In this episode, Josh Swihart, CEO of the Electric Coin Company, which created Zcash, and Harry Halpin, co-founder of Nym, join Laura to delve into why privacy coins have taken off, and why technology is suddenly at the center of conversations involving governments, financial institutions, and national security officials.
They discuss what’s actually driving the privacy coin renaissance, why transparent ledgers create risks far beyond user behavior, and how technologies like zero-knowledge proofs and mixnets are reshaping what’s possible onchain.
Josh and Harry also break down exchange support, institutional interest, the Zcash DAT, upcoming Zcash upgrades, and whether Ethereum or Solana (or others) can realistically add privacy to chains that were never designed for it.
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Guests:
Timestamps:
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🎬 0:00 Teaser Clip
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🎙️ 1:14 Introduction
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🌅 1:29 The reasons why Harry and Josh say we’re in a privacy “renaissance”
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🛡️ 11:00 Why privacy matters, and how Harry first got pulled into the space
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🔐 15:59 How zero-knowledge proofs and other privacy technologies actually work
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⚡ 21:12 Why Josh started Zcash and what his long-term vision looks like
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📊 24:48 The real-world ways Zcash is being used
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💸 28:40 How the Winklevoss brothers are backing the new wave of privacy projects
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🏛️ 30:12 How centralized exchanges should support privacy
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🕵️ 35:56 Why financial institutions are suddenly interested in privacy and why governments see it as a national-security issue
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🌐 38:42 How Nym aims to protect metadata and network-level privacy
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🪙 44:47 Why Nym has a token and what role it plays
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🔭 49:53 What’s coming next for privacy tech and for Zcash
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🧱 54:55 Whether Ethereum, Solana, or other L1s can realistically add privacy to chains that weren’t designed for it
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