The rise of privacy-oriented financial blockchain projects are going to be crucial if “DeFi” (decentralized finance) is to have any kind of future. We have come to expect privacy in our “normal” financial lives, so we will expect it in the blockchain and crypto world, whatever some might claim.

We saw murmurs of that starting to happen back in May, when the Secret Network blockchain, a privacy-first smart contract platform, attracted investment from Arrington Capital and Blocktower Capital. Furthermore, it was apparent when decentralized finance company Sienna Network raised $11.2 million from institutional investors and public supporters.

It was no coincidence that Sienna is built on the aforementioned Secret Network. Thus today Sienna is launching its “Automated Market Maker” SiennaSwap, which works on its platform. Sienna token holders can now convert tokens into their private equivalent and then swap or place them in liquidity pools to gain yield.

It means users can avoid the lack of privacy on exchanges that allow others to see what users are doing and arbitrage on those transactions with “front-running” — a key weakness of crypto transactions today.

Also playing in this privacy space are Uniswap, PancakeSwap and other DEXs in the crypto ecosystem. However, where SiennaSwap differentiates, it says, is its privacy-preserving features, which, it claims, address the front-running issue. Sienna is also part of the Cøsmos Ecosystem, where plenty of new projects are launching, virtually every day, further enhancing its broader offering.

The SiennaSwap launch follows the organization’s $11.2 million private and public sale of its tokens in May when the organization raised $10 million in the private sale from investors such as Magnus NGC, Inclusion Capital, Lotus Capital, FBG, SkyVision Capital and others.

It’s perhaps also worth noting that Sienna Network is a “carbon-friendly” Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain, requiring vastly less energy Proof-Of-Work chains like Bitcoin, which require miners to use large amounts of power.

Tor Bair, founder, Secret Foundation said: “Sienna’s launch marks a massive turning point both for Secret’s DeFi ecosystem and for DeFi in general. Providing privacy by design to users is critical to securing and scaling these new financial platforms, meaning Sienna is primed to create a new explosion of growth.”