It began as a five-minute film about bitcoin in Costa Rica. It became a full-length documentary called Hummingbird: The Bitcoin Jungle Story.

In this week’s episode of of Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller speaks with Paul Keating, one of the creators of the documentary about the people and ideas behind a growing Bitcoin community in Costa Rica and what happens when the principles of Bitcoin move from the internet into the real world.

Keating’s own story is part of that experiment. After leaving California for Costa Rica near the end of the COVID era, he found a community of Bitcoiners and eventually began living almost entirely on Bitcoin, converting his paychecks and later being paid directly in Bitcoin.

Hummingbird draws its title from the prophecy of the eagle and the condor, representing different cultures and ways of understanding the world coming together. The film asks whether Bitcoin can provide common ground between communities that might otherwise appear very different.

Merchants in Costa Rica can accept Bitcoin, how users can move between Bitcoin and local currency when necessary, and why adoption doesn’t require people to first understand every aspect of monetary theory.

The conversation then expands beyond money into another form of sovereignty: social media.

Paul discusses his work with Primal and his belief in Nostr, an open social protocol designed to give users greater control over their identity, content and connections.

Instead of rebuilding a social network every time someone joins a new platform, Nostr makes that identity and social graph portable across compatible applications. For Paul, the philosophy behind it closely parallels Bitcoin: users own their data and maintain sovereignty over their stack.

In This Episode
Ben and Paul discuss:

• Paul’s decision to leave California and build a life in Costa Rica
• What it’s actually like to live primarily on Bitcoin
• How Bitcoin Jungle developed in Costa Rica
• How a five-minute video became Hummingbird: The Bitcoin Jungle Story
• The meaning behind the film’s hummingbird metaphor
• Why Bitcoin adoption can look different outside the United States
• Using Bitcoin for everyday purchases
• Streaming Bitcoin payments directly to filmmakers
• Why Paul believes Nostr could provide a better foundation for social media
• Taking ownership of your identity, followers and content online
• Primal and the emerging Nostr ecosystem
• Why decentralization still faces a major mainstream adoption challenge
• What living in Costa Rica taught Paul that “Bitcoin Twitter” couldn’t

Watch Hummingbird

Search for Hummingbird: The Bitcoin Jungle Story on YouTube or visit hummingbirdfilm.com.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest
Paul Keating | https://www.hiimpaulk.com/
Paul Keating can also be found on Nostr/Primal as Paul in the Jungle. | https://primal.net/paul
X: @thepaulosophy
Instagram: @paulinthejungle

NOSTR|
Join Nostr / beginner site
Nostr protocol overview
Official Nostr protocol GitHub

Primal — a social media app built on the decentralized Nostr protocol.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/primal/id1673134518

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to Like, Subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss future episodes of The Privacy Podcast.

About the Show
The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.
Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

In this episode of The Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Igor Mandrigin, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Gateway, to discuss the evolution of Ethereum infrastructure, institutional adoption, and why modern privacy technology could play a major role in bringing finance on-chain.

Igor explains why enterprises are moving beyond traditional permissioned blockchains toward newer privacy architectures and how zero-knowledge technology is making it possible to protect sensitive information while still proving that transactions follow network rules.

The conversation also explores interoperability and the risk of recreating traditional financial silos across disconnected blockchain networks. Ben and Igor discuss the AggLayer, changes within the Ethereum Foundation, and where institutions are showing the most interest today, including stablecoins, payments, real-world assets, and fintech platforms built on-chain from the start.

They also examine why privacy becomes even more important as blockchain moves into everyday financial products, where transparent transaction histories can expose information consumers and institutions expect to remain private.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why institutions are reconsidering permissioned blockchains
• How modern privacy technology can support enterprise adoption
• Why interoperability matters for the future of on-chain finance
• Where stablecoins and real-world assets fit into institutional adoption
• How Ethereum’s ecosystem is evolving
• Why privacy matters as blockchain enters everyday financial services

Why This Matters

As stablecoins, tokenized assets, and other financial services move on-chain, institutions need more than faster infrastructure. They need privacy, interoperability, and security that can work at scale.

