The Pomp Podcast

Zooko Wilcox, CEO of Zcash: The Evolution of Legitimately Private Crypto

16 snips
Jun 5, 2019
Zooko Wilcox, CEO of Zcash and a veteran in crypto and cryptography, dives into the fascinating world of privacy and decentralization. He shares insights from his early days at DigiCash and his initial skepticism about Bitcoin. Zooko explains zero-knowledge proofs and their essential role in privacy technology. They discuss how privacy will become integral in future systems, the challenges Zcash faced with Bitcoin's conservative approach, and even Zooko's advocacy for the carnivore diet. A conversation rich with tech and philosophy!
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ANECDOTE

Early Crypto Career Launch

  • Zooko dropped out of college at 21 to work at DigiCash in Amsterdam after building the most successful CyberBucks store.
  • That early hands-on cryptography work launched his lifelong focus on privacy and digital money.
INSIGHT

Centralization Limits Scale

  • DigiCash aimed to be an internet-native payment system, not a currency, relying on existing fiat rails.
  • Centralization capped its potential because users feared the platform could vanish or censor them.
ANECDOTE

First Encounters With Bitcoin

  • Zooko first saw Bitcoin on a cryptography mailing list and initially doubted it would work.
  • He later blogged about it and Satoshi thanked him on the Bitcoin Talk forum.
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