Privacy Podcast

What happened to the original promise of a free, decentralized internet? And can the cypherpunk movement help reclaim it?

On this episode of The Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Mykola Siusko, founder of Web3 Privacy Now and organizer of Cypherpunk Congress, to explore the future of digital privacy, decentralization, and the growing movement to put freedom back at the center of technology.

From blockchain's early ideals to today's surveillance economy, Mykola discusses why the privacy movement needs more than technological innovation. It needs collaboration, accessible tools, and a shared vision that extends beyond crypto communities.

The conversation also looks ahead to Cypherpunk Congress in Mumbai on November 2, bringing together privacy advocates, developers, cryptographers, and digital rights leaders to challenge conventional thinking about the future of the internet.

In this episode:

• The origins and evolution of Cypherpunk Congress
• Why the privacy community needs to move beyond competing blockchain ecosystems
• The growing divide between institutional privacy and cypherpunk ideals
• Neo-cypherpunk thinking and the next generation of digital freedom
• Surveillance capitalism, decentralization, and the global technology divide
• How the war in Ukraine shaped Mykola's commitment to privacy
• Building practical privacy tools through Web3 Privacy Now

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Mykola and Cypherpunk Congress
03:00 Reclaiming blockchain's original ideals
04:30 Uniting the privacy movement
06:20 Cypherpunk Congress comes to Mumbai
09:59 Can institutions and cypherpunks work together?
13:44 The rise of neo-cypherpunk thinking
16:18 Mykola's journey into privacy
19:00 Why privacy became a personal mission
21:21 Building and evaluating privacy technology
22:49 Final thoughts and what's next

🔗 About the 👤 Guest 

Mykola on X: @nicksvyaznoy
LinkedIn: Web3Privacy Now
Website: web3privacy.info
Instagram: @web3privacy_now
Web3Privacy Now on X: @web3privacy
Cypherpunk Congress: Official event website

About The Privacy Podcast
Hosted by journalist Ben Schiller, The Privacy Podcast explores the people, technologies, and ideas shaping the future of privacy. Through conversations with founders, innovators, researchers, and industry leaders, the show examines the intersection of digital rights, technology, and personal freedom.

Subscribe for more conversations about privacy, emerging technology, and the future of digital freedom.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

Financial privacy and regulatory compliance have long been treated as competing priorities. But what if regulators could trace suspicious transactions without creating a system of permanent financial surveillance?

In this episode of The Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller welcomes François-Xavier Wicht, known as FX, a PhD researcher at the University of Bern in Switzerland, to explore a new cryptographic approach called ephemeral coin tracing.

The concept tackles one of the biggest challenges facing digital finance: how to give authorities the tools to investigate money laundering, terrorist financing, and tax evasion while protecting the financial privacy of law-abiding individuals.

Their discussion centers on the research paper, "Track Me If You Can: Ephemeral Coin Tracing," co-authored by Wicht and fellow researchers. The paper introduces a cryptographic mechanism designed to reconcile financial privacy with regulatory oversight by placing limits on how far transaction tracing can extend.

Unlike conventional tracing mechanisms, which can potentially expose entire transaction networks, ephemeral coin tracing introduces encrypted identifiers that gradually lose their traceability as transactions progress. The result is a proposed system designed to limit the reach of surveillance while preserving targeted investigative capabilities.

Ben and FX examine how the technology works, the role of zero-knowledge proofs, the risks associated with centralized oversight, and what this research could mean for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stablecoins, and blockchain-based payment systems.

They also discuss the practical challenges of implementing privacy-preserving financial infrastructure and why cryptographic innovation may offer a path toward balancing accountability with individual rights.

Can we build financial systems that are both compliant and genuinely private?

Tune in for a fascinating conversation about the future of digital money, financial surveillance, and the next generation of privacy technology.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest
François-Xavier Wicht (FX)
PhD Researcher | University of Bern, Switzerland

Personal Website:
https://wichtfx.github.io/

University of Bern Research Profile:
https://crypto.unibe.ch/fxw/

University Faculty Directory:
https://www.inf.unibe.ch/about_us/research_groups/cryptology_and_data_security_crypto/wicht_franois_xavier/index_eng.html

Research Publications (DBLP):
https://dblp.org/pid/365/0447.html

ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6090-7901

IC3 Research Network:
https://ic3research.org/people/

Professional Contact:
[email protected] 

RESEARCH PAPER Track Me If You Can: Ephemeral Coin Tracing
Authors: Ignacio Amores-Sesar, Christian Cachin, Rohit Chatterjee, Luiza Soezima, François-Xavier Wicht, and Michelle Yeo.