Without those capabilities, blockchain risks recreating the same fragmented financial systems it was designed to improve. The next phase of adoption will depend on whether the industry can connect networks while protecting sensitive financial information and maintaining the benefits of open, verifiable infrastructure.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest

Igor Mandrigin is Co-Founder and Chief Technology and Product Officer (CTPO) at Gateway.fm, where he focuses on blockchain infrastructure, privacy, and technology for institutional on-chain adoption.

Igor Mandrigin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandrigin/ 

Website: Gateway.fm   https://gateway.fm/ 

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to Like, Subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss future episodes of The Privacy Podcast.

About the Show

The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

In this episode of The Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller welcomes Yaya Fanusie, Chief Policy Officer at Aleo and former CIA counterterrorism analyst, for a timely discussion on the future of blockchain privacy.

Yaya shares how his career investigating terrorist financing led him into cryptocurrency policy and why he now believes privacy-preserving technology is essential for both individual freedom and national security. The conversation explores the GENIUS Act, stablecoin adoption, zero-knowledge proofs, regulatory challenges, illicit finance, and why the next major policy debate will focus on protecting consumer privacy in an increasingly digital financial system.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why blockchain transparency creates new privacy challenges
• How zero-knowledge technology can balance privacy with regulatory compliance
• What the GENIUS Act means for stablecoins and financial innovation
• Why privacy is becoming a national security issue
• How regulators are beginning to rethink digital identity and financial privacy
• What comes next for blockchain policy and consumer protection

Why This Matters

As stablecoins transition from crypto-native assets into mainstream financial infrastructure, the conversation around blockchain is shifting. The challenge is no longer simply achieving adoption. It's ensuring that privacy, security, and compliance can coexist. This episode explores why privacy may become one of the most important policy issues facing digital finance over the coming decade and what builders, regulators, and institutions need to consider next.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaya-jata-fanusie-87901738/ 

https://aleo.org/ 

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to Like, Subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss future episodes of The Privacy Podcast.

About the Show

The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 

Music: licensed.

All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

On this episode of The Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Sudo, Executive Director of SovRight (the nonprofit successor to the Electric Coin Company), to discuss privacy in the age of AI. 

Sudo, part of the flourishing Zcash community, argues the battle isn’t just about protecting people’s data from surveillance. It’s about preserving our “right to choose” on the internet.

The conversation traces Sudo's journey from traditional finance to blockchain after witnessing the inefficiencies of a $100 million escrow transaction, an experience that revealed the transformative potential of smart contracts. From there, the discussion expands into the growing risks posed by AI, centralized data collection, digital identity, and the invisible systems that increasingly influence our everyday decisions.

Rather than viewing privacy as a simple checkbox or regulatory requirement, Sudo argues privacy should empower individuals to decide who can access their information, when, and for what purpose. As AI agents automate more of our daily lives, maintaining meaningful control over personal data may become one of the defining challenges of the decade.

The episode also explores:

• Why AI may quietly erode personal choice through manipulation and default automation
• How privacy tools can become more intuitive instead of more complicated
• SovRight's mission following its transition from the Electric Coin Company
• Zcash's efforts to improve decentralization, wallet recovery, and network resilience
• The future of private AI inference and quantum-resistant privacy technologies
• Why mission-driven communities may become increasingly important as AI reshapes the internet

If AI is changing the internet, what safeguards will ensure people remain in control of their own lives? This conversation explores why the future of privacy may ultimately determine the future of human freedom.

