The VPN paradigm has grown stale, with simple one-party providers being the best available. But what if we could further minimize trust by shift to a two-party hop system? Obscura is doing just that, and we’re sitting down with their founder Carl Dong to learn all about it.

More about Carl

• Carl’s guest profile – https://optoutpod.com/guests/carl-dong/

More about Obscura

• Website: https://obscura.net/
• Obscura’s Twitter: https://x.com/obscuravpn
• Technical Blog Post on Obscura: https://obscura.net/blog/bootstrapping-trust/
• iCloud Private Relay: https://www.apple.com/icloud/docs/iCloud_Private_Relay_Overview_Dec2021.pdf
• MASQUE at the IETF: https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/masque/about/

Supporting Opt Out

• Donations – https://optoutpod.com/donate
• Leave a review on your favorite podcast platform, if possible!
• Share it with your friends, family, and other communities!

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AI is all the rage, but with it come new privacy questions and concerns. Marks from OpenSecret joins to walk us through how we can have our AI-generated cake and eat it too.

More about Marks

• Marks’ guest profile – https://optoutpod.com/guests/marks/

More about OpenSecret and Maple AI

• OpenSecret’s website – https://opensecret.cloud
• How does OpenSecret work? – https://blog.opensecret.cloud/opensecret-technicals/
• Maple AI’s website – https://trymaple.ai

Supporting Opt Out

• Donations – https://optoutpod.com/donate
• Leave a review on your favorite podcast platform, if possible!
• Share it with your friends, family, and other communities!

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Two years after our first episode on SimpleX, we’re back with an update on all they’ve been working on, including a new approach to chat relays with Dan from Flux.

• Evgeny’s guest profile – https://optoutpod.com/guests/evgeny-poberezkin/
• Dan’s guest profile – https://optoutpod.com/guests/dan-keller/

• Website – https://simplex.chat/
• Quantum-resistant encryption blog post – https://simplex.chat/blog/20240314-simplex-chat-v5-6-quantum-resistance-signal-double-ratchet-algorithm.html
• “Privacy-preserving content moderation” blog post – https://simplex.chat/blog/20250114-simplex-network-large-groups-privacy-preserving-content-moderation.html
• Network operator monetization plans – https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/blob/stable/docs/rfcs/2024-04-26-commercial-model.md
• Run your own SimpleX SMP server – https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplexmq

• Website – https://runonflux.com
• Flux’s new AI product – https://ai.runonflux.com/

• Donations – https://optoutpod.com/donate
• Leave a review on your favorite podcast platform, if possible!
• Share it with your friends, family, and other communities!

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If you're frustrated by the need for multiple hardware wallets, security keys, two-factor applications, or even phones and looking for an easier way to secure your digital life, Foundation has just what you need. Zach Herbert, co-founder and CEO of Foundation, joins me to talk through their latest product, Passport Prime, and how they're seeking to lower the barrier of entry to proper digital security with a single open-source security platform.

More about Zach

• Zach’s guest profile – https://optoutpod.com/guests/zach-herbert/

More about Foundation

• Foundation's website -- https://foundation.xyz/
• Foundation's X account -- https://twitter.com/FOUNDATIONdvcs/

Supporting Opt Out

• Donations – https://optoutpod.com/donate
• Leave a review on your favorite podcast platform, if possible!
• Share it with your friends, family, and other communities!

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Ever wondered why your Google search results are so bad? Looking for an alternative that puts your interests first instead of an ad company’s? Today we chat with Vlad Prelovac, founder of Kagi, a new type of search engine that rethinks finding information on the internet from the ground up.

More about Vlad

• Vlad’s guest profile – https://optoutpod.com/guests/vlad-prelovac/

More about Kagi

• Kagi’s website – https://kagi.com/
• Orion, Kagi’s fast, zero-telemetry browser for macOS and iOS – https://browser.kagi.com/

Supporting Opt Out

• Donations – https://optoutpod.com/donate
• Leave a review on your favorite podcast platform, if possible!
• Share it with your friends, family, and other communities!

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We get to the bottom of what ossification is, why it's harmful to Bitcoin to push for premature ossification, and why we need to improve the building blocks available to developers to enable trustless and useful layers to be built on Bitcoin.

More about Jameson:

• Jameson's guest profile -- https://optoutpod.com/guests/jameson-lopp/

More about ossification:

• Lopp's recent blog post: https://blog.lopp.net/on-ossification/
• Lopp's debate with Jimmy Song on ossification: https://x.com/LuganoPlanB/status/1855321782581924245

Supporting Opt Out:

• Donations -- https://optoutpod.com/donations
• Leave a review on your favorite podcast platform, if possible!
• Share it with your friends, family, and other communities!

