This is Eric Golden, and today we’re replaying one of my favorite conversations with 0xFoobar. Foobar is a developer and investor who writes a must-read newsletter called The Variable. We discuss the tradeoff between privacy and compliance, how culture and law shape each other, and his views on crypto regulation.

When I interviewed 0xfoobar 11 months ago, the crypto world couldn’t have been more different. Today, as the industry moves toward court cases and regulation, the issues raised in this episode remain as relevant as ever. I hope you enjoy listening, and we’ll be back soon.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.

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Show Notes

[00:02:02] - [First question] - How he built such a robust technical background in his career that lead him to crypto 

[00:04:42] - The trade off between compliance and privacy and his take on it writ large

[00:07:27] - Whether or not people have given up on the idea that privacy of transaction matters 

[00:11:17] - The current technical framework for what exists in privacy today for crypto

[00:14:07] - Defining a zero knowledge proof and explaining the process to do one 

[00:18:55] - The public ledger incentivizing other economic models and the ways crypto will be used in the future that might not be what we imagine today 

[00:20:14] - People want to experiment but doing so can involve blind risk unless they’re familiar with the space 

[00:22:00] - Reversible transactions and why they’re harmful 

[00:26:37] - Opensea’s flagging involvement and whether or not we’ll have a cash-like layer built on top of the irreversible chain   

[00:29:26] - Minimizing crypto purchase risk and protecting participants with a transaction cooling process or holding period 

[00:32:46] - The ways in which law and culture shape each other 

[00:34:14] - Examples of how culture affects crypto in ways that laws don’t yet 

[00:36:31] - DeFi protocol hacks and how the culture should handle that kind of behavior 

[00:40:49] - His thoughts on the current takes of trying to bring regulation by enforcement to the crypto space

[00:43:18] - His current area of focus is lately and what he enjoys doing the most 

[00:46:50] - What he’s most excited to see built in the next six months and six years

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