Why It Matters
As AI systems become embedded in everything from payments to healthcare to everyday online interactions, the ability to control personal information is becoming increasingly complex. This episode examines how privacy technologies must evolve beyond encryption to protect individual choice, autonomy, and digital sovereignty in an AI-driven world.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest

Michelle Lai (sudo) is Executive Chair of SovRight, the nonprofit organization advancing privacy technologies and supporting the Zcash ecosystem. A longtime privacy advocate and blockchain leader, she focuses on protecting individual choice in an AI driven world while helping build secure, decentralized infrastructure for the future

SovRight:sovright.com 

Zcash: https://z.cash

X (Michelle Lai / sudo_ml): https://x.com/sudo_ml

X (SovRight): x.com/sovright_ 

GitHub: https://github.com/sovright 

About the Show
The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.
Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

In this episode of Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Akshit Ostwal, Co Founder of Epoch Protocol, to explore how intents-based infrastructure is transforming the way people interact with blockchain networks (including privacy networks!) and why it could become the missing layer that finally takes crypto mainstream.

Akshit explains why users should no longer have to navigate wallets, bridges, swaps, or multiple blockchains just to complete a transaction. Instead, intent-based systems allow users to simply define the outcome they want, while specialized solver networks handle the complexity behind the scenes.

The conversation also explores Epoch's partnership with Miden and how programmable privacy enables institutions, businesses, and developers to execute transactions confidentially without sacrificing regulatory compliance. They discuss how privacy preserving infrastructure can unlock new use cases for payments, payroll, decentralized finance, and enterprise adoption.

Finally, Akshit shares his vision for the future of AI-powered finance, explaining how intelligent agents, real world assets, and intent driven execution could fundamentally reshape how people and software interact with the financial system.

The conversation explores:

• Why intent based infrastructure could eliminate blockchain complexity for everyday users
• How solver networks execute transactions across chains without exposing users to technical friction
• Why programmable privacy is critical for institutional adoption of blockchain technology
• How Epoch and Miden are building privacy preserving execution for on chain finance
• The growing role of AI agents in managing financial transactions and investment decisions
• Why real world assets, stablecoins, and tokenized finance are accelerating blockchain adoption
• How intent based systems could become the operating layer for the next generation of Web3 applications
• Why the future of crypto depends on focusing on user outcomes instead of transaction mechanics

Why This Matters

Blockchain technology has matured dramatically, but user experience remains one of its greatest barriers to widespread adoption. As institutions, enterprises, AI agents, and everyday users increasingly interact with digital assets, the underlying infrastructure must become as seamless as the internet itself. This conversation explores how intent based execution, programmable privacy, and AI powered automation could remove the technical complexity that has limited Web3 for years, making decentralized finance more accessible, secure, and practical for the next generation of users.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest

Akshit Ostwal is the Co Founder of Epoch Protocol, an intent based execution network building the infrastructure that simplifies blockchain interactions for users, applications, AI agents, and institutions. A longtime Web3 builder and entrepreneur, Akshit previously co-founded Orange Wallet before launching Epoch to solve one of blockchain's biggest challenges: abstracting away technical complexity while enabling secure, cross chain execution. Today, Epoch is working with Miden to advance programmable privacy and build the infrastructure powering the next generation of on-chain finance.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshitostwal/
X (Twitter): @OstwalAk
Epoch Protocol: https://epochprotocol.xyz/
Miden: https://miden.xyz

About the Show

The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 

Music: licensed.

All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

In this episode of Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Gordon Liao, Chief Economist and Head of Research at Circle, to explore how stablecoins are reshaping global finance, and why privacy is becoming essential for institutional blockchain adoption.

Drawing on his experience at the Federal Reserve, the CFTC, Uniswap, and now Circle, Gordon explains why stablecoins have evolved far beyond digital payments into programmable financial infrastructure powering the next generation of commerce.

The conversation also examines Circle's new approach to blockchain privacy, balancing confidentiality with regulatory compliance, and why optional privacy may be the key to bringing traditional financial institutions on-chain.

Finally, Gordon shares his outlook on AI agents, programmable money, and how autonomous software could soon become one of the largest users of stablecoins.