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I sit down with Andy Yen, founder and CEO of Proton, to discuss the release of Proton Wallet, the decision to focus on Bitcoin despite its lack of privacy, why they don't accept Monero, and much more.

More about Andy:

• Andy's guest profile -- https://optoutpod.com/guests/andy-yen/

More about Proton Wallet:

• Website: https://wallet.proton.me/
• Launch blog post: https://proton.me/blog/proton-wallet-launch
• Bitcoin via email primer: https://proton.me/support/wallet-bitcoin-via-email

Supporting Opt Out:

• Donations -- https://optoutpod.com/donations
• Leave a review on your favorite podcast platform, if possible!
• Share it with your friends, family, and other communities!

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Heard of SimpleX chat and curious what it's all about? This episode, we're sitting down with Evgeny, the founder of SimpleX Chat to talk about SimpleX, privacy, data sovereignty, and the future of computing.

More about Evgeny:

• Evgeny's guest profile -- https://optoutpod.com/guests/evgeny-poberezkin/

More about SimpleX:

• Website: https://simplex.chat/
• Chat protocol: https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplex-chat/blob/stable/docs/protocol/simplex-chat.md
• Whitepaper, including threat modeling: https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplexmq/blob/stable/protocol/overview-tjr.md
• Run your own SimpleX SMP server: https://github.com/simplex-chat/simplexmq

Opt Out's Sponsors:

• Cake Wallet, an easy to use Monero mobile wallet -- https://optoutpod.com/sponsors/#cake-wallet
• LocalMonero, an excellent and privacy-preserving way to buy and sell Monero -- https://optoutpod.com/sponsors/#localmonero
• IVPN, an ethical, no-nonsense, non-logging VPN provider -- https://optoutpod.com/sponsors/#ivpn

Supporting Opt Out:

• Donations -- https://optoutpod.com/about/#donations
• Leave a review on your favorite podcast platform, if possible!
• Share it with your friends, family, and other communities!

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This episode, we're sitting down with Eric Sirion and Matt Odell to chat about FediMints, a fascinating and unusual new proposal that seeks to ease onboarding and privacy on Bitcoin with important trade-offs.

More about Eric Sirion and Matt Odell:

• Eric Sirion's guest profile -- https://optoutpod.com/guests/eric-sirion/
• Matt Odell's guest profile -- https://optoutpod.com/guests/odell/

More about FediMints:

• Website -- https://fedimint.org/
• Github Organization -- https://github.com/fedimint
• FediMints Telegram room -- https://t.me/+-AsKtcH4Geo2ZTU0
• Citadel Dispatch episode feat. FediMints -- https://citadeldispatch.com/cd45/

Opt Out's Sponsors:

• Cake Wallet, an easy to use Monero mobile wallet -- https://optoutpod.com/sponsors/#cake-wallet
• LocalMonero, an excellent and privacy-preserving way to buy and sell Monero -- https://optoutpod.com/sponsors/#localmonero
• IVPN, an ethical, no-nonsense, non-logging VPN provider -- https://optoutpod.com/sponsors/#ivpn

Supporting Opt Out:

• Donations -- https://optoutpod.com/about/#donations
• Leave a review on your favorite podcast platform, if possible!
• Share it with your friends, family, and other communities!

Support the show

Welcome to the first ever live Q&A on Opt Out! We covered a ton of topics ranging from personal privacy, self-hosting, Bitcoin, Monero, privacy-preserving donations, future plans for the podcast, and much more.

Thank you to all those who joined live, and please let me know if you have any questions or want to dive more deeply into any of the topics we touched on here!

Mentioned resources:

• https://sethforprivacy.com/posts/how-monero-uniquely-enables-circular-economies/
• https://localmonero.co/knowledge/remote-nodes-privacy
• https://sethforprivacy.com/posts/proposed-bitcoin-privacy-improvements/
• https://sethforprivacy.com/posts/privacy-first-steps/
• https://sethforprivacy.com/about/#my-community-resources
• https://optoutpod.com/episodes/s1e08-sean-obrien/

Opt Out's Sponsors:

• Cake Wallet, an easy to use Monero mobile wallet -- https://optoutpod.com/sponsors/#cake-wallet
• LocalMonero, an excellent and privacy-preserving way to buy and sell Monero -- https://optoutpod.com/sponsors/#localmonero
• IVPN, an ethical, no-nonsense, non-logging VPN provider -- https://optoutpod.com/sponsors/#ivpn

Supporting Opt Out:

• Donations -- https://optoutpod.com/about/#donations
• Leave a review on your favorite podcast platform, if possible!
• Share it with your friends, family, and other communities!

Support the show