Research Paper:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.09249

Full PDF:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.09249

Listen to the latest episode of The Privacy Podcast.

About the Show
The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.
Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

Zcash has become one of crypto’s standout assets, putting privacy back at the center of the market conversation. What’s driving all the interest in Zcash, a project that looked to be fading into obscurity two years ago?

On this episode of The Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Ashton Addison, founder and host of Crypto Coin Show, to unpack what’s behind Zcash’s remarkable run and what it says about the future of privacy in crypto.

They examine why Zcash has broken away from other privacy assets, the growing institutional interest surrounding the asset, and the fundamental tension between Zcash’s optional privacy model and Monero’s privacy-by-default approach.

The conversation also tackles the harder questions: How much of Zcash’s momentum is actually about privacy? How much is market hype? And as crypto markets move higher, can Zcash sustain its extraordinary rise?

Ben and Ashton discuss Zcash, Monero, NEAR, institutional adoption, regulation, market speculation and what the next phase of the privacy economy could look like.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest
Ashton is the founder, CEO and host of Crypto Coin Show and founder/CEO of BlockWest. He has worked in blockchain since 2014 and has conducted more than 1,500 interviews with founders, executives and investors across crypto and digital assets. His official site describes Crypto Coin Show as reaching 150K+ YouTube subscribers, with distribution that includes Refinitiv TV/London Stock Exchange audiences and major podcast platforms. 

Connect with Ashton Addison:
Website: ashtonaddison.com
Crypto Coin Show: cryptocoinshow.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashtonaddison/
X: @Ashton_Addison_
YouTube: Crypto Coin Show https://linktr.ee/cryptocoinshow 

About the Show
The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.
Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

Privacy on the blockchain is one thing. But what about everything that happens before and after a transaction?

On this episode of The Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Dr.Corey Petty, Chief Evangelist at Logos, to explore why true digital privacy may require protecting far more than the contents of an individual transaction.

Logos grew out of the Ethereum ecosystem with an ambitious goal: build a decentralized, privacy-focused technology stack that addresses the entire transaction lifecycle, from communication and coordination to settlement and beyond.

Corey explains why he believes privacy cannot simply be added to existing systems after the fact, and why metadata such as IP addresses, network activity, timing and communications can potentially reveal just as much as the transaction itself.

Ben and Corey also dig into the growing institutional demand for blockchain privacy, the difference between transaction-level privacy and deeper infrastructure-level privacy, and how increasingly sophisticated AI tools could make seemingly disconnected pieces of metadata even more revealing over time.

They also discuss the economic case for privacy. Could better privacy infrastructure do more than protect users? Could it actually make transactions and coordination more efficient, opening the door to business activity that companies may be reluctant to conduct on fully transparent networks today?

The conversation then turns to the idea of the network state, where communities organize around shared rules, technologies and economies, with the ability to opt in...and importantly, the ability to exit.

Finally, Corey shares what’s ahead for Logos as its teams work toward mainnet, expand the ecosystem around the network and develop a token designed to help secure its decentralized infrastructure.

In this episode:

• Why Logos is building privacy across the entire transaction lifecycle
• The privacy risks hidden in metadata
• Institutional blockchain privacy and its limitations
• How AI could make leaked metadata even more revealing
• The economic argument for privacy infrastructure
• What “network states” could look like in practice
• Why the ability to exit matters in decentralized systems
• Logos’ roadmap toward mainnet
• Why the network is expected to have its own token

Can blockchain infrastructure ever be truly private if the transaction is protected but everything surrounding it is still visible?

🔗 About the 👤 Guest 

Dr. Corey Petty is a longtime blockchain researcher, technologist and evangelist for Logos, a privacy-focused technology stack being developed to support digital sovereignty, decentralized infrastructure and resilient digital communities.

Corey has been involved in the Ethereum and decentralized technology ecosystem for years, with work spanning blockchain, messaging, privacy, security and decentralized infrastructure. Today, his work focuses on explaining the vision behind Logos and why privacy needs to be built into technology from the ground up rather than added as an afterthought.

Through his writing, public talks and podcast appearances, Corey explores topics including full-stack privacy, blockchain infrastructure, digital sovereignty, network states and the development of alternative digital institutions.

Corey Petty on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/corey-petty

Corey Petty’s Website / Writing:
https://bayesianpersuasion.com

Logos:
https://logos.co

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to Like, Subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss future episodes of The Privacy Podcast.

About the Show

The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 

Music: licensed.

All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

Hummingbird: The Bitcoin Jungle Story shows a community coming together around new monetary ideas.

