Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase, said on a Cypherpunk podcast that crypto is more of an ideological movement than a business. He argued banks and political systems have failed, making exit and self-sovereignty necessary — with privacy as the missing piece. He framed Bitcoin's two key innovations as Ethereum-style programmability and Zcash-style privacy, and said the current phase through 2030 belongs to privacy, powered by ZK tech and applications like ZKYC and ZK DEX.
Balaji Srinivasan, the former chief technology officer of Coinbase, told a Cypherpunk podcast that crypto is not merely a business — it is an ideological stance. He argued that banks and political systems have failed, leaving people to seek exit and self-sovereignty. What is still missing, he said, is privacy.
Srinivasan identified two major innovations in Bitcoin: programmability, represented by Ethereum, and privacy, represented by Zcash. The years 2009 to 2017 proved Bitcoin viable, he said, while 2017 to 2025 demonstrated programmability. Now, from roughly 2025 to 2030, the focus shifts to privacy.
For him, privacy means encrypting everything with zero-knowledge proofs — including ZKYC, ZK DEXs, and ZK smart contracts — to reveal only the minimum necessary information. Achieving that could require modifying base layers, launching a new L1, or creating entirely new companies. ZK technology, he added, has the same potential as AI to attract top technical talent.
This article was originally published by Bit.Fan. For more cryptocurrency news and market insights, visit www.bit.fan. Disclaimer:
The market information, project data, and third-party content displayed on this platform are for industry information sharing only and do not constitute any form of investment advice or return commitment.
Cryptocurrency trading carries high risks. Users should fully assess their risk tolerance and make independent decisions. All profits, losses, and legal responsibilities are borne by the users themselves.
