The Founding of Zero Knowledge Systems with Austin Hill

Zero Knowledge

This week, we present the third installment in the Zero Knowledge Systems story. In this episode, Anna chats with Austin Hill, one of the original founders of Zero Knowledge Systems. They explore the company’s early days, Austin’s background in tech, and what this scene in Montreal was like in the late ’90s. The conversation covers fundraising during the dot-com boom, Zero Knowledge Systems’s ambitious vision for internet privacy, its flagship product Freedom, and how the company pivoted from a broad individual privacy mission to a more focused B2B approach. They cover Austin’s journey after ZKS—including how he discovered Bitcoin, co-founded Blockstream, and navigated the challenges of building a business around open-source infrastructure. He also discusses a new project he's involved in, which ventures into a completely different field—material nanotechnology. We encourage you to check out the first two episodes of the series here and here before diving into this one. Related links:

• Part 1: Back to the Future with Zero Knowledge
• Part 2: Zero Knowledge Systems, Privacy and Security with Jonathan Wilkins
• Zero Knowledge Enemy of the State Shift Article
• Knowing Glances: Understanding Infrastructures of Surveillance

Further reading:

• Zero Knowledge Systems Wikipedia
• Blockstream Website
• Wired Article: Zero-Knowledge: Nothing Personal
• News Burst: Zero-Knowledge open sources Freedom
• Zero-Knowledge Systems Introduces Security and Privacy Tool Suite
• Interview: Austin Hill On Blockstream, Open Source And Privacy

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