Aztec Network

Privacy is having a moment in crypto. As competition heats up, the pitfalls of the technology around the quantum threat, regulatory risk and more make the trajectory hard to predict. A counterfeit bug sat undetected in Zcash's Orchard privacy pool for four years, capable of minting an unlimited supply of untraceable coins, illustrating the risks of one of the hottest crazes in crypto. Joe Andrews, CEO of Aztec Labs, Jarrad Hope, founder of Logos, and Mert Mumtaz, cofounder and CEO of Helius, join Laura Shin to argue the bug is less alarming than what it reveals: cryptographic privacy is difficult to get right, and the industry is racing to get it right anyway, because institutions will not come onchain without it. They cover Zcash's quantum-recoverable Ironwood upgrade and the turnstile proving the counterfeit coins never moved, Ethereum's sprawling privacy roadmap and the risk it arrives too late, Logos' mixnet built to protect validators from block relays now censoring transactions, and why all three see Canton's private stablecoins as little more than a bank with extra steps. The fight over what actually counts as privacy on a blockchain is only getting started. Host ⁠Laura Shin⁠ - Founder, CEO and Host of Unchained Guest ⁠Joe Andrews - CEO of Aztec Labs ⁠Jarrad Hope - Founder of Logos ⁠Mert Mumtaz - Cofounder and CEO of Helius Sponsor ⁠Cape⁠: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at ⁠https://cape.co/unchained⁠ (use code: UNCHAINED). Timestamps: 🔐 01:52 Why Joe, Jarrad, and Mert think privacy's crypto moment is now 💙 18:18 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months with code unchained at https://cape.co/unchained ⚖️ 19:14 Why Jarrad says the weak need privacy and the powerful need transparency 🔬 24:49 How zero knowledge proofs actually update encrypted state onchain 🕸️ 33:07 Why 43.7% of block relays now censor, and how Logos fixes it 🐛 36:32 The undetected Zcash bug that could have minted infinite fake coins 🔒 46:32 Mert explains how Zcash's Ironwood upgrade closes the counterfeit hole 🛤️ 51:44 Why Joe worries Ethereum's privacy roadmap might arrive too late 🏦 57:39 Why Mert calls Canton no more private than trusting JPMorgan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Andrews

Co-Founder

AztecAztec NetworkAztec Labs

Jarrad Hope

Founder

LOLogos

Mert Mumtaz

CEO

Helius LabsHelius

If crypto wins without privacy, did we actually win? In this episode, Ryan sits down with Aztec co-founders Zac Williamson and Joe Andrews to unpack their eight-year quest to build a private world computer for Ethereum, covering the Aztec ignition chain, zero-knowledge-powered “private intents,” and how you can route trades across L1 and L2s without exposing your strategies or balances. They dive into ZK Passport (turning your NFC e-passport into a proof of personhood), the coming breakdown of selfie KYC in an AI world, holistic on-chain identity, Aztec’s one-shot move to a fully decentralized L2. Along the way, Zac and Joe get candid about the regulatory risk of building privacy rails, echoes of the early SSL wars, and what keeps them grinding after nearly a decade of R&D to ship Aztec Alpha --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔵 COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow 🪙 FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, & EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄 UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞 MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤 EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 6:00 The State of Privacy on Ethereum in 2025 9:47 Identity as the Missing Piece of Privacy 11:52 AI Deepfakes Just Broke Web2 KYC 20:19 How ZK Passport Plugs Into Aztec (and the Token Sale) 23:04 Holistic On-Chain Identity: Bottom-Up, Not Top-Down 30:54 From Private Bitcoin to a Private World Computer 36:36 Private Intents: Using Aztec as Ethereum’s Privacy Router 43:15 Compliant DeFi with ZK Identity in the Loop 48:37 Does This Actually Solve Privacy on Ethereum? 50:38 Ignition Chain Launch: Stage-2 Rollup with Decentralized Sequencers 56:19 One-Shot Decentralization, Alpha/Beta, and Security Model 1:05:37 Scaling a Private Rollup: TPS, Fees, and the Aztec Stack 1:11:40 Noir, No VM for Private State, and New DeFi Primitives 1:17:08 Selective Disclosure and ZK Receipts for Regulators 1:21:29 Privacy vs Nation States: The Second Crypto Privacy War 1:29:45 Why Keep Building Privacy After 8 Years? 1:33:37 Token Sale, Fair Auctions, and Running an Aztec Node 1:37:33 Closing Thoughts: The Most Cypherpunk L2 Since 2016? --- RESOURCES Zac Williamson https://x.com/Zac_Aztec Joe Andrews https://x.com/jaosef Aztec https://x.com/aztecnetwork --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Zac Williamson

