The Holy Grail of Crypto Privacy: Encrypted Ethereum, FHE & Living Forever | Rand Hindi, Zama Co-Founder
Ethereum is transparent by design, and that’s a problem if you don’t want your entire financial life on display.
Rand Hindi, co-founder of Zama, joins us to explain how fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) can turn Ethereum into an encrypted, confidential blockchain where contracts stay composable and UX feels exactly the same.
We get into why blockchains were public in the first place, why “anonymous addresses” were never enough, how FHE compares to ZK and MPC, and what a world of private DeFi, encrypted stablecoins, and on-chain “digital immortality” could look like.
------
📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24
https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium
------
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:
🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS
https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow
🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, & EARN
https://bankless.cc/fraxnet
🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN
https://bankless.cc/unichain
🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK
https://bankless.cc/Mantle
💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP
https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep
------
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:24 Why Are Blockchains Public?
9:11 Privacy vs Confidentiality
11:13 Zama: Privacy on Ethereum
15:05 Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE)
19:34 Multi-Party Computation (MPC)
23:50 FHE vs ZK
37:25 FHE Critiques
40:08 Nation State Attacks
45:58 Combining ZK & FHE
49:20 Privacy Season
51:39 Compliance
1:00:18 Zama
1:04:03 Confidential Tokens
1:08:12 How it Works
1:11:30 Zama Token & Protocol
1:14:09 Privacy Competitors
1:17:36 Fhenix
1:19:46 Rand’s Background
1:23:07 AI Privacy
1:26:42 Longevity
1:33:01 Crypto & Privacy in 2026
1:33:33 Closing & Disclaimers
------
RESOURCES
Rand Hindi
https://x.com/randhindi
Zama
https://www.zama.org/
Fhenix
https://www.fhenix.io/
Unit Ventures
https://github.com/randhindi/unit-vc
------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
--------
--------
ROLLUP: Ethereum’s Big Week | Supercycle Debate | Monad Mainnet | Bitcoin’s Quantum Problem
Happy Thanksgiving! Ethereum is heading into one of its biggest upgrades of the year. In this week’s Weekly Rollup, Ryan and Anthony Sassano break down the Fusaka hard fork, what it ships for L2 scaling and gas limits, and why Justin Drake’s real-time ZK proving demo could reshape Ethereum sooner than expected. They revisit the four-year cycle debate, unpack Tom Lee’s “supercycle” conviction, and catch up on Monad’s mainnet launch, the CFTC clearing Polymarket for U.S. users, and growing concern about Bitcoin’s quantum risk.
Anthony Sassano & The Daily Gwei
https://x.com/sassal0x
https://x.com/thedailygwei
------
📣REYA | ETHEREUM FOR TRADERS
https://bankless.cc/reya
------
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:
🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS
https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow
🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN
https://bankless.cc/fraxnet
🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN
https://bankless.cc/unichain
🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK
https://bankless.cc/Mantle
💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP
https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep
------
TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES
0:00 Intro
2:49 Markets
https://x.com/SERdotxyz/status/1992978303817490589
https://x.com/fundstrat/status/1990082437116780901
https://x.com/SAMALTCOIN_ETH/status/1993316804303687813
https://ethval.com/
https://x.com/TaikiMaeda2/status/1991911063034757578
https://x.com/hosseeb/status/1992297969383854575
https://x.com/cryptomanran/status/1991823369453351261
https://app2.msci.com/webapp/index_ann/DocGet
https://x.com/matthew_sigel/status/1991616596419191285
https://x.com/saylor/status/1991875241107222701
21:40 Ethereum's Fusaka is coming next week!
