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

ChianCatcher news, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan stated during an interview on a blog program under Cypherpunk that cryptocurrency is not only a business matter but also an ideological one. The banking and political systems have failed and need to withdraw to self-sovereignty, and the missing part is privacy.

He pointed out that the two major innovations of Bitcoin are programmability represented by Ethereum and privacy represented by Zcash. From 2009 to 2017, Bitcoin's viability was proven; from 2017 to 2025, programmability's viability will be proven; and now, from around 2025 to 2030, is the privacy phase. Privacy means using ZK encryption for everything, including ZKYC, ZK DEX, and ZK smart contracts, to achieve the minimum necessary information. This may require modifications to the base layer, new L1, or entirely new companies, and ZK can technically attract high-IQ talent like AI.