Ameen Soleimani of Privacy Pools | Unpacking Privacy Pools – Motivations, Mechanics, and Tradeoffs

Corey, D, and Jesse chat with Ameen about the motivations behind Privacy Pools, historical references including Tornado Cash and Z Cash, as well as the mechanics and tradeoffs associated with the approach. 

Topics Covered in this episode: 

1. Motivations and history – Ethereum, Coinbase, Tornado Cash, zk-SNARKs, Zcash.
2. How Privacy Pools work – Setup, deposits, association sets, analysis
3. Complexities and Challenges in added infrastructure and coordination
4. Responsibilities and compliance
5. Open source development and how to get involved

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RESOURCES: 

Ameen X

Privacy Pools Paper

Privacy Pools Website

Privacy Pools Github

Fundraiser for Roman Storm and Alex Pertsev

TIMESTAMPS 

00:00 Intro 

5:00 Introducing Amen 

6:30 Why dive into privacy now? 

8:25 Corey’s interpretation and background to the Privacy Pools paper 

11:35 Ameen's motivations for Privacy Pools - history of Ethereum, Coinbase, zk snarks, Z Cash 

11:50 Tornado Cash compliance tool and enhancing the power of compliance 

17:30 Is privacy all or nothing? 

20:30 Mechanics of the privacy pool setup. Deposits, association sets, analysis 

22:15 Week long dispute of proofs and tradeoffs 

24:00 Versions of Privacy Pools, shielded pools, z-cash comparison 

27:00 Maintaining decentralization while working in different jurisdictions 

28:46 The consequences and challenges of building on open systems vs base layer privacy 

32:15 Additional coordination complexity and anonymity sets 

34:35 “Goblins” or small scale thefts and edge case hacks 

39:15 Who will manage the burden of infrastructure? Wallets and important role of relayers. 

46:40 Are Association Set Providers a new set of core users? 

51:00 Narratives are powerful for positive use cases to prevail 

51:58 Who is responsible for judging the association sets of the association set providers? 

56:00 Privacy Pools is just better than the status quo 

56:37 Open source developers working in the space with OFAC. Tornado Cash 

1:02:40 Describe Privacy Pools in ten words or less 

1:03:20 Is what you do difficult? 

1:05:20 Roundtable with Corey, D, and Jesse