The right to financial privacy and encrypted information are foundational to the liberal principles of freedom. Yet as the world moves towards becoming a cashless society, we have blundered our way into warrantless financial surveillance. We’ve left a financial fingerprint with nearly every online interaction, and anyone with enough money could paint a picture of your daily life by purchasing (or stealing) these digital ledgers of activity. So while some of us are building tools to reclaim privacy, governments say there’s no justification for citizens to hide their financial activity. When governments want to stop people from deploying and utilizing privacy-preserving software and services, they are treading in authoritarian waters. District attorneys say they want to bring criminals to justice. Regulators argue they need unfettered access to everyone’s transactions. Politicians claim to act in the interest of protecting children and national security. They may try to argue for morals, but their fight against privacy is a masked effort to maintain power. Preserving privacy means giving power back to individuals. Governments are meant to serve people, not the other way around. This is a battle for the future of democracy. We may not know how long it will take, but it’s one worth fighting for, and one we must not lose.

10 years ago, @ethereum introduced smart contracts to the world. It's time for the next evolution. @Zac_Aztec and @samonchain (@ethereumfndn) argue the case for ZKP-powered smart contracts and why privacy must be a core tenet of Ethereum’s next 10 years.

Ethereum’s original promise requires privacy. That privacy can’t be compromised - routed through a centralized party, bolted on later, rife with back doors - that’s why @aztecnetwork has been meticulously building for eight years. @PrivacyEthereum and @ethereumfndn are putting privacy front and center for the next decade of development. Together, we’ll drive towards mass adoption by making Ethereum - finally - feature complete.

Make privacy normal again. privacy is freedom. We must make it a core value of web3 both in principle and in practice.

What the ever-living fuck. DoJ/FBI/SDNY/IRS-CI is trying to imprison Roman Storm—an American software developer—for decades because North Korea Gov used his software. And they introduced evidence supposedly tying their witness—a scam victim—to his Tornado Cash software... ⤵️

$1,000 to the first Astronomer employee who says hi on @stealthnote_. No questions asked.

Privacy is always first priority nowadays 😜 @aztecnetwork. @Amin_3X @realRoberto38 @clairekart @Zac_Aztec

@afrazhaowang is the most lyrical technologist I know of. She can truly capture the quintessence of technological moments that the arc of history pivots on.

Day 201 of sharing @aztecnetwork memes until mainnet is live

🧵 If You Build Something They Can’t Control, They Will Call It a Conspiracy Roman Storm is not just on trial for building Tornado Cash. He’s on trial for building something they couldn’t shut down. And now the government wants to ban him from even explaining why he built it.