bringing privacy to consumer crypto, from everyday payments and card spending to mini apps,” said Taem Park, Co-Founder and CEO of Sunnyside Labs. “These are exactly the use cases Privacy Boost was built for — high-performance privacy at consumer scale, with an SDK designed for native application and mini app integration alike.”

The partnership comes as consumer crypto platforms increasingly compete on usability and user experience rather than purely infrastructure performance. Privacy, particularly in payments and consumer finance, is becoming one of the next major focus areas as blockchain applications expand beyond crypto-native audiences.

For Startale and Soneium, the integration also strengthens their push to position the ecosystem as a consumer-focused blockchain network capable of supporting payments, entertainment, and digital commerce at scale.