Solving On-Chain Privacy with Jill Gunter, Chief Strategy Officer at Espresso Systems

This week’s guest is Jill Gunter. Jill is cofounder and chief strategy officer at Espresso Systems, which is building privacy and scalability solutions for Web3. Previously, she invested in crypto, blockchain, and fintech with SF-based VC fund Slow Ventures and served as an advisor to a range of projects and institutions from the IMF to startups like Zcash and Algorand. She started her career as a bond trader at Goldman Sachs in NYC.

I’m so excited to have Jill as my second guest to unpack an important and often misunderstood aspect of crypto, which is PRIVACY. This is a topic that’s commonly misunderstood on several fronts. For those outside of the industry, the common storyline has historically been that the perceived anonymity crypto provides allows it to be used as a means for performing illicit activities. Juxtapose that with what many of those in the crypto community know all too well. The data transparency that blockchain technology provides is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. In fact, transparency is often touted as one of the cornerstones of the emerging crypto space… but like anything else, enhanced data transparency is a double edged sword, and those in the crypto space, from your average retail participants, to institutional investors, to regulators, are still trying to wrap their heads around what an ideal solution looks like… How much transparency is too much transparency, and how much privacy is TOO much privacy? What data should the masses have access to, and why? We’ve seen this play out recently in the case of Tornado Cash, which Jill and I cover today. As always, the answer to the question of how we solve on-chain privacy is a nuanced one, but there’s no better person to provide clarity on this topic than today’s guest. With that, please enjoy my conversation with Jill.

For more information about Jill Gunter, please visit: https://www.jillrgunter.com/

You can Follow Jill Gunter on Twitter @jillrgunter: https://twitter.com/jillrgunter

Show notes:

[0:06] Introduction to Jill Gunter

[3:35] Jill Gunter's crypto origin story

[7:45] What Jill is building with Espresso Systems

[11:30] Problem with lack of on-chain privacy

[14:22] State of privacy and Web3 and how is Espresso solving for these issues

[20:44] What information is most important to be public to promote a more health, transparent system? Difference between what information should and shouldn't be public

[26:01] Tornado Cash case study - what happened and why it's important to understand as it relates to privacy and Web3

[33:04] OFAC guidance to Tornado Cash, and how users were affected by this

[35:24] What smart contracts are categorized as? Role that code plays in Freedom of Speech

[40:54] How do we account for core contributors to a decentralized network that could be "bad actors"?

[44:19] Where do we go from here with censorship resistance, privacy and Web3?

[48:10] What does success and failure look like in Crypto? CLIP - start at 49:19

All opinions expressed by your hosts and the podcasts guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of the hosts or any of their affiliates. This podcast is for commercial and informational purposes only, is not investment advice, and should not be relied upon for any investment decisions. We are not recommending any securities or cryptocurrencies, nor is this an offer or sale of a security or cryptocurrency.