The conversation explores:

• Why stablecoins have evolved beyond payments into programmable financial infrastructure
• How Circle's ARC Privacy aims to balance privacy with regulatory compliance
• The role of trusted execution environments (TEEs) in protecting blockchain transactions
• Why institutions require privacy before adopting public blockchain technology
• The tradeoffs between transparency, market efficiency, and confidentiality
• How decentralized finance changes traditional financial risk models
• The impact of emerging stablecoin regulation and global adoption
• Why AI agents may become the next major users of stablecoins and blockchain networks

Why This Matters
Stablecoins are quickly becoming a foundational layer of the global digital economy—but their long-term success depends on balancing innovation with privacy, transparency, and regulatory compliance. As institutions, governments, and AI-powered systems increasingly transact on blockchain networks, the infrastructure supporting those transactions must evolve to meet real-world business needs. This conversation explores how programmable privacy, trusted financial infrastructure, and emerging regulation could shape the future of digital finance, offering valuable insights for anyone working in blockchain, financial services, cybersecurity, or enterprise technology.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest  
Gordon Liao is Chief Economist and Head of Research at Circle, where he leads research on stablecoins, digital assets, and blockchain-based financial infrastructure. Prior to Circle, he held roles at Uniswap Labs, the Federal Reserve Board, and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). His work focuses on financial markets, digital payments, decentralized finance, and the future of programmable money.

LinkedIn: Gordon Y. Liao 

X (Twitter): @gordonliao

Personal Website: gliao.xyz

Circle Profile: Circle

Arc (Circle's Layer-1 Blockchain): arc.io

About the Show
The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

In this episode of the Privacy Podcast, Ben Schiller sits down with Nikhil Raghuveera, Co-Founder and CEO of Predicate, to explore how programmable compliance is reshaping on chain finance without sacrificing the privacy principles that made blockchain revolutionary.

Drawing on his experience leading strategy and innovation at Celo and advising policymakers on digital assets, Nikhil explains why the next generation of financial infrastructure requires a new approach to compliance...one built specifically for blockchain rather than adapted from traditional banking.

"The SEC is comfortable with the zero knowledge proof for investor accreditation... but then you also need financial institutions and tech companies to say, 'Yes, we will actually implement this and accept it on our end.'"  - Nikhil

Throughout the discussion, Nikhil argues that privacy should not be viewed as being in conflict with compliance. Instead, emerging technologies such as zero knowledge proofs offer an opportunity to meet regulatory requirements while minimizing unnecessary collection of personal data.

The conversation explores:

• How Predicate brings programmable compliance to blockchain
• Why on chain compliance differs from traditional finance
• The future of stablecoin compliance and asset controls
• The impact of the CLARITY Act and GENIUS Act
• Whether the Bank Secrecy Act needs modernization
• How zero knowledge proofs can protect privacy while supporting compliance
• Balancing privacy, regulation, and financial surveillance
• Why businesses are key to driving privacy preserving technologies
• What policymakers can do to support innovation without creating a surveillance state

Why This Matters
As digital assets become part of mainstream finance, the challenge is no longer whether regulation is coming...it's how to balance compliance with privacy and innovation. This episode explores how emerging technologies and evolving policy can help build a more secure, trusted, and privacy preserving financial system.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest  

LinkedIn: Nikhil Raghuveera on LinkedIn

X (Twitter): @pumpernikhil

Learn more about Predicate: Predicate

About the Show
The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.
Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

This week on Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO and Co-Founder of StarkWare, mathematician, entrepreneur, and one of the pioneers behind zero-knowledge technology.

Eli, one of the founders of Zcash, discusses his new book on ZK proofs, why blockchain and zero-knowledge technology are fundamentally changing how trust is established online, and how privacy, scalability, and integrity can coexist in the digital world. 

From Zcash to Starknet to the future of institutional adoption, Eli shares his vision for an internet where users have greater control over their identity, assets, and data.

