The Hashing it Out team speaks with Ameen Soleimani, co-author of the Privacy Pools paper - Blockchain Privacy and Regulatory Compliance: Towards a Practical Equilibrium. Ameen, along with Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum Foundation), Jacob Illum (Chainalysis), Matthias Nadler (University of Basel), and Fabian Schär (Center for Innovative Finance, University of Basel; University of Basel - Economics Department) describe a novel smart contract-based privacy-enhancing protocol. Corey, D, and Jesse chat with Ameen about the motivations behind Privacy Pools, historical references including Tornado Cash and Z Cash, as well as the mechanics and tradeoffs associated with the approach. 

<p class="u-text-align-left"><span style="--u-color: #000000;--u-font-size: 11pt;--u-font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;;" class="u-font-weight-400">Hashing It Out is a highly-technical bi-weekly show that brings you the pioneering developers driving the Cypherpunk movement. In each show we take a deep dive through privacy, sovereignty, and network state technology with some of web3's most influential innovators.</span></p>

Dr. Corey Petty

Jessie Santiago

Demetrick Ferguson

Hashing It Out

Ameen Soleimani of Privacy Pools | Unpacking Privacy Pools – Motivations, Mechanics, and Tradeoffs

This is a special episode of Hashing in Out in which Corey, D, and Jesse, meet with "Edgard" about the impending relaunch of Status – the super app for decentralised communities, and the recent launch of the new website (https://status.app/). Corey, former Chief Security Officer of Status and now involved in program management of Logos, is deeply familiar with Status and the challenges associated with building decentralised infrastructure. Edgard breaks down the last two years of developing Status, staying true to core principles, and some very exciting new features to come. 

Edgard of Status | Status Super App Reborn – Decentralised Infrastructure and Autonomous Communities

The Hashing it Out team sits down with Jordi Baylina to discuss everything from his involvement in the Catalan Independence Movement, DApp Node, and Giveth to technical details associated in bringing privacy and compression to zk proofs via recursion. 

Jordi Baylina of Polygon zkEVM | Zero Knowledge, Privacy, Scalability and Building Useful Technology

We sit down with Lefteris Karapetsas of Rotki – the portfolio tracker that protects your privacy. We discuss the challenges of building a privacy-centric portfolio management tool and the tradeoffs required compared to highly centralized alternatives. We dive deep into local-first software and take a look at how Lefteris has made this a pillar of Rotki. 

Lefteris Karapetsas of Rotki | Insights On Private Portfolio Management and Local-First Software

The team is joined by Shane Mac, Co-founder of XMTP - the secure messaging network for Web3 to discuss their goal of allowing any wallet address to message with one another. Shane walked us through his long history in the world of messaging and working with Web2 giants including Facebook bots, Ebay, and email clients, in his journey to make connecting with each other more human. Shane is an experienced start-up founder with a refreshing vision and outlook on how to bring Web3 to the next billion users. 

Shane Mac of XMTP | The Power of Web3 Messaging

Executive Producer, Christian, attempts to keep Corey, Dee, and Jessie on topic and within two minutes a piece on three timely topics. The three topics discussed in this episode are Crypto Security Firm Unciphered Claims Ability to Physically Hack Trezor T Wallet, Ava Labs Launches 'No-Code' Web3 Launchpad, and the Taproot wizards cause a stir at Bitcoin Miami.

FLASH HASH – Aug. 2023 | Hardware Wallet Security, Ava Labs 'No-Code' Launchpad, and Bitcoin Miami

Hashing It Out is continuing its series on blockchain infrastructure with part 2 of the Application layer. In this episode, Corey, Dee and Jessie talk to Head of Engineering at Ava Labs, Patrick O’Grady. Prior to joining Ava Labs, Patrick worked as a software engineer at Coinbase where he created Rosetta - a system and method for integration of components to facilitate executing transactions with different blockchain networks by using a standard API format. Patrick has a deep understanding of blockchain networks and the infrastructure surrounding them. 

Patrick O’Grady of Ava Labs | Application Infrastructure Part 2

Hashing It Out is continuing its series on blockchain infrastructure with part 1 of security. Corey, Dee, and Jessie talk to Mehdi Zerouali, Director at Sigma Prime, about security within the blockchain industry. Mehdi is a penetration tester particularly interested in decentralised systems, with a strong focus on the Ethereum platform. He has been an integral member of the security community for some time now and he joins us to discuss how developers can looks at the entire tech stack to secure their work. 