812: Crypto: $3m Raised, He's Build the SSL for Cryptocurrency

Zooko Wilcox. He's the creator of Zcash and has more than 20 years of experience in open decentralized systems, cryptography and information security along with startups in general. He's recognized for his work in Digicash, Mojonation and many other things that he has worked on. He's also the founder of Least Authority. If you're following him on Twitter, you'll know that he sometimes blog about health science and is very active in Twitter and the crypto space.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Constellation Games
• What CEO do you follow? – N/A
• Favorite online tool? — Signal
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "That he would start learning by doing than learning from going to school"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:44 – Nathan introduces Zooko to the show
• 02:28 – Zcash is a cryptocurrency similar to bitcoin
• 02:55 – Zcash is like the SSL version of bitcoin
• 03:20 – Zooko explains why additional security is needed in the crypto space
• 04:33 – Bitcoin is mainly used for payment transactions
• 04:40 – Other uses of blockchain is widely proliferating and apply the same technology
  • 05:18 – In any transaction, you need to protect not only the identity of the person, but the transaction in the system as well
  • 05:38 – In bitcoin, there's no identity needed for the bitcoin address but the flow of funds—where the bitcoin is going may be visible to anyone who's in the blockchain
• 06:55 – Zooko shares his partnership with JP Morgan for their blockchain security solution
  • 07:00 – They had an open, public blockchain which is as global as bitcoin
  • 07:26 – The Zcash blockchain has had huge success going around the world
  • 07:50 – It was successful because it made it to the top tier of the blockchain system
  • 08:50 – Zooko really wanted Zcash currency to be more available globally and they received more users from China
  • 10:00 – Yunbi is one of the exchangers in China
  • 10:45 – The strategy was to attract users from different places
  • 11:13 – Some crypto projects have pre-money and some have ICOs or pre-sale
  • 11:44 – The Zcash blockchain started mining, where people can get their own Zcash tokens
  • 12:44 – Zooko changed the algorithm for mining coins
• 14:30 – Zooko has raised $3M and promised investors that they will get a cut from the mining
  • 15:28 – There are transaction fees, but it's different from what the investors get from the mining
  • 15:45 – It's the miners who give the share of the reward over to the founder and they choose to do so
• 16:17 – Zcash is still early in the space
• 17:06 – The fundraising happened early 2015
• 17:50 – Zcash has a unique structure to their system
• 19:35 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

1. While blockchain system is known to be secure, it doesn't hurt to have additional security features in place with cryptocurrency.
2. ICOs and pre-sales are quite the trend for blockchain companies.
3. You can't learn everything from going to school—learn by DOING.

Resources Mentioned:

• Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
• The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives