According to Financefeeds, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated in a research article published on May 10th that for crypto payments to achieve large-scale adoption, there needs to be a shift from "pseudonymity" to "default privacy," and zero-knowledge proof (ZK) payments are viewed as the next standard for the global digital economy. Vitalik proposed replacing standard transfers with ZK proof-based transactions, allowing users to prove payment validity without disclosing full balances or transaction history. The scheme also involves recursive SNARKs, ZK API usage points, selective disclosure, and a "proof of innocence" mechanism to support privacy payments for AI agents and users, while also addressing compliance requirements to some extent.