"Technology in service of people, empowering them, giving them a place to basically ground their own reputation, finances, ownership, life."  — Eli Ben-Sasson

What We Cover:

 • Why zero-knowledge technology complements blockchain
 • How ZK can improve privacy, scalability, and trust online
 • The inspiration behind Eli's new book on zero-knowledge proofs
 • The evolution of Zcash and the growing demand for privacy solutions
 • Why institutions increasingly view privacy as a requirement for on-chain adoption
 • StarkWare's new privacy innovations, including Stark BTC and Stark20
 • The challenges of balancing privacy and user experience
 • How academics can successfully transition into entrepreneurship
 • Why crypto infrastructure continues to advance regardless of market cycles
 • What the future of ZK could look like in everyday life

Why This Matters

As more financial activity, digital identity, and business operations move on-chain, privacy is becoming one of the most important challenges facing blockchain technology. Zero-knowledge proofs offer a path toward maintaining trust and transparency while protecting sensitive information. The technologies being built today could help shape how people transact, communicate, and establish trust online for decades to come.

Connect With Eli Ben-Sasson

• LinkedIn: Eli Ben-Sasson 
• X (Twitter): @EliBenSasson
• StarkWare: StarkWare Official Website
• Starknet: Starknet Official Website
• The Stark Book: The Stark Book Website
  
  

About the Show

The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

In this episode of Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Liam Glennon, researcher and analyst at TRM Labs, to discuss the findings from his latest report examining how privacy technologies are evolving across the digital asset ecosystem.

Liam explains why institutional investors, regulators, blockchain builders, and financial institutions are increasingly focused on privacy, not as a way to avoid oversight, but as a necessary component of security, competitiveness, and mainstream adoption. The conversation explores emerging privacy frameworks, including view keys, selective disclosure, membership proofs, and zero-knowledge technologies, along with the tradeoffs that come with each approach.

The discussion also challenges one of crypto's longest-held assumptions: that complete transparency automatically leads to greater security. Using examples such as major blockchain exploits and evolving institutional use cases, Liam argues that privacy can actually strengthen security by limiting the information available to attackers while still enabling compliance when necessary.

From stablecoins and tokenized assets to regulatory expectations and the future of digital identity, this episode offers a thoughtful look at how privacy infrastructure may shape the next phase of blockchain adoption.

Why This Matters

• Why institutions are increasingly demanding privacy solutions in blockchain environments
• The difference between privacy and anonymity in modern crypto systems
• How view keys enable selective disclosure for compliance purposes
• Why transparency can sometimes create security vulnerabilities
• The role of zero-knowledge proofs in future financial systems
• How regulators are approaching privacy-preserving technologies
• Why stablecoins and tokenized assets may become major drivers of privacy adoption
• The challenges of balancing user confidentiality with anti-money laundering requirements
• How privacy technologies could become the "HTTPS upgrade" for blockchain

What We Cover

• Privacy is evolving from a niche feature into a requirement for institutional blockchain adoption.
• Selective disclosure mechanisms are emerging as a practical bridge between privacy and compliance.
• Security and privacy are increasingly interconnected rather than competing priorities.
• Regulators appear more open to privacy-preserving technologies than many industry participants assume.
• Stablecoins and tokenized assets may accelerate the adoption of privacy infrastructure across financial markets.

Guest

• Liam Glennon on LinkedIn
• TRM Labs
  
  

About the Show

The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 

Music: licensed.

All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

On this episode of The Privacy Podcast, Ben Schiller speaks with Muthu [ Muthuramakrishnan Venkitasubramaniam], CEO and co-founder of Ligero and professor at Georgetown University, about the next evolution of zero knowledge technology and why privacy infrastructure is moving from niche cryptography research into mainstream internet systems.

Muthu explains how his early academic work on zero knowledge proofs unexpectedly became part of Google’s identity stack, why client side proving could reshape digital identity and financial systems, and how privacy preserving compliance may become one of the defining technologies of the next decade.

The conversation explores the tension between decentralization, regulation, usability, and auditability, while also unpacking why privacy infrastructure is no longer just a blockchain issue, but an internet wide issue.

              “The same zero knowledge proof that allows you to do private transactions also provides compliance.”

For years, blockchain systems prioritized transparency and decentralization, often at the expense of privacy. But as institutional finance, identity systems, and regulators begin entering the space, the demand for privacy preserving infrastructure is accelerating quickly.