https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1992755722980032889
https://x.com/ripeth/status/1993405655076778302
https://forkcast.org/upgrade/fusaka
https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1993415381978169577
https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1993517759528157580
https://forkcast.org/upgrade/glamsterdam
https://x.com/nero_eth/status/1991947238042431859
https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1993097491844415657
https://x.com/drakefjustin/status/1991836045076263380
https://x.com/no89thkey/status/1992561927298359752
https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1993058178096152881
https://x.com/jchaskin22/status/1993355808285831474
https://x.com/ripeth/status/1990793070842163669
https://x.com/Aayush_gupta_ji/status/1991128951347896337
https://x.com/donnoh_eth/status/1991471292655235148
https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1993418143977373974
https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1991167063784849550
https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1992335400271257768
51:54 Monad mainnet is live!
https://x.com/monad/status/1992956417263935947
https://youtu.be/op2-a-sO6Y0
https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1991896909955604816
https://x.com/coinbase/status/1992544829515898937
https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/monad
57:00 Polymarkets can now be integrated into brokerages! (First crypto app?)
https://x.com/shayne_coplan/status/1993405727785075151
1:00:01 Nic Carter - Quantum and Bitcoin…as early as 2030.
https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1993727697852432684
https://murmurationstwo.substack.com/p/bitcoin-and-the-quantum-problem-part-47f
https://x.com/nic_carter/status/1993754323252031644
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DRDjeMmOPw
1:08:08 Daily Gwei comes back in regular cadence
https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1993418606714266072
1:09:23 Closing & Disclaimers
------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
--------
--------
Do We Need Another L1? - Inside Monad’s Parallel EVM with Co-Founder Keone Hon
Monad just launched Mainnet!
That’s why Ryan sits down with Monad co-founder Keone Hon today.
We ask the blunt question: do we really need another general-purpose L1?
Why not just build this as an Ethereum L2 instead?
Keone explains how Monad’s parallel, pipelined EVM works under tight consumer-hardware constraints (32GB RAM, 2TB SSD, 100 Mbps), delivering ~500M gas/sec, 400ms blocks, and fast finality while preserving decentralization.
Enjoy the episode!
------
📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24
https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium
------
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:
🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS
https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow
🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, & EARN
https://bankless.cc/fraxnet
🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN
https://bankless.cc/unichain
🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK
https://bankless.cc/Mantle
💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP
https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep
------
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Another L1?
1:36 Why L1 vs L2?
2:46 Decentralization
10:19 Run at Home vs Datacenter Chains
12:09 The Purpose of a Blockchain
14:06 The Purpose of Monad
16:00 Why EVM?
28:33 Solana for the EVM?
29:47 Monad vs Ethereum
34:23 Monad Scaling
36:40 Ethereum Roadmap
39:43 How Monad Benefits Ethereum
42:51 Keone’s Background
50:49 How Fast is Too Fast?
59:12 MEV
1:04:07 Monad Layer2s?
1:05:14 Monad Launch Decentralization
1:06:00 Launch Ecosystem
1:08:22 Monad Token
1:16:55 L1 Token Valuations
1:19:18 Monad vs MegaETH
1:23:59 Monad’s Success Case
1:25:57 Mainnet
1:27:11 Closing & Disclaimers
------
RESOURCES
Keone Hon
https://x.com/keoneHD
Monad
https://x.com/monad
Monad Website
https://www.monad.xyz/
Monad Links
https://linktr.ee/monad_xyz
------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
--------
--------
The Real Crypto Cycle: What Happens When Global Liquidity Peaks | Michael Howell
Global liquidity veteran Michael Howell joins to map out the “master variable” driving asset prices: a 65-month global liquidity and debt refinancing cycle that underpins booms, busts, and the recent “everything bubble.”
He breaks down the coming debt maturity wall, rising repo stress, the shift from Fed QE to “Treasury QE,” and a new capital war between a US dollar stablecoin system and China’s gold-backed strategy.
Plus, what all of this means for Bitcoin, gold, equities, and how to position as the current cycle rolls over.
------
📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24
https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium
------
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:
🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS
https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow
🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, & EARN
https://bankless.cc/fraxnet
🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN
https://bankless.cc/unichain
🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK
https://bankless.cc/Mantle
💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP
https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep
💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY
https://bankless.cc/bit-digital
We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors
------
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:45 Global Liquidity: Theory of Everything?
