Zooko has been thinking about building decentralized Chaumian ecash since the mid 1990s. When Bitcoin came out, he was the first cypherpunk to write a blog post about it. And today, he's honoring Satoshi's last wish of researching ZK proofs with Zcash.
Time stamps:
Introducing Zooko (00:00:55)
Early Cypherpunk and Digital Cash Days (00:03:18)
Cypherpunk vs. Cryptography Mailing List (00:03:52)
Discovering Digital Cash and Chaum’s Blind Signing (00:04:44)
The Internet, BBS, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall (00:09:10)
Growing Up with Technology in Eastern Europe (00:12:04)
First Computers and Early Programming (00:13:02)
Loading Games and Computer Limitations (00:14:05)
Impact of Tariffs and Internet Access (00:16:47)
Economies of Scale and Computer Conferences (00:18:28)
Social Media, Privacy, and Information Overload (00:19:33)
Twitter Blocking & Echo Chambers (00:21:06)
Personal AI and Information Control (00:24:08)
First Computer Memories and Speech Synthesis (00:28:55)
Programming Languages: BASIC, Pascal, and C++ (00:31:15)
Vocoder Technology and Privacy (00:32:27)
Video Games and University Life (00:34:28)
Science Fiction and Cypherpunk Literature (00:36:10)
Working at DigiCash and Early Digital Currency (00:39:04)
Nick Szabo, Social Scalability, and Economic Thought (00:46:27)
AI-Generated Personas and Real-Life Community (00:52:42)
Global Talent, Work Ethic, and Financial Management (00:55:51)
David Chaum as a Boss and DigiCash’s Downfall (01:00:06)
Decentralizing Ecash and Early Bitcoin Attempts (01:04:50)
Wei Dai, Crypto++ and Peer-to-Peer Innovation (01:06:19)
Open Source Maintenance and Funding Challenges (01:10:00)
Why Digital Cash Mattered in the 1990s (01:12:30)
Cypherpunks, Remailers, and Privacy Motivation (01:13:46)
Bitcoin’s Early Days and Zooko’s Initial Skepticism (01:19:55)
Bitcoin Advocacy and Security Flaws (01:39:07)
Zooko’s Triangle and Naming Systems (01:43:31)
Altcoins, Experimentation, and Maximalism (01:51:09)
Bitcoin’s 2013 Privacy Papers: ZeroCoin & ZeroCash (01:55:12)
Funding Innovation and Open Source Economics (02:00:27)
Zcash Launch, Sidechains, and Market Dynamics (02:03:40)
Sponsors and Bitcoin Innovation Renaissance (02:09:01)
Proof of Stake, Hybrid Models, and Cross Link (02:26:14)
Network Sustainability and Burn Mechanisms (02:33:37)
Quantum Resistance and Lost Coins (02:37:26)
Peter Todd’s Compute Node, Zcash Ceremony and Trusted Setup (02:42:19)
Zero Knowledge Proofs and Counterfeiting Bug (03:05:35)
Zcash Design Choices and Block Size (03:43:04)
Bitcoin Blocksize War and Evolution (03:49:09)
Zcash vs. Monero and Privacy Models (04:27:33)
Tachyon: Sean Bowe’s Scalable Privacy Breakthrough (04:08:22)
Live Zcash Demo and Address Privacy (05:27:00)
Zcash Mining, Liquidity, and DEX Integration (05:49:57)
Decentralization, Transparency, and the Future (06:02:22)
Closing Remarks and Podcast Wrap-Up (06:05:15)