Muthu V. argues that zero knowledge proofs may finally bridge the long standing gap between privacy and compliance. From proving identity without exposing personal data to enabling private payroll systems powered by stablecoins, the episode examines how cryptography is evolving from theory into real world infrastructure.

The discussion also explores Google’s adoption of Ligero related technology for identity verification and why major enterprise adoption may become the tipping point for regulators and mainstream acceptance.

What We Cover

• How Muthu first became fascinated with cryptography and zero knowledge proofs
• Why blockchain accelerated real world adoption of ZK technology
• The difference between public proving systems and client side proving
• Why privacy should happen directly on user devices
• The usability problem facing privacy infrastructure today
• How zero knowledge proofs can provide both privacy and compliance
• Why regulators are becoming more interested in ZK systems
• Google’s adoption of Ligero related technology for identity systems
• The future of self sovereign compliance and digital identity
• Why payroll may become one of blockchain’s biggest privacy use cases
• The rise of private stablecoin infrastructure and composable finance
• Why Muthu believes ZK technology will become mainstream internet infrastructure

Why This Matters

Privacy is quickly becoming one of the most important infrastructure conversations in technology.

As more financial activity, identity systems, and personal data move online, traditional models of surveillance based compliance are becoming increasingly difficult to scale. Zero knowledge systems introduce a new framework where users can prove compliance without surrendering unnecessary personal information.

The implications stretch far beyond crypto.

From digital IDs and payroll systems to banking, healthcare, and online authentication, privacy preserving cryptography may fundamentally reshape how trust operates across the internet.

Guest Muthu V. is the CEO and co-founder of Ligero and a professor at Georgetown University specializing in cryptography, zero knowledge proofs, and secure computation systems.

🌐 Ligero Official Website

💼 Muthu V. on LinkedIn

💻 Ligero GitHub

About the Show
The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

Crypto was supposed to protect users. Instead, it may have accidentally exposed them.

In this episode of The Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Azeem Khan and Bobbin Threadbare, co-founders of Miden, to unpack a hard truth: most blockchains today are not private, and that’s a massive problem.

What many users believe is anonymous is anything but. And as AI rapidly advances, the illusion of privacy is collapsing even faster.

“In the next two years… you type in someone’s address and get their full history.”

This conversation explores why privacy isn’t just a feature upgrade, it’s a requirement for survival and how Miden is building a new generation of blockchain designed to fix it.

Why This Matters

Right now, every transaction on most blockchains is permanently visible. That means your salary, your spending habits, your assets, all exposed. And the consequences are already showing up. From targeted attacks to real-world safety risks, transparency at this level isn’t empowering, it’s dangerous.

“Transparent blockchains are almost perfect surveillance tools.”

Azeem and Bobbin make it clear: if privacy solutions don’t scale quickly, the industry risks undermining its own foundation.

What We Cover

• Why most blockchains today are fundamentally not private
• How AI is accelerating the collapse of pseudo-anonymity
• The real-world risks of exposing financial data on-chain
• What makes Miden a third-generation blockchain
• How zero-knowledge proofs unlock privacy + scalability
• Why computation is moving client-side instead of on-chain
• The trade-offs between decentralization, privacy, and security
• Why launching centralized first may actually be safer
• The future of blockchain: from finance to healthcare and beyond

Privacy is existential for crypto, and without it, adoption will stall or potentially fail. What many consider anonymity today is largely an illusion, as AI is rapidly making deanonymization cheap and nearly instantaneous. At the same time, full transparency introduces real risks, exposing users to surveillance and even physical harm. Zero-knowledge technology offers a path forward by enabling privacy without sacrificing trust, and the next generation of blockchains is already being built with these principles at its core.

The Bottom Line

Crypto promised a better system. But without privacy, it may recreate something worse.

Azeem and Bobbin aren’t just building another blockchain, they’re building infrastructure for a future where users don’t have to choose between transparency and safety.

