Given the Sanctions on Tornado Cash on Ethereum, Would a Private Blockchain Be Better?

Plus: Is the government going after privacy technologies? Are blockchains suervailance tools?

Today's premium content features a behind-the-scenes interview with Guy Zyskind, founder and CEO of Secret Labs, and Tor Bair, founder of Secret Foundation. In light of how the sanctions on Tornado Cash have upended Ethereum and raised questions about how it should move forward, we discussed the challenges behind building a private-by-default network. Here are some of the other things we covered:

• What Secret Network is and how it aims to decentralize privacy

• The difference between something like Tornado Cash and having privacy by default in the network

• Whether there is a privacy crisis within the layer 1 blockchains

• How to prevent the government from going after privacy technologies, and how not to be perceived as criminals

• Whether it is possible to identify illicit transactions in a privacy network

• How blockchains can be universal surveillance tools

• How DeFi would work on Secret Network and how it is different from what is happening now

• How to program the blockchain in a way so authorities can investigate criminal activity

• Where Secret lies along the spectrum between no accountability and 100% transparency

• The necessity of building the privacy space with experts and regulators

• Whether BTC is a terrible privacy technology