Balaji: Privacy is a new era of encryption, 2025 to 2030 is the privacy phase

Comparing news, ChianCatcher's former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan said during an interview on Cypherpunk's blog program that encryption is not only a commercial level, but also an ideological level. The banking and political system has failed and requires withdrawal and self-sovereignty, and the missing part is privacy.

He pointed out that Bitcoin's two major innovations are the programmability that Ethereum represents and the privacy that Zcash represents. Bitcoin was proven viable from 2009 to 2017, programmability from 2017 to 2025, and now around 2025 is the privacy phase. Privacy means everything is already encrypted with ZK, including ZKYC, ZK DEX, and ZK smart contracts to achieve the minimum necessary information. This may require a revision of the base layer, a new L1, or a brand new company, and ZK can technically attract high-IQ talent just like AI.