Because the next phase of this industry won’t be defined by speed or scale…

It will be defined by whether users can exist without being exposed.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest  

Azeem Khan 

• LinkedIn:
   https://www.linkedin.com/in/azeemkhan
• X (Twitter):
   https://x.com/azeemkhan

Bobbin Threadbare 

• X (Twitter):
   https://x.com/bobbinth

🌐 Miden
Website:
 miden.xyz 

About the Show

The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team
Music: licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

What if it actually belonged to you?

In this episode of The Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller talks with Wayne Chang, Founder of Spruce ID, to explore one of the most overlooked problems in tech today: identity.

From logging into websites to accessing healthcare, our digital identities are fragmented, insecure, and often completely out of our control. Chang breaks down how we got here and why the current system, built on emails, passwords, and centralized platforms, is fundamentally broken.

“We want users to control their data flows like a water faucet… under their control.”

From “Sign-In with Ethereum” to government-backed digital credentials, this conversation explores a future where identity is portable, private, and owned by the individual.

Why This Matters

Right now, your identity lives everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

It’s stored in silos across platforms, vulnerable to breaches, and increasingly easy to fake in an era of AI-generated everything.

And the cracks are starting to show.

Chang points to a near-future where identity fraud becomes scalable, cheap, and nearly impossible to detect using today’s systems.

“We’re going to reach a precipice moment where attacks get cheap enough to execute at scale.”

The result? A complete breakdown of trust online.

But there’s another path forward, one built on cryptography, decentralization, and user control.

What We Cover

• Why today’s identity systems are a “patchwork” and fundamentally insecure
• How AI and deepfakes are exposing major flaws in digital verification
• The origin and impact of Sign-In with Ethereum
• What digital credentials actually are and why they matter
• Why governments, healthcare, and finance are key to fixing identity
• The Utah model and a new policy-first approach to digital ID
• Why identity should be human-centric, not platform-centric
• The role of decentralized protocols in rebuilding trust online
• How identity unlocks real-world blockchain use cases

The Bottom Line

The internet made it easy to connect. It did not make it safe to trust.

Wayne Chang is building toward a future where identity is no longer something you hand over, but something you control.

Because in the next phase of the internet, the most important question won’t be what platform you use…

It will be who you are and whether you can prove it.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waynebuilds/
Personal Website: https://wycd.net 

Company Website (SpruceID): https://www.spruceid.com

X (Twitter): https://x.com/wycdd

Author page (SpruceID blog): https://blog.spruceid.com/author/wayne/

About the Show

The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 

Music:  licensed.

All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

For years, privacy in crypto lived in the shadows, debated, misunderstood, and often avoided by institutions afraid of regulatory fallout.
That changed fast.

In this episode of The Privacy Podcast, host Ben Schiller sits down with Paul Brody, the founder of Nightfall Networks and former Global Blockchain Leader at EY and Chairman of the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, to unpack a pivotal moment for the industry.

From the fallout of Tornado Cash sanctions to the quiet acceleration of enterprise adoption, Brody explains why privacy has moved from theory to execution and why businesses are no longer asking if they need it, but how fast they can implement it.

“We went from being terrified of going to prison… to full speed ahead.”

This conversation reframes privacy not as secrecy, but as a strategic requirement for operating in a transparent, data-driven world.

Why This Matters

The internet was built on visibility. Blockchain made that visibility permanent.

That’s a problem for businesses.

Without privacy, companies expose supply chains, payment flows, and competitive strategies in real time. And as analytics tools become more advanced, even “hidden” transactions aren’t truly hidden.

Brody makes it clear: institutional adoption of blockchain cannot happen without privacy. Full stop.

“Everything that works beautifully without privacy basically breaks under privacy.”

But this isn’t about going dark. It’s about creating a new balance, one where transactions remain verifiable, regulators maintain oversight, and companies protect what matters most.

The result? A future where privacy isn’t a feature. It’s the foundation.

