Unlike many investors in crypto, I did not pivot to AI in the last few years. However, since 2020, I built some of the deepest understanding in this industry on the intersection of AI and decentralized networks (crypto, web3). From the start, it was very clear that AI models are a centralizing force and the biggest target for government control. That point became market fact last night, with @AnthropicAI’s export control compliance. As an investor in decentralized AI, I know that d-networks are a counterbalance to this state of affairs. In particular, the starting point of sovereign, open, public, decentralized AI is the seemingly insurmountable compute problem. How are people supposed to source more industrial compute for frontier training than these huge trillion dollar companies? The answer is simple: there is enough commodity GPU compute in the world to compete on the frontier, but to make use of it we need new algorithms for training. That’s what a few companies like @gensynai @PrimeIntellect @bageldotcom @Pluralis @NousResearch @MacrocosmosAI @covenant_ai set out to research, while everyone on the planet told them it was impossible. The result is that it is not only possible, but it can be cheaper and nearly as efficient as the alternative process. The second major problem is economic sustainability. Open source models are great, however, they are not economically viable as they don’t have a business model. So far in decentralized AI, only @Pluralis has an answer — by breaking up the weights of the model among participants, we create a business model for tokenized AI models. This is the moment of truth — will AI become fully centralized and fall under censorship and unilateral government control? Or will the AI world realize the importance of public AI on open decentralized networks?

Zcash wouldn't exist without @zooko. He seeded the technical and cultural values of the project that have kept us vigilant in defense of its integrity. Much of Zcash's recent success has been because Zooko plays a less central role in the project, and it has decentralized and grown to transcend him. I think he would agree! But he is still a major spiritual force of the project, and an ally that wants it to succeed. Let's be mindful of the signal we send our next generation of risk takers, by how we treat his legacy. Zcash has a long road ahead of it, and no single one of us can carry it across the finish line. We're all liable to end up in @zooko's shoes one day. You do not want to be on the receiving end of the poetic justice served for the things you said when you were once on the winning team.

Zcash still hits the cypherpunk nerve fr

I love Ethereum but let's not forget about @Zcash. Its origins are cypherpunk and it's still true to those ideals.

Any opportunity to work with Mårten is a good one!

Nice to see this public now @realDanielShorr, @nayr_oac, and team. Phenomenal work. 👏

Done @recmo @philzip @dcbuilder @TACEO_IO! Attestation: gist.github.com/r3ld3v/41b55… You can view the steps to contribute to the World ID 4.0 Trusted Setup here: github.com/worldcoin/world-i…

Hey @AnthropicAI. Claude Code is a great tool. All the whimsical verb choices like contemplating, philosophizing, tomfoolering, etc are cute. You know what else would be cute? Having a context memory that lasted over a prompt or two. Seems this is a known problem. Any plans to fix it?

I left @tfh_technology in October 2025 after three years, where I led Protocol & Applied Research, a team I built largely through the acquisition of Modulus Labs. While I can’t speak to every individual experience referenced in the recent Business Insider piece, I can say plainly that it does not reflect the culture I experienced. TFH built a hard-working, mission-driven team tackling extremely difficult research and engineering challenges. I’m proud of what we accomplished. @alexblania is a thoughtful leader and a good friend. I personally saw him demonstrate empathy and integrity many times, and not just toward me, but across the organization. I remain a strong supporter of the team and am excited to see what TFH and @worldcoin build in the years ahead.

RT @zooko: This gives me a lot of optimism for Zcash: seeing this post on the Zcash Forum from Taylor Hornby forum.zcashcommunity.com/t/a… and th…

Not just "some of" but likely the literal best. An amazing team working on one of the most important projects in crypto.

If it’s not strategic it’s a distraction

Thanks @ForbesTechCncl! Appreciate the opportunity.

Thanks @zmanian. Definitely worth a read. "We've spent a decade building increasingly complex financial instruments atop infrastructure that can't handle basic stress scenarios."

"Déjà vu all over again" 🙂 github.com/zcash/zcash/issue…

100% agree with this thread. I first met @karl_dot_tech and @jinglejamOP in early 2020 along with @VitalikButerin in the @ElectricCoinCo (@Zcash) offices in Denver. @zooko, @nate_zec, @ebfull, @feministPLT, and @str4d all in attendance. Optimism had just been founded. This project has massively moved the ecosystem forward. Truly an OG crew that day. Proud to have been there.

The term nullifier originated in the Zcash github repo AFAIK, specifically here: github.com/zcash/zips/issues…

Love this @bfarmer. Always great working with you and the team at Mir back in the day.

Impressive work from @reilabs_io, a long-time partner of @tfh_technology and the @worldnetwork project. One of the most capable groups of applied cryptographers and engineers I've had the pleasure of working with. Congrats!!