Co-Founder & CEO

AztecAztec Network

Joe Andrews

Co-Founder

AztecAztec Network

Check out our sponsor Uniswap! Fresh off the launch of Ignition Chain, Aztec’s co-founders Zac Williamson and Joe Andrews discuss why they’re rolling out a privacy-preserving L2 now, how they’re approaching decentralization from the start, and why they chose a token sale instead of the airdrop model. They also explain why they believe most L2s have evolved into “parasitic” ecosystems, how Aztec plans to avoid those incentives, what the AZTEC token is meant to do, and what’s changed in the broader privacy renaissance across crypto. Guests: Zac Williamson, Cofounder of Aztec Network Joe Andrews, Co-founder and President of Aztec Network Links: Unchained:  Vitalik Unveils New Ethereum Privacy Toolkit 'Kohaku' ETH's HTTP Moment? How Ethereum Interop Layer Hopes to Fix L2 Fragmentation Zcash Developer Reveals Q4 Roadmap What’s the Best Way for Ethereum to Grow? Justin Drake and Martin Köppelmann Debate Why the Privacy Coins Mania Is Much More Than Price Action CoinDesk: Privacy-Focused Aztec Network's Ignition Chain Lights Up  Timestamps: 🎙️ 0:00 Introduction 🚀 1:30 Why Aztec launched Ignition Chain and how it works 🔒 6:01 How Aztec’s privacy model differs from Ethereum’s efforts — and from Zcash ⏱️ 15:52 Why Aztec has large block times 💸 17:28 Are fees expensive on Aztec? 👥 22:04 Zac & Joe’s backstory — and how Aztec was born 🏗️ 25:21 Why they built an L2 on Ethereum instead of a standalone chain 🤝 28:38 Whether Aztec competes with — or complements — Ethereum privacy tools like Kohaku 🎯 31:40 Who Aztec is for and the use cases they’re targeting 🆔 34:50 What ZK Passport is and why it matters 🌅 35:57 Whether the privacy renaissance surprised them 🕶️ 39:42 What private DeFi on Aztec could unlock ⚡ 43:36 Why Zac says most L2s are “parasitic” and why Aztec isn’t 🛠️ 46:07 How Aztec plans to decentralize from day one 🪙 50:15 The role of the AZTEC token and details on the upcoming ICO 🎯 53:25 How they aim to run a “fair” token sale 🌍 59:20 Why most countries, even the U.S., can participate in the ICO 💻 1:00:22 Why Aztec built its own programming language ⚖️ 1:07:29 Whether the Tornado Cash case made them hesitant to ship privacy tools 📱 1:11:48 The apps Zac and Joe are most excited about on Aztec 🎮 1:16:31 Why Zac is bullish on ZK-powered onchain games Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zac Williamson

Co-Founder & CEO

AztecAztec Network

Joe Andrews

Co-Founder

AztecAztec Network

In episode 41 we get a visit from Aztec’s Jon Wu to talk briefly about FTX and then former Twitter Director Ryan Sarver joins along with Fintwit Personality Compound248 to try to explain everything that’s happened with the Twitter take private. From Elon firing half the staff, desperately trying to rehire them, advertisers bailing, and paid verification leading to fake companies and celebrities. As well as explaining why this has gotten so bad so quickly, why Twitter is unique, and what could have been done differently. (0:00) Intro (1:54) Welcome Rashad (4:12) “Verified” Twitter Accounts (7:36) FTX (10:08) Rashad’s new podcast (12:43) Welcome back Jon Wu (14:32) SBF, FTX, and Alameda (21:33) What was the fraud? (24:56) Malicious intent or the tipping point? (30:49) What was the sentiment of SBF by people in the ecosystem? (34:10) What’s upcoming to pay attention to? (36:23) CZ (38:10) Welcome Ryan Sarver and Compound248 (43:04) Recapping what’s happened since Elon bought Twitter (45:30) Blue checks (51:48) Why Twitter is a difficult business (1:00:30) Brand-based advertising to subscription (1:16:33) Who will pay for verification? (1:26:51) Why has Twitter been advertising-based? (1:32:12) How much was pseudonymity a feature? (1:34:49) What changes would you focus on? (1:41:22) Twitter’s FTC order (1:45:40) Elon shifting blame   Subscribe to No Agenda with @corporashid:  https://open.spotify.com/show/2KHruq3qC0IKm5U9wOIjKZ?si=13bab75351d74c70  https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBgv57GHyNgjhl3CBB3XtXp2JylaVKdNs   Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir Executive Producer: Josh Machiz Music: Griff Lawson   🎙 Listen to the show Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/three-cartoon-avatars/id1606770839 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1 Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg   Follow on Socials 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/cartoonavatars 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/cartoonavatars 🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@cartoonavatars   About the Show A Saturday morning podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett (Partner and Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures) covering the tech news with his friends and other people with industry expertise. Executive Producer: Rashad Assir Producer: Leah Clapper Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1 Follow on Socials 📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow 📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow 🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow About the Show Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member. Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.

