Payy confirmed 1) They run the zk proving service for wallets 2) They do KYC+tracking for card payments. Implication: Payy sees nearly everything. It's a large caveat to 'private', but beats exposing everything onchain.Still slick—the privacy limits aren't inherent to the UX.

This is the slickest 'private' payment experience I've seen in crypto. Uses the same zk tech we built for Zcash. But private to whom? When you pay crypto address → Payy → Visa/card issuer → merchant, each step has different privacy issues and levels of safety. In more detail:

People say crypto is ruining DC. But crypto (probably) didn't buy the most tasteless Lamborghini I've seen. An SUV. White. Valet parked at Wolfgang Puck in Georgetown. Virginia tags.

Seriously, if you're going to build a dystopian internet to protect children, only apply it to children. Don't 1) require everyone to show ID for social media 2) or let AI decide if your mature enough. Just put spyware on kids devices. Its awful, but at least transparent.

G-HAL: "Im sorry Dave, I can't let you do that. You lack the emotional majority to look at adult content" Dave: " But I'm 27" G-HAL: " But you keep watching the same lowbrau comedy pods.." Jokes aside, this is just as bad as requiring ID on the internet.

When did TLS notaries/oracle/zk TLS first emerge? Chatting with a colleague, we guessed ~2017 in industry and academia. 1st academic paper I know of, however, is 2019 (Deco). For industry, TLS Notary's Git dates to 2014, which seems early.

Its the weekend and I have grant proposals to write, but need a distraction. So here's a crypto meme crudely edited to accurately summarizes the state of privacy techniques on blockchains.

Friend messaged me: Signal's going mainstream. They've got 150+ active chats. Work life invaded their friend space. Its not just Signal being in the news: people don't trust other apps. Too many places to half-ass privacy: be it backups, ads, or an AI reading over your shoulder.

We should rename zk-rollups to k-rollups. It's more succinct. It accurately reflects that they aren't zero-knowledge. And when someone wants to tell you about their cool 'zk' rollup, you can just respond with: k.

It's the year 2030. AIs write all our sitcoms now, but they're just endless FRIENDS clones because the underpaid content moderators in offshore offices learned that's the pinnacle of American comedy.