Zooko, Nate Wilcox, and Sean Bowe: Zcash

My conversation with Zooko, Nate Wilcox, and Sean Bowe about the Zcash protocol.

Zooko is a cypherpunk who co-founded Zcash along with his brother, Nate Wilcox, and others. Sean Bowe is a cryptographer and engineer who has played a crucial role in the development of Zcash and has made significant contributions to advancements in zero-knowledge proofs, particularly zk-SNARKs, which underpin Zcash’s privacy features.

Support this podcast: http://buymeacoffee.com/arjunkhemani

Timestamps:
0:00 - Episode preview
2:04 - Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn
2:12 - Writing the first blog post on Bitcoin ever
8:29 - Bitcoin’s fundamental privacy flaw
11:49 - Unstoppable private money
14:28 - Will Zcash compete with Bitcoin as a store of value?
16:33 - How many people are using Zcash?
18:27 - Good security is good usability
22:19 - Social credit systems and ubiquitous surveillance
25:52 - Why Monero’s privacy tech can’t work
37:30 - Integrating ZKPs into other blockchains
42:00 - Privacy comes from money at rest, not from money in flight
49:51 - Why did the price of ZEC fall so drastically in the beginning?
53:58 - Zcash stablecoins?
57:59 - Quantum threats to Zcash
1:04:59 - Encrypted love notes in the blockchain
1:09:16 - Privacy enabled cultural trends
1:14:51 - Nate Wilcox
1:16:51 - Why do you need privacy if you have nothing to hide?
1:18:29 - A brief history of Zcash
1:24:55 - Why does Zcash have opt-in privacy?
1:29:08 - Does Zcash still rely on a trusted setup?
1:33:01 - Upgrading the Zcash protocol to Hybrid PoW/PoS
1:43:03 - A bug that almost killed Zcash
1:54:53 - Zcash’s funding model
2:11:21 - Why can’t privacy be added as an L2?
2:16:47 - Scaling Zcash and making it more interoperable
2:25:29 - Shielded Labs
2:26:51 - Nate’s vision for Zcash
2:30:05 - Sean Bowe
2:35:09 - Censorship resistance is a spectrum
2:37:43 - Will privacy coins be banned?
2:40:06 - Privacy and scalability
2:44:03 - Programmable money
2:45:48 - Summary of Sean’s contributions to the field of cryptography
2:57:33 - Zcash might get privacy against quantum adversaries for free
3:02:30 - Halo
3:07:50 - What Sean’s working on right now
3:14:11 - What has influenced Sean’s thinking in cryptography the most?
3:15:53 - Being a high school dropout working in crypto
3:17:25 - Zcash is just getting started

Follow me on X: http://x.com/arjunkhemani
Follow Zooko on X: http://x.com/zooko
Follow Nate on X: http://x.com/nate_zec
Follow Sean on X: http://x.com/ebfull