Privacy, AI, & Sovereignty in a Transparent World

In this episode, Sohejl sits down with Howard Wu, Co-Founder of
Aleo to discuss his journey from selling custom PCs and mining
Bitcoin in high school to discovering zero-knowledge proofs at UC
Berkeley under Professor Alessandro Chiesa (co-founder of Zcash
and Starkware). His 2019 research paper on private smart
contracts, called Zexe, attracted significant industry attention
and led him to commercialize the technology through Aleo. Howard
challenges the conventional wisdom that privacy and compliance
are at odds, arguing instead that the issue lies in how
technology is implemented. 


The conversation challenges the idea that wanting privacy means
you're doing something sketchy. Howard argues that privacy and
compliance actually work together through features like view keys
and policy engines. Businesses have been evaluating crypto for
years but keep hitting the same wall - their compliance
departments can't accept transparent blockchain transactions.
Current public blockchains are like having transparent bank
accounts, which works fine for some uses but makes business
adoption impossible.


Companies like Revolut are already testing private payment rails
through Aleo's partnerships. New stable coins with built-in
privacy are launching this quarter through the Global Dollar
Network. Howard positions this as the missing piece that could
finally bring crypto to mainstream business adoption, providing
the speed and cost benefits of blockchain with the privacy that
traditional businesses require.


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Guest Links / Additional Material:


Howard Wu Twitter: https://x.com/1HowardWu 


Aleo Twitter: https://x.com/AleoHQ 


Aelo website: https://aleo.org/ 


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Timestamps:


0:00 - 3:00 - Early Bitcoin mining


3:00 - 6:00 - Berkeley research, Zexe paper


6:00 - 8:00 - Founding Aleo


8:00 - 12:00 - Privacy vs compliance myths


12:00 - 17:00 - Verifiable credentials, view keys


17:00 - 22:00 - Regulatory gaps, demos


22:00 - 27:00 - ZK simply explained


27:00 - 32:00 - Performance evolution


32:00 - 38:00 - Scaling advantages


38:00 - 43:00 - Business privacy problems


43:00 - 48:00 - ZK in AI, TEEs


48:00 - 53:00 - Revolut, partnerships


53:00 - 58:00 - Other blockchains' limitations


58:00 - 63:00 - Aleo's approach, stable coins


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