Crypto Stories: A Primer on Zero-Knowledge Proofs with Elena Nadolinski and Howard Wu

Elena Nadolinski (@leanthebean), an engineer interested in the privacy space, and Howard Wu (@1HowardWu), co-founder of Dekrypt Capital, talk to Erik on this episode about zero-knowledge proofs and privacy.

They talk about why privacy is important in general and the benefits of privacy in the crypto world. They explain what a zero-knowledge proof is and Howard talks about some of the more recent developments in cryptography.

They get into how ZKPs are being used today and the promise they hold for future applications. Elena and Howard also get into the differences between privacy coins.

Quotable lines from this episode:

"Privacy is one of those things where people don’t appreciate it until they don’t have it." -HW

"Just because a friend of mine and I shared a coffee, doesn’t mean I get to have the right to see all of their transactions. If we were to live in a world where all we used were cryptocurrency blockchains to do all our computations, I would basically be able to see all the transactions of all time from all the people I’ve ever interacted with." -EN

"How do you ensure the integrity of a computation, especially one you outsource to a server elsewhere?" - HW

"Zero-knowledge proofs basically allow you to say 'I can’t tell you the secret but I can prove to you that I know the secret.'" - HW

"Scalability is like the offense on a football team and privacy is like the defense on the football team. They’re both equally important but the quarterback is much more sexy than the defense." -HW

Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform.

Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal.

Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.

Release date

Lydbog: 31. august 2018