For Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn, part of the cypherpunk movement since the early 1990s, the vision of a decentralized financial system that has both openness and privacy has existed since long before Bitcoin. After many failed attempts, Bitcoin proved that that vision could be achievable. But Bitcoin also failed to deliver on the privacy features as blockchain analysis allows tracing movements and deanonymizing many users. Zooko joined us to discuss his project Zcash, a fully anonymous cryptocurrency that is scheduled to launch in July. Through Zcash’s use of ground-breaking Zero Knowledge Proofs (or zkSNARKs) the blockchain will leak no information about sender, recipients nor amounts. It was a fascinating discussion of the most anticipated launch of a cryptocurrency since Ethereum. Topics covered in this episode: Zooko’s long cypherpunk history How overconfidence derailed many cypherpunk projects Why Bitcoin’s privacy is broken and how Zcash provides true privacy The too-good-to-be-true Zcash team Why Zcash is based on a fork of Bitcoin How the initial parameter generation creates a potential security weakness Why Zcash believes in an evolutionary approach to designing cryptocurrency protocols Episode links: Zcash website Why Zcash - Project Announcement Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin [PDF] EB116 - Eli Ben-Sasson: Zero Knowledge Proofs This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/122

The problem around content monetization is one which content producers are constantly trying to solve. At the core of this problem is a mismatch between supply and demand. Content, which is increasingly abundant, is captured by human attention, which is in limited supply. The volume of content being produced is growing at staggering rates while total human attention remains flat. Our guest, , argues that the current content monetization model is outdated, broken and is in need of an overhaul. Previously at Google and YouTube, Maciej has a broad understanding content monetization models and lays out a vision for open marketplaces for attention using blockchains. He argues that content discovery systems like the Google Page Rank algorithm and Facebook’s News Feed could be replaced by open networks based on the mechanics of Bitcoin. Topics covered in this episode: How the current content monetization model works and why it’s broken The inner workings of content discovery The economics of content discovery Open marketplaces for attention and reputation New web-native business models for content discovery Episode links: Maciej's blog This episode is hosted by Meher Roy and Sébastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/120