14:49 Will it Go Up Forever?
24:50 Where Are We in The Cycle?
34:23 Asset Allocation
47:14 Can The Monetary Regime Break?
58:55 China Gold vs US Tech
1:04:29 Crypto & Gold
1:08:03 4-Year Cycles
1:12:40 AI Bubble
1:15:14 Global Liquidity Limitations
1:18:39 Next 3-6 Months
1:20:24 Assets to Hold
1:21:25 Closing & Disclaimers
------
RESOURCES
CrossBorder Capital
https://x.com/crossbordercap
CrossBorder Capital Website
https://crossbordercapital.com
Capital Wars Substack
https://capitalwars.substack.com/
------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
--------
--------
Is It All Over? What The Markets Are Saying For 2026
We analyze the crypto market's turbulence as Bitcoin falls below $90k, signaling potential bear market conditions. Also, it’s DevConnect! We discuss investor sentiment, and examine key updates like Vitalik Buterin's roadmap for Ethereum and Aave's new app. Tune in for essential market updates!
------
📣 BLACK FRIDAY | BANKLESS PREMIUM
https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium
------
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:
🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS
https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow
🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, & EARN
https://bankless.cc/fraxnet
🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN
https://bankless.cc/unichain
🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK
https://bankless.cc/Mantle
💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP
https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep
💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY
https://bankless.cc/bit-digital
------
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
5:09 Markets
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/global-markets-trading-day-graphic-2025-11-13/
https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html
https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-december
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/peter-thiel-sells-entire-nvidia-stake-amid-ai-bubble-fears/articleshow/125379608.cms
https://x.com/amitisinvesting/status/1991263435493974047?s=20
https://coinmarketcap.com/charts/fear-and-greed-index/
https://x.com/intocryptoverse/status/1989965484150628639?s=20
https://x.com/tomcrown/status/1990179433282683287?s=46&t=2ZINVXJQKx6xO_6Wiiu_2g
https://x.com/BitcoinArchive/status/1989337109878964499?s=20
https://cryptohayes.substack.com/p/snow-forecast
https://thedefireport.io/research/btc-market-structure-is-broken#broken-momentum
https://x.com/nic__carter/status/1989713072970178899?s=46&t=2ZINVXJQKx6xO_6Wiiu_2g
25:37 Devconnect
https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1991172751302832498?s=20
https://x.com/adietrichs/status/1991203626358899081?s=20
https://x.com/kocikowski/status/1991202772289745101?s=20
https://x.com/wildbambii/status/1991144720605532336?s=20
https://x.com/richardchen39/status/1990941231937896513?s=20
https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/1990741519301570859?s=20
42:21 Aave App Launch
https://x.com/aave/status/1990421343175672159?s=20
https://x.com/alpha_pls/status/1990453904899706971?s=20
https://x.com/0xMari0/status/1990829156712530307?s=20
46:04 Aztec's Decentralized L2
https://x.com/aztecnetwork/status/1991214517594759652?s=20
https://x.com/lisacuesta/status/1991233718271332597?s=20
48:50 Coinbase's New Features
https://www.theblock.co/post/379516/coinbase-app-code-include-early-prediction-market-stock-trading-modules
https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1990453391252935157
59:35 Bitcoin Purchases by Harvard
https://www.theblock.co/post/378967/harvard-triples-down-on-bitcoin-bet-with-spot-etf-buys-from-worlds-largest-academic-endowment
1:01:21 El Salvador's Bold Bitcoin Moves
https://www.theblock.co/post/378967/harvard-triples-down-on-bitcoin-bet-with-spot-etf-buys-from-worlds-largest-academic-endowment
1:02:26 BlackRock's Ethereum Trust
https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/1991257411483537813?s=20
1:03:24 Institutional Interest in ETH
https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1990460127510695940?s=20
1:05:09 Closing
------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
South Africa