S16 E29: Zooko on Ecash, Bitcoin & Zcash

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)