What We Cover

• Why institutions went from “too risky” to “full speed ahead” on privacy
• The real difference between privacy and anonymity
• How blockchain transparency is breaking traditional business models
• Why analytics tools make basic “mixing” obsolete
• The role of zero-knowledge technology in enterprise adoption
• Why consumers don’t drive privacy adoption but institutions do
• The hidden cost of privacy and why it’s still worth it
• What “agentic commerce” means and why it depends on private infrastructure
• Why future digital assets won’t move in and out of privacy, they’ll live inside it

The Bottom Line

The narrative around privacy is changing. This isn’t about hiding. It’s about operating.

And as enterprises move in, they’re bringing a new standard with them, one where privacy is built in, not bolted on.
Because in a fully transparent world, the most valuable thing a business can have… is control over what it reveals.

🔗 About the 👤 Guest  

LinkedIn: Connect with Paul Brody on LinkedIn

Company / Work (EY Blockchain): https://blockchain.ey.com
 
Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (Chairman role): https://entethalliance.org

About the Show

The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 
Music:  licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

Privacy has always been framed as a binary: total anonymity or full transparency. But what if that framing is wrong?

In the debut episode of The Privacy Podcast by Miden, host Ben Schiller sits down with Evin McMullen to unpack one of the most urgent debates shaping the future of the internet: Can privacy truly scale without compromise?

Drawing from a live debate between privacy “maximalists” and pragmatists, this conversation cuts through ideology and gets real about what it actually takes to bring decentralized technologies into the mainstream.

From the rise of bots and AI agents to the evolving role of governments and regulation, this episode explores how privacy is no longer just a principle. It is becoming infrastructure.

Why This Matters

We are entering a moment where more than half of online interactions are no longer human. Identity is fragmented. Trust is eroding. And the systems designed to protect us were never built for this scale.

This episode makes one thing clear:
Privacy is not a feature. It is a fragile outcome shaped by technology, regulation, and design decisions happening right now.

And the stakes are not theoretical. They are deeply human.

What We Cover

 • The real debate: privacy maximalism vs practical adoption
 • Why “perfect privacy” may prevent real-world scale
 • How zero-knowledge proofs are changing data sharing
 • The rise of bots and non-human actors online
 • Why governments and institutions are leading adoption faster than expected
 • The growing tension between regulation, surveillance, and user protection
 • How AI agents are reshaping trust, identity, and consent
 • The hidden cost of compliance for businesses handling sensitive data
 • Why privacy is ultimately about control, not secrecy

About the 👤 Guest  

• LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/evin-mcmullen
X (Twitter)
https://x.com/provenauthority

• Billions Network
https://www.billions.network 

Key Takeaways

• Privacy is not about hiding. It is about control over disclosure
 • Absolute privacy is often incompatible with real-world adoption
 • Zero-knowledge technology enables proof without exposure and changes everything
 • Regulation will likely shape the future faster than consumer choice
 • AI is accelerating both the risks and the urgency around privacy
 • The next evolution of the internet depends on verifiable identity without sacrificing personal data

Notable Insight

“Privacy is not a product. It is an end state achieved through the absence of disclosure.”

About the Show

The Privacy Podcast by Miden explores the intersection of privacy, identity, and emerging technologies. Hosted by Ben Schiller, the show brings together builders, regulators, and thinkers shaping what comes next in a world where data is power.

Executive Producer Michele Musso
Edited by the Musso Media Team 

Music: Adrian Walther “Fuel the Fire” licensed.
All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media 

In this intro to the show, Ben Schiller, Head of Communications at Miden and former CoinDesk journalist, shares why privacy is the missing layer of the internet and the key to real blockchain adoption.

From fixing the surveillance-driven internet model to enabling institutions and enterprises to operate securely on-chain, this is about building the next era of the internet.

Over the coming episodes, Privacy Podcast will feature leading voices across blockchain, privacy tech, and digital rights, exploring what it takes to create a more secure, scalable, and trusted future.

This is where privacy meets progress.

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Produced and Edited by the Musso Media Team 

All rights reserved. ©2026 Musso Media