Published Sep 9, 2026 · The Block
Matter Labs open-sources Prividium's permissioning engine so institutions can run a permissioned chain in their own environment — Bundesbank tests it first.
Matter Labs has published the permissioning engine of Prividium as open source. Institutions can now run a permissioned chain from public code in their own environment, inspecting, running and modifying the core themselves rather than depending on a single vendor. Deutsche Bundesbank is the first institution to test and deploy the open-source permissioning engine inside its own infrastructure, and Matter Labs will continue to work with the Bundesbank on the platform's design and testing.
Prividium keeps smart contract and token data inside the operator's environment and uses zero-knowledge proofs to verify correctness, so an institution retains control of its data while settling on a shared, credibly neutral layer. Several components were already public, including the ZKsync OS core, the Atlas sequencer, the Airbender prover, the interoperability contracts, and the block explorer and monitoring stack. The permissioning engine is the latest part of the core to move to public code.
Matter Labs CEO Alex Gluchowski told The Block that the decision followed consistent feedback from regulated institutions. A commercial-only core created a single-vendor dependency that those institutions could not accept in critical infrastructure, and the ability to run, inspect and modify the code independently is a precondition for adoption.
The permissioning engine is planned to run as a standalone component, which means an institution can operate a permissioned chain from public code without a commercial agreement. Administration tools and integrations into an institution's existing systems remain commercial products. The change concerns which parts of the Prividium software are public code and which remain commercial products, and it does not alter the role of the ZK token.
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