Why Ripple’s CTO Emeritus is pitching privacy protocol names to Solana’s top contributor

Ripple CTO David Schwartz suggested a collection of names for a new privacy protocol on Solana Labs, in response to a public request from Mert Mumtaz. Schwartz’s proposed list included Umbra, Solstice, Veil, Specter, Obsidian, Nyx, and Obscurant.

In response to the question in the headline, this is due to the synergy between top executives from traditionally competitive blockchain communities: $XRP and Solana – around the shared issue of privacy, which is not really surprising.

Two ecosystems, one goal

Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius, has become one of the most visible privacy advocates during the current market cycle and has actively supported the ideas behind Zcash (ZEC). Following his request, his focus now extends further to building privacy-focused solutions directly within the Solana ecosystem.

Schwartz, CTO emeritus of Ripple, openly acknowledged last year that the

By 2025, the $XRP ecosystem itself is also focused on finding technological solutions for privacy with support from RippleX and independent developers. This year became a turning point thanks to the release of long-awaited upgrades such as Confidential Tokens (MPT).

Instead of the industry’s usual blockchain rivalry story – “Solana vs $XRP“ – this interaction demonstrates a direct dialogue in the crypto industry. Developers from different camps agree on the main point: privacy is a sector of critical importance that must be developed through joint efforts, regardless of the specific network.

So the main value of this short exchange is that both networks are simultaneously building an infrastructure for ZK privacy: Ripple for confidential banking and Solana for ultra-cheap and fast anonymous transactions within DeFi. The emergence of a protocol like Umbra or Solstice on either network would become just the marketing shell for tectonic changes already happening at the code level.