It began as a five-minute film about bitcoin in Costa Rica. It became a full-length documentary called Hummingbird: The Bitcoin Jungle Story.

In this week’s episode of of Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller speaks with Paul Keating, one of the creators of the documentary about the people and ideas behind a growing Bitcoin community in Costa Rica and what happens when the principles of Bitcoin move from the internet into the real world.

Keating’s own story is part of that experiment. After leaving California for Costa Rica near the end of the COVID era, he found a community of Bitcoiners and eventually began living almost entirely on Bitcoin, converting his paychecks and later being paid directly in Bitcoin.

Hummingbird draws its title from the prophecy of the eagle and the condor, representing different cultures and ways of understanding the world coming together. The film asks whether Bitcoin can provide common ground between communities that might otherwise appear very different.

Merchants in Costa Rica can accept Bitcoin, how users can move between Bitcoin and local currency when necessary, and why adoption doesn’t require people to first understand every aspect of monetary theory.

The conversation then expands beyond money into another form of sovereignty: social media.

Paul discusses his work with Primal and his belief in Nostr, an open social protocol designed to give users greater control over their identity, content and connections.

Instead of rebuilding a social network every time someone joins a new platform, Nostr makes that identity and social graph portable across compatible applications. For Paul, the philosophy behind it closely parallels Bitcoin: users own their data and maintain sovereignty over their stack.

In This Episode
Ben and Paul discuss:

• Paul’s decision to leave California and build a life in Costa Rica
• What it’s actually like to live primarily on Bitcoin
• How Bitcoin Jungle developed in Costa Rica
• How a five-minute video became Hummingbird: The Bitcoin Jungle Story
• The meaning behind the film’s hummingbird metaphor
• Why Bitcoin adoption can look different outside the United States
• Using Bitcoin for everyday purchases
• Streaming Bitcoin payments directly to filmmakers
• Why Paul believes Nostr could provide a better foundation for social media
• Taking ownership of your identity, followers and content online
• Primal and the emerging Nostr ecosystem
• Why decentralization still faces a major mainstream adoption challenge
• What living in Costa Rica taught Paul that “Bitcoin Twitter” couldn’t

Watch Hummingbird

Search for Hummingbird: The Bitcoin Jungle Story on YouTube or visit hummingbirdfilm.com.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest
Paul Keating | https://www.hiimpaulk.com/
Paul Keating can also be found on Nostr/Primal as Paul in the Jungle. | https://primal.net/paul
X: @thepaulosophy
Instagram: @paulinthejungle

NOSTR|
Join Nostr / beginner site
Nostr protocol overview
Official Nostr protocol GitHub

Primal — a social media app built on the decentralized Nostr protocol.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/primal/id1673134518

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to Like, Subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss future episodes of The Privacy Podcast.

About the Show
The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.
Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

As financial institutions move more activity on-chain, privacy and interoperability are becoming critical to the future of blockchain adoption.

In this episode of The Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Igor Mandrigin, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Gateway, to discuss the evolution of Ethereum infrastructure, institutional adoption, and why modern privacy technology could play a major role in bringing finance on-chain.

Igor explains why enterprises are moving beyond traditional permissioned blockchains toward newer privacy architectures and how zero-knowledge technology is making it possible to protect sensitive information while still proving that transactions follow network rules.

The conversation also explores interoperability and the risk of recreating traditional financial silos across disconnected blockchain networks. Ben and Igor discuss the AggLayer, changes within the Ethereum Foundation, and where institutions are showing the most interest today, including stablecoins, payments, real-world assets, and fintech platforms built on-chain from the start.

They also examine why privacy becomes even more important as blockchain moves into everyday financial products, where transparent transaction histories can expose information consumers and institutions expect to remain private.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why institutions are reconsidering permissioned blockchains
• How modern privacy technology can support enterprise adoption
• Why interoperability matters for the future of on-chain finance
• Where stablecoins and real-world assets fit into institutional adoption
• How Ethereum’s ecosystem is evolving
• Why privacy matters as blockchain enters everyday financial services

Why This Matters

As stablecoins, tokenized assets, and other financial services move on-chain, institutions need more than faster infrastructure. They need privacy, interoperability, and security that can work at scale.

Without those capabilities, blockchain risks recreating the same fragmented financial systems it was designed to improve. The next phase of adoption will depend on whether the industry can connect networks while protecting sensitive financial information and maintaining the benefits of open, verifiable infrastructure.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest

Igor Mandrigin is Co-Founder and Chief Technology and Product Officer (CTPO) at Gateway.fm, where he focuses on blockchain infrastructure, privacy, and technology for institutional on-chain adoption.

