Agglayer CDK Enterprise: Financial-grade Privacy Meets Native Interop for Custom Blockchains

tl;dr:

• Private today, interoperable tomorrow. Launch a permissioned EVM chain with financial-grade privacy and a built-in path to Agglayer connectivity, with support for this first enterprise stack from leading blockchain infra builders, Gateway
• Straightforward upgrade from Hyperledger Besu. Two proven paths—fast snapshot or full-history with zero-downtime—plus white-glove support
• Enterprise controls out-of-the-box. Private block explorers, access control lists (ACLs), role-based RPC permissioning, and identity (SSO/KYC) tooling, among others
• Ready to build? Reach out to the CDK Enterprise team

Introducing Agglayer CDK Enterprise, a new blockchain stack that marries the efficiency of public chains with enterprise-grade network controls. 

Institutions exploring blockchain face a major problem: like Ethereum, most Layer 2s are fully transparent. Every transaction is public, often linkable to real world identity. Transparent chains make it nearly impossible for enterprises to protect their customer’s sensitive data. (Think of it like this: if a healthcare provider used blockchain for invoicing clients, every transaction would be a HIPAA violation.)

Providers have tried solving this with privacy-first chains. But those stacks come with tradeoffs: expensive to run, complex to maintain, and isolated from users and developers. These networks have built-in ceilings. Good in limited use cases, but bad for network effects—and walled off from the rest of crypto.

With seamless paths to upgrade from Hyperledger Besu to Agglayer CDK Enterprise, institutions are no longer stuck trading off composability and the privacy requirements that protect consumers. 

CDK Enterprise is powered by the high-performance Erigon client: stress-tested, audited, and composable. 

Break through your ceiling. Get in touch to find out how CDK Enterprise can be tailored to your business.

The limitations of private, permissioned chains like Hyperledger Besu

Hyperledger Besu has carved out an important niche: enterprises get a safe sandbox to experiment with permissioned EVM-compatible blockchains, while maintaining operational control and privacy. 

Banks can run private networks, supply chains share data with consortium members only. 

But the features that made these networks attractive, like gated access and privacy, have a ceiling. Enterprises build networks walled off from the rest of the blockchain economy (increasingly part of the mainstream economy). Assets don’t move easily into public markets.

The privacy problem was solved, but at the cost of network effects, a key piece of value for blockchains.

Problems with Hyperledger Besu

• High operational costs, low ROI. Running nodes and maintaining shared ledgers, in addition to audit processes, require high ongoing costs without the network effects or adoption to enjoy the upside
• Cost inefficiencies. Every network requires its own dedicated infrastructure. No shared services means no economies of scale
• Liquidity silos and interop challenges. Assets and apps live in closed environments—no interop and no network effects
• Complex integrations with legacy systems. Besu deployments require slow, costly IT integrations with legacy financial systems

How enterprise wins with CDK Enterprise 

CDK Enterprise is designed to break this deadlock. Enterprises no longer have to choose between privacy, performance, and cost. They can have it all.

• Operational control. Enterprises keep gated access and governance
• Financial-grade privacy. Transactions and state remain confidential, while auditability is preserved.
• Network effects. Built-in Agglayer connectivity ensures liquidity and apps are just a bridge away
• Predictable costs. Shared infra and economies of scale mean no more custom, high-overhead deployments

Sector-specific solutions

Here’s how CDK Enterprise can be deployed across a range of sectors:

Financial services

• With access control lists (ACLs) defining role-based permissions, a financial services company can ensure treasury/risk can mint program funds, set velocity limits, and freeze/unfreeze wallets; customer ops can view balances and initiate refunds; and auditors have read-only access to event logs
• Personally identifiable information and transaction details live off-chain in the company’s ledger, with data-free ZK proofs posted to Ethereum as a tamper-proof commitment to balances, policy checks, and state transitions
• For sensitive flows (card authorizations, payroll, high-value payouts), privacy paths keep amounts and counterparties hidden from node operators while enabling selective disclosure for disputes, suspicious activity reports (SARs), and regulatory reviews

Real-world assets (RWAs) 

• With access control lists (ACLs) defining role-based permissions, a bank can ensure that only their issuance desks can mint & redeem, investors can view their balances, and auditors have read-only access 
• Transaction data are stored offchain, with data-free ZK proofs posted to Ethereum acting as tamper-proof hash
• For sensitive block trades, there are flows for additional privacy where amounts and counterparties are hidden even from node operators but can be selectively revealed if audited 

Supply chain

• IP-based allow-lists plus ACLs can be configured to ensure that only approved wallets call smart contracts that track part numbers, lots, and quality events (inspections, approvals)
• SSO maps company logins to on-chain roles for plant staff, and a private block explorer ensures logs and data are always verifiable to auditors

The future of enterprise blockchains is here

Enterprises don’t need to sweat the tradeoffs of interop and privacy with under-the-hood traceability. 

Aggalyer CDK Enterprise is an upgrade in every sense: the high-performance, low-cost maturity of an Erigon client with privacy. It’s the end of the old trade-offs, and the beginning of financial-grade blockchains that actually work at scale.

Institutions should have the option to launch a network using any stack and connect to any chain. 

L1, L2, OP Stack, ZK stacks—whatever. Agglayer CDK gives options without lock-in, and it is always looking to expand feature-support for clients, networks, and tooling. Agglayer has already gone multistack, with CDK OP Stack. More coming soon.

For questions about upgrading to CDK Enterprise from HB or spinning up your own chain, get in touch here.