Jon Wu

Head of Growth

Aztec Network

Ryan Sarver

Partner

Redpoint VenturesTwitter

(00:00) Intro (01:19) Introducing Jon Wu (04:40) What is Ethereum? (08:10) Present and future of crypto (12:53) How Jon got into crypto (17:48) The oracle problem (19:58) Real world crypto uses (23:07) Post speculation (29:15) Lack of sovereign money (35:00) What’s happening with Celsius? (37:30) Why does DeFi work? (42:00) Digital goods (48:06) Celsius state of play (55:40) Celsius’ impact on the crypto market (59:29) Crypto regulation (1:05:31) TAM analysis (1:10:08) Youth in crypto (1:12:21) VCs in crypto (1:19:52) Why should we care about crypto? (1:27:20) The jetpack example   Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky  Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir  Executive Producer: Josh Machiz  Music: Griff Lawson    🎙 Listen to the show  Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb...  Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0...    Follow on Socials  📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/cartoonavatars  🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/cartoonavatars  🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@cartoonavatars    About the Show  A Saturday morning podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett (Partner and Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures) covering the tech news with his friends and other people with industry expertise. Executive Producer: Rashad Assir Producer: Leah Clapper Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1 Follow on Socials 📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow 📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow 🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow About the Show Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member. Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.

Jon Wu

Head of Growth

Aztec Network

Jon Wu, head of growth at Aztec Network, recaps a historically chaotic week in the Terra ecosystem that saw $UST depeg, Anchor depositors flee, and $LUNA fall 99%. Show highlights: how $UST, $LUNA, Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), and Anchor Protocol are supposed to work why Jon compares the Terra blockchain with VISA, LFG with the Fed, and Do Kwon with Jerome Powell how a previous $UST de-peg foreshadowed this week’s dystopian price action how a bitcoin short seemed to have kickstarted $UST’s depeg and why Jon thinks it was a deliberate attack why Luna Foundation Guard originally purchased Bitcoin – and how that plan backfired and made the Terra death spiral even more violent why $UST had such low liquidity this week – making it more susceptible to a bank run what Jon’s predictions are for $UST and $LUNA going forward what were the reasons behind Terra halting why Jon does not think this will be the end of algorithmic stablecoins why Jon thinks this should not affect ETH directly, even though there is a high amount of staked ETH in the Terra ecosystem   Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021      Coinchange: https://coinchange.io      Episode Links   Jon Wu Twitter https://twitter.com/jonwu_   Jon’s Write-Up on the UST Depeg Article: https://www.notboring.co/p/terra-to-the-moon-and-back  Thread: https://twitter.com/jonwu_/status/1523793482850050048?s=20&t=lvB1zdz98wu5TE5emh4fCw    Previous Unchained Coverage of Terra Do Kwon on backing UST with BTC ​​https://unchainedpodcast.com/do-kwon-is-backing-ust-with-bitcoin-and-heres-what-else-he-is-building/ Kevin Zhou on the risk of UST’s death spiral https://unchainedpodcast.com/heres-why-usdn-de-pegged-from-the-dollar-and-why-ust-might-too/    Terra: Terra proposal to accelerate the burn of UST and increase the base pool: https://station.terra.money/proposal/1164  https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/146254/terraform-labs-ceo-do-kwon-unveils-plan-to-restore-ust-peg Terra halting the network: https://twitter.com/terra_money/status/1524785058296778752?s=20&t=FUJkFuN8PyxRoF9TCPgrGg Terra going live again: https://twitter.com/terra_money/status/1524812171179327488?s=20&t=FUJkFuN8PyxRoF9TCPgrGg Regulatory risks: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/146426/the-sec-has-already-sued-terraform-labs-it-has-every-reason-to-investigate-ust-lawyers-say    Other Recaps on Terra:  CoinDesk on how Do Kwon was behind previous algorithmic stablecoin: https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2022/05/11/usts-do-kwon-was-behind-earlier-failed-stablecoin-ex-terra-colleagues-say/  Rekt: https://rekt.news/luna-rekt/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jon Wu

Head of Growth

Aztec Network