Igor Mandrigin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandrigin/ 

Website: Gateway.fm   https://gateway.fm/ 

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to Like, Subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss future episodes of The Privacy Podcast.

About the Show

The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

As stablecoins become a core part of the global financial system, one critical question remains: How do we protect privacy without sacrificing security or compliance?

In this episode of The Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller welcomes Yaya Fanusie, Chief Policy Officer at Aleo and former CIA counterterrorism analyst, for a timely discussion on the future of blockchain privacy.

Yaya shares how his career investigating terrorist financing led him into cryptocurrency policy and why he now believes privacy-preserving technology is essential for both individual freedom and national security. The conversation explores the GENIUS Act, stablecoin adoption, zero-knowledge proofs, regulatory challenges, illicit finance, and why the next major policy debate will focus on protecting consumer privacy in an increasingly digital financial system.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why blockchain transparency creates new privacy challenges
• How zero-knowledge technology can balance privacy with regulatory compliance
• What the GENIUS Act means for stablecoins and financial innovation
• Why privacy is becoming a national security issue
• How regulators are beginning to rethink digital identity and financial privacy
• What comes next for blockchain policy and consumer protection

Why This Matters

As stablecoins transition from crypto-native assets into mainstream financial infrastructure, the conversation around blockchain is shifting. The challenge is no longer simply achieving adoption. It's ensuring that privacy, security, and compliance can coexist. This episode explores why privacy may become one of the most important policy issues facing digital finance over the coming decade and what builders, regulators, and institutions need to consider next.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaya-jata-fanusie-87901738/ 

https://aleo.org/ 

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to Like, Subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss future episodes of The Privacy Podcast.

About the Show

The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 

Music: licensed.

All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

"In the age of AI, privacy is the foundation of human autonomy," says Sudo.

On this episode of The Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Sudo, Executive Director of SovRight (the nonprofit successor to the Electric Coin Company), to discuss privacy in the age of AI. 

Sudo, part of the flourishing Zcash community, argues the battle isn’t just about protecting people’s data from surveillance. It’s about preserving our “right to choose” on the internet.

The conversation traces Sudo's journey from traditional finance to blockchain after witnessing the inefficiencies of a $100 million escrow transaction, an experience that revealed the transformative potential of smart contracts. From there, the discussion expands into the growing risks posed by AI, centralized data collection, digital identity, and the invisible systems that increasingly influence our everyday decisions.

Rather than viewing privacy as a simple checkbox or regulatory requirement, Sudo argues privacy should empower individuals to decide who can access their information, when, and for what purpose. As AI agents automate more of our daily lives, maintaining meaningful control over personal data may become one of the defining challenges of the decade.

The episode also explores:

• Why AI may quietly erode personal choice through manipulation and default automation
• How privacy tools can become more intuitive instead of more complicated
• SovRight's mission following its transition from the Electric Coin Company
• Zcash's efforts to improve decentralization, wallet recovery, and network resilience
• The future of private AI inference and quantum-resistant privacy technologies
• Why mission-driven communities may become increasingly important as AI reshapes the internet

If AI is changing the internet, what safeguards will ensure people remain in control of their own lives? This conversation explores why the future of privacy may ultimately determine the future of human freedom.

Why It Matters
As AI systems become embedded in everything from payments to healthcare to everyday online interactions, the ability to control personal information is becoming increasingly complex. This episode examines how privacy technologies must evolve beyond encryption to protect individual choice, autonomy, and digital sovereignty in an AI-driven world.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest

Michelle Lai (sudo) is Executive Chair of SovRight, the nonprofit organization advancing privacy technologies and supporting the Zcash ecosystem. A longtime privacy advocate and blockchain leader, she focuses on protecting individual choice in an AI driven world while helping build secure, decentralized infrastructure for the future

SovRight:sovright.com 

Zcash: https://z.cash

X (Michelle Lai / sudo_ml): https://x.com/sudo_ml

X (SovRight): x.com/sovright_ 

GitHub: https://github.com/sovright 

About the Show
The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.
Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

What if using blockchain was as simple as chatting with AI?

In this episode of Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Akshit Ostwal, Co Founder of Epoch Protocol, to explore how intents-based infrastructure is transforming the way people interact with blockchain networks (including privacy networks!) and why it could become the missing layer that finally takes crypto mainstream.

Akshit explains why users should no longer have to navigate wallets, bridges, swaps, or multiple blockchains just to complete a transaction. Instead, intent-based systems allow users to simply define the outcome they want, while specialized solver networks handle the complexity behind the scenes.

