Why Crypto Fails without Privacy with Mert Mumtaz (Helius)
In this episode, Austin chats with Mert about why privacy is becoming essential for crypto and on-chain finance. They discuss how ZK-based privacy works via shielded pools, commitments, proofs, and nullifiers, contrasting it with Monero’s probabilistic obfuscation. Mert explains Zcash’s renewed adoption through improved usability, macro and regulatory shifts, and fairer historical distribution. He argues privacy layers fail when they lack tangible benefits, and outlines a new fully on-chain, composable, atomic privacy protocol for Solana built with Light Protocol’s compression approach, including permissionless and enterprise “zones” with configurable compliance features and reduced MEV via encrypted swaps. 00:00 - Why Privacy Matters 03:05 - Zcash And ZK Origins 06:26 - How Shielded Pools Work 09:56 - Why Zcash Broke Out 15:52 - Why Privacy Layers Fail 19:47 - Solana Privacy Protocol 22:57 - Composability Breakthrough 25:51 - Go-To-Market Plan 30:50 - Compliance And Zones 32:40 - Onchain Versus Off Chain 34:58 - Zcash And Solana’s Future 40:29 - Bitcoin Privacy And Quantum 43:48 - Closing And Where To Find
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Why Crypto Fails without Privacy with Mert Mumtaz (Helius)
Subscribe & Listen
Why Privacy Tech Is Having Its Moment with Seth for Privacy (Cake Wallet)
OUT OF SCOPE, Ep. 1: Hot Takes Roundtable with Tori Pastore (Soup) and Austin Campbell (Zero Knowledge)
More from Validated
Building the Bitcoin Equivalent for AI Inference Compute with David and Daniil Liberman (Gonka)
In this episode, Austin chats with David and Daniil Liberman of Gonka about the case for using crypto to build a permissionless, meritocratic AI compute network focused on inference rather than decentralized training. They argue that centralized AI infrastructure is rapidly concentrating both revenue and compute, and contrast Bitcoin’s immutable, open rules with corporate systems whose promises can change. With Bitcoin as their north star, Gonka’s protocol aims to verify inference outputs and validate the underlying hardware to guard against fraud, censorship, and model substitution, using proof-of-work-like measurements of real, always-on hardware rather than proof-of-stake incentives. 00:00 - Why Crypto for AI 03:10 - Inference Over Training 05:02 - Bitcoin as Compute Incentives 07:21 - OpenRouter Critiques 11:36 - Open Source and Safety 18:51 - How Gonka Works 20:14 - Verifiable Inference Proof 24:22 - Privacy and Encryption 29:07 - Decentralized Training Roadmap 34:16 - Keeping Frontier Labs Honest 42:44 - More on Why Bitcoin Provides an Ideal Compute Model 44:23 - Where to Learn More Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
What are Intents Actually Solving? with Declan Hannon (Aurora Labs)
In this episode, Austin chats with Declan from Aurora Labs about building on NEAR’s Intents architecture. Declan explains why intents go beyond “a better bridge UI" and how Aurora Intents actually work, enabling one-click cross-chain journeys. They discuss how the protocol helps create liquidity, adoption metrics (over $21B lifetime volume, about $1B monthly), and use cases across wallets, neobanks, payments, RWAs, and more. The conversation also explores inherent cross-chain risks, as highlighted by a Litecoin reorg double-spend incident, and the need for insurance-like protections for onchain products. 0:00 - Aurora Intents Overview 02:57 - Intents vs Bridges 05:21- Solver Network Explained 06:23 - Aurora Intents’ Behind the Scenes Flow 07:43 - Liquidity and Market Making 08:55 - Real World Use Cases 11:25 - Confidential Intents 16:11 - Intents’ Speed Tradeoffs and Risks 17:30 - Litecoin Incident Earlier This Year 19:51 - Liability and Insurance 26:08 - Future Verticals for Intents 28:36 - Where to Learn More Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
OUT OF SCOPE Ep. 2: Anything But Crypto with David Hoffman
In this episode, Austin and Tori join David Hoffman (Bankless) to talk about "anything but crypto." Their conversation spans longevity and mind-uploading, the challenges of changing opinions in public, and how modern media incentives distort nuanced ideas. They also discuss social media, the future of long-form content, AI risk and alignment, what it means to “win” the AI race, regulatory uncertainty, and ... yes, David's ideas around fitness. 00:00 - Welcome and intro 01:46 - How Do You Want to Live? 06:17 - Changing Your Mind as a Public Figure 09:35 - Media Distortion Effects 14:34 - Quality of Content vs Virality 16:33 - Yudkowsky and AI Doom 24:58 - Base Models' Values 27:55 - China and AI's Moral Core 30:01 - What Winning the AI Race Means 36:46 - Why CLARITY Stalled 41:47 - Hypertrophy and Longevity 44:23 - Conclusion Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.