Why Privacy Tech Is Having Its Moment with Seth for Privacy (Cake Wallet)

In this episode, Austin chats with Seth (Cake Wallet) about why privacy is gaining traction after years of being niche, tracing Seth’s entry through Monero and other privacy-preserving products. They compare Zcash’s seemingly influencer-driven pump with Monero’s quieter but rising real-world usage, discuss Cake Wallet’s UX-driven approach (including enforced auto-shielding for Zcash), and debate how criminal adoption can actually validate that privacy tools work in adversarial settings while emphasizing legitimate use cases and storytelling. They explore why app-layer privacy on major L1s has weak adoption versus privacy-native L1s, the importance of defaults, and what’s next for privacy in DeFi and stablecoins.

00:00 - Seth’s Personal and Professional Privacy Journey

05:53 - Zcash vs Monero Adoption

09:51 - Crime Compliance and Privacy Ethics

15:25 - Why Privacy-Preserving Wallet UX Has Lagged

20:49 - Privacy L1s vs. App-Layer Privacy

27:30 - What’s Next Private DeFi

30:07 - Why Monero Has Survived CEX Delistings

32:35 - Privacy in the Age of AI Surveillance

41:51 - Conclusion

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