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)