Rob Viglione is the founder of ZenCash and blends his interests as an academic and entrepreneur in finance and Blockchain development. As a PhD Candidate in Finance, Rob's research interests span across crypto-finance, venture capital, asset pricing and blockchain development. Rob teaches a course "Bitcoin & Blockchain Applications in Finance" one of only 3 in the world at the University of South Carolina.
ZenCash is built on zero-knowledge proofs (zk-SNARKs), a new cryptographic breakthrough in privacy and the core math behind the blockchain. It was originally developed as Zerocash and eventually Zcash. ZenCash then forked this original codebase into a new project and has since added many additional security and privacy features beyond Zcash.
As stated on Rob's LinkedIn: "ZenCash is building a globally distributed secure node network resilient to censorship by implementing network-level encryption on top of zk-SNARK blockchain obfuscation, embedding secure messaging, document publishing on IPFS, and a system of decentralized governance."
After listening to this episode you will learn:
- How Rob got into Cryptocurrency and Crypto Finance
- How Rob came into ZenCash idea
- What exactly zero-knowledge proofs are and how they work
- Why zero knowledge proofs is such a breakthrough in cryptography and privacy
- How transparency is built in as a default with Bitcoin and how zero-knowledge adds to that
- Why we need privacy as people and organizations
- How Zencash differs and compliments pre-existing Zcash and other forks
- How Zencash innovates on economics and technology
For show notes and more please visit: www.coinstructive.com/lab-radio
Chelsea Palmer is a mega curious academic, activist and passionate decentralist. What is a decentralist you might ask? Well, it's someone who espouses the values of decentralization and Chelsea is it. (She also does rap around Technology and other open sourced philosophies)
With humble beginnings in the northeast USA, Chelsea eventually moved to Vancouver where she is helping run DCTRL, a decentralized hackerspace, located in British Colombia, Canada.
As stated on the DCTRL Meetup: "We are a Collaborative Community inspired by the ideas behind Bitcoin, Decentralization, and the Open Source movement."
Ready to become a decentralist? Great!
After listening to this episode you will learn:
- What is Decentralization?
- What is DCTRL and how do they preserve the principles of Decentralization?
- How Decentralization is kind of like Burning Man
- What is the Blockchain and how does that fit in with Decentralization?
- Why Decentralization scares people yet offers unprecedented freedom?
- What excites and concerns Chelsea about the future of the ecosystem
For show notes and more please visit: https://coinstructive.com/lab-radio/
Hey everyone, we’re back! It’s been a whirlwind to say the least but we are resurrecting LAB Radio.
To kick things off we caught up with some amazing people building amazing things at the World Crypto Economic Forum (WCEF). People like Shawn Owen of Salt, Rob Viglione of Zen Cash and even Chelsea Palmer of DCTRL.
Meet Shawn and SALT, a blockchain based lending platform which allows you to secure cash loans sent directly into your bank account with no credit checks and backed by cryptocurrency collateral through a smart contract.
After listening to this episode you will learn:
- How Shawn stoked the early flames of innovation in the Denver crypto community
- How the idea of SALT was envisioned and began
- How Shawn realized the power of lending around Bitcoin
- How SALT bridges the concept of collateral and loans into cryptocurrency
- Additional Innovations SALT has added around lending and liquidity of assets
- How access to capital is a bottleneck to the massive unexpected demand
- How SALT works and which cryptocurrencies are available for lending and borrowing against
- A macroeconomic view of the market and visibility that SALT offers
- Shawns views on the current debt system
For show notes and more please visit: https://coinstructive.com/lab-radio/