The conversation also explores Epoch's partnership with Miden and how programmable privacy enables institutions, businesses, and developers to execute transactions confidentially without sacrificing regulatory compliance. They discuss how privacy preserving infrastructure can unlock new use cases for payments, payroll, decentralized finance, and enterprise adoption.

Finally, Akshit shares his vision for the future of AI-powered finance, explaining how intelligent agents, real world assets, and intent driven execution could fundamentally reshape how people and software interact with the financial system.

The conversation explores:

• Why intent based infrastructure could eliminate blockchain complexity for everyday users
• How solver networks execute transactions across chains without exposing users to technical friction
• Why programmable privacy is critical for institutional adoption of blockchain technology
• How Epoch and Miden are building privacy preserving execution for on chain finance
• The growing role of AI agents in managing financial transactions and investment decisions
• Why real world assets, stablecoins, and tokenized finance are accelerating blockchain adoption
• How intent based systems could become the operating layer for the next generation of Web3 applications
• Why the future of crypto depends on focusing on user outcomes instead of transaction mechanics

Why This Matters

Blockchain technology has matured dramatically, but user experience remains one of its greatest barriers to widespread adoption. As institutions, enterprises, AI agents, and everyday users increasingly interact with digital assets, the underlying infrastructure must become as seamless as the internet itself. This conversation explores how intent based execution, programmable privacy, and AI powered automation could remove the technical complexity that has limited Web3 for years, making decentralized finance more accessible, secure, and practical for the next generation of users.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest

Akshit Ostwal is the Co Founder of Epoch Protocol, an intent based execution network building the infrastructure that simplifies blockchain interactions for users, applications, AI agents, and institutions. A longtime Web3 builder and entrepreneur, Akshit previously co-founded Orange Wallet before launching Epoch to solve one of blockchain's biggest challenges: abstracting away technical complexity while enabling secure, cross chain execution. Today, Epoch is working with Miden to advance programmable privacy and build the infrastructure powering the next generation of on-chain finance.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshitostwal/
X (Twitter): @OstwalAk
Epoch Protocol: https://epochprotocol.xyz/
Miden: https://miden.xyz

About the Show

The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 

Music: licensed.

All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

What happens when privacy, programmable money, and artificial intelligence collide?

In this episode of Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Gordon Liao, Chief Economist and Head of Research at Circle, to explore how stablecoins are reshaping global finance, and why privacy is becoming essential for institutional blockchain adoption.

Drawing on his experience at the Federal Reserve, the CFTC, Uniswap, and now Circle, Gordon explains why stablecoins have evolved far beyond digital payments into programmable financial infrastructure powering the next generation of commerce.

The conversation also examines Circle's new approach to blockchain privacy, balancing confidentiality with regulatory compliance, and why optional privacy may be the key to bringing traditional financial institutions on-chain.

Finally, Gordon shares his outlook on AI agents, programmable money, and how autonomous software could soon become one of the largest users of stablecoins.

The conversation explores:

• Why stablecoins have evolved beyond payments into programmable financial infrastructure
• How Circle's ARC Privacy aims to balance privacy with regulatory compliance
• The role of trusted execution environments (TEEs) in protecting blockchain transactions
• Why institutions require privacy before adopting public blockchain technology
• The tradeoffs between transparency, market efficiency, and confidentiality
• How decentralized finance changes traditional financial risk models
• The impact of emerging stablecoin regulation and global adoption
• Why AI agents may become the next major users of stablecoins and blockchain networks

Why This Matters
Stablecoins are quickly becoming a foundational layer of the global digital economy—but their long-term success depends on balancing innovation with privacy, transparency, and regulatory compliance. As institutions, governments, and AI-powered systems increasingly transact on blockchain networks, the infrastructure supporting those transactions must evolve to meet real-world business needs. This conversation explores how programmable privacy, trusted financial infrastructure, and emerging regulation could shape the future of digital finance, offering valuable insights for anyone working in blockchain, financial services, cybersecurity, or enterprise technology.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest  
Gordon Liao is Chief Economist and Head of Research at Circle, where he leads research on stablecoins, digital assets, and blockchain-based financial infrastructure. Prior to Circle, he held roles at Uniswap Labs, the Federal Reserve Board, and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). His work focuses on financial markets, digital payments, decentralized finance, and the future of programmable money.

LinkedIn: Gordon Y. Liao 

X (Twitter): @gordonliao

Personal Website: gliao.xyz

Circle Profile: Circle

Arc (Circle's Layer-1 Blockchain): arc.io

About the Show
The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media