In this enlightening conversation, Zooko, an OG cypherpunk and co-founder of Zcash, dives into the complexities of Crypto Wars 2.0. He highlights the escalating battle over crypto privacy amid increasing government surveillance. Zooko discusses the essential role of privacy in securing freedom and personal dignity, advocating for decentralized data consent. He also addresses the risks posed by central bank digital currencies and reflects on historical struggles for privacy, leaving listeners optimistic about the future of crypto privacy solutions.

Zooko, invited guest to chat about his background and explore the history of Zerocoin and Zcash. They discuss the Sapling upgrade, reducing proving times, trusted setup, and the future prospects of Zcash. They also touch on encryption, zero-knowledge proofs, the toxic waste problem, compressing witnesses, and improving smart contract execution through Z-X-E.

In this episode, we explore the zcash community and projects implementing zero knowledge proofs at the Zcon0 conference. We discuss exciting ideas generated at the event and cover topics such as bulletproofs and the challenges of network upgrades. Check out the talks and highlights from the conference!