Aya Miyaguchi and Beth McCarthy - Fireside Chat // ECC#2 - Buenos Aires 2025

[applause] Okay, if everyone could gather again, um I am super honored to be here with I am Gucci um and to talk about um how the current focus of Ethereum is very intertwined with our goals at Web3 Privacy. So, if you could please um be quiet very soon. Okay. So, we will um we'll get started. Um I'm Beth McCarthy, program director at Web3 Privacy and um

Hi, I'm Guji from the Ethereum.

Yeah. So, we've heard a lot this morning about how Ethereum was born in the cipher punk movement where privacy and transparency were seen as being complimentary. How do you remember those early conversations about freedom and privacy?

Yeah. Um, so I guess maybe I can start with the earlier day of my involvement in the Um, sorry I can.

Okay. Because I'm having so much trouble hearing you.

Um, if everyone could please quiet down a little bit because it is hard for us to hear each other. Um, okay.

It's people's voice or AC sound too. So,

Oh, yeah. Okay. Anyways,

maybe going back to [laughter]

Yeah. So, speaking about how um privacy and freedom were part of early conversations at the Ethereum Foundation.

Yeah. So maybe before the uh Ethereum Foundation actually uh when I joined this industry crypto industry I don't know can you hear me? It's hard for you to hear [laughter] hope you can hear. Uh so when I joined the industry actually I was surrounded by lots of cipher punks. So my my earest day of uh the indust started at Kraken at the earliest time of Kraken and it was it's probably very different now but um um we were using only like in-house tools for most of the thing like internal chat or only opensource tools uh such as Thunderbird for email and encryption.

So the privacy was not just add-on, it was the culture. And then that's also when I met Vitalik and Ethereum. Uh when I first met him, he was working at our office. He was actually working on the white paper of Ethereum. And then I also met other earlier um time of like Ethereum clues.

And then later I just decided to support Ethereum and Ethereum Foundation because uh among all their people and groups that I met, they were the only group I felt genuinely trying to make the world better but also with very optimistic uh positive spirit. And when I actually joined EA, what I was surprised was everything was very open uh how people were having conversations or how uh ideas were discussed and I felt that it was very different from the culture that I was in before. Um but then eventually the privacy in Ethereum has evolved. It wasn't as visible in the beginning and has evolved into something even more stronger. Meaning um privacy is not just about hiding everything.

It's not all black and white. Uh you can basically program your your own privacy into like what to protect, what to reveal. Um and I think that's the power of optimist in Ethereum. definitely like a culture around openness is able to be cultivated through um building for privacy. So um thinking about that in practice, how your influence has been on Ethereum's culture, practices and value and as you are the one who set the infinite garden as being our ecosystems philosophy.

Um what does that mean to you in terms of how you guide with the practice of subtraction and how is that principle related to privacy? I like a dog is walking along. So, uh yes. Um when I introduce this idea of infinite garden, it's a metaphor to describe how the Ethereum community grows. Participation is permissionless.

We don't use pesticides. Uh no top down control and and it's just like a natural ecosystem. things grow uh with biodiversity like the ideas grow um and we are all playing an infinite game of Ethereum together and for the game to stay infinite uh we can't rely on central power and subtraction comes in there um so basically even can sometimes has has to step back and then create space for others. And when we create space for others, just like this event, like other things grow and um it's it's not about doing this. It is really about eliminating damage, potential damage that could harm um soils of infinite garden with those values.

And recently earlier this year um when when everyone from the Ethereum Foundation got together, I introduced this idea of crops. Uh to to represent these values that are very important to Ethereum, but also what are making Ethereum Ethereum to make it easier for people to remember. uh infinite garden is for glowing clubs and and then we we believe uh ethereum needs to ethereum is growing and it needs to glow but the gross is meaningless if we compromise these values. So that's how now people are using crops um censorship open source and uh privacy and security and then privacy is very very important factor component of this

and um we talked about some really relevant examples of that in practice including in the historical context here in Argentina. So how do you see um this principle playing out in action here? Yeah. Um so maybe before Argentina, Argentina is very in exciting and also interesting place to talk about privacy. But before that um in general I think pe some parts of the world think privacy is something scary or something also only for specific people um need.

But I I think privacy is actually very basic for our life. And using one example is um you living in a house and if you're naked in your house um and then there's a window with no curtain and what you can do or you would do in front of the window would be limited. I mean unless actually maybe it wouldn't be limited for some people but normally it would be limited and then um and that limits like your freedom right what you can do and all the every single house has curtain that's like a basic thing that's that's a privacy the curtain is the privacy tool and then that's how we are living our life but then on the internet it is it is like that we actually expose that level but a lot of people don't don't realize this and the reason why we don't really realize this it's almost like if the window is magic meter and then you think it's a mirror and then from outside they can see you right and that's how we actually living in the internet how much people don't know we were seen and and in Argentina Ina historically like information has been the power to either uh control you you or um protect you right and in in the history there were time humans uh the you know information was against human and then people were erased here in Argentina or information was also used to prove to justice. So it's it's this is probably one of the reason why talking about privacy is interesting here.

That's Yeah.

Yeah. So the basically like information is very powerful and whoever who holds information has more power regardless of whose information is that.

Definitely. And yeah, designing for privacy, understanding situations in which um you are able to, you know, interact in a way that's secure or when you're exposed is so critical for experiencing freedom and experiencing security. Um and um yeah, I guess um just thinking about uh some of the other things that um we were thinking about in that context. Uh with this positive lens on privacy in mind, it's been really exciting to see what Ethereum's current focus has been, what the commitment to privacy means, and to work together towards some of these goals with uh you guys through web3 privacy. Can you share a bit about this and what some of the um use cases and applications are that you're excited to see emerging?

Yeah. Um so maybe well I can show that uh this year uh you might have seen how EF just like showing the clubs how EF is committed to privacy and stewarding that that value of privacy even stronger and that's okay maybe this is on high level you also heard about Kohaku If you're see when Niko and Matarak were talking about hohaku but also other activities actually beyond this I will share the slides later there's some um PSC team um now they're actually aim PSC stands for u privacy stewards of Ethereum and so they're doing all these work some of them were working with different teams in Ethereum foundation and other teams um But I you know like this these are it's not completed just by EF it's impossible and then this is already almost too much for PST to do everything. So we need um people's participation. If you're interested in any of this or maybe even more you can talk to I think there are PS members from PSC at this event too. You can communicate with them and then I think uh this maybe previous slide shows this ZK is something that's I think it's um you know I'm also pretty excited Um and I was in Bhutan the other day to celebrate Bhutan's national ID is now built on Ethereum which is the first country on the national level and um so ZK ID that space and also technology is still being involved and then a lot of people in Ethereum foundation but also others were working together on this uh so I'd like to see more of the privacy component to and then now I think some of us and then others are advocating to for example um EUDI which is like uh EU version of ID system that are trying to rebuild.

So that is exciting speaking uh and then I think these are events that are happening this this week by uh the team PSC but also I think you you guys are working together for some of the event. [laughter]

Yes. Yeah. And then maybe one fun thing to add is it's it's like a some fun artwork that I personally was a little bit involved um is it's it's an art uh that explains this the the word of infinite garden is also programmable cryptography. Uh it's like three videos are interacting with each other without revealing the original footage and that's put it into the art is as a community artist worked on this and it's actually presented at the art science museum in Singapore now for actually a few month. That's pretty

cool. And the our last thing to share.

Yes. Uh so that's that's it I guess we can you can see that um yeah so that you can learn more about their commitment to privacy and also uh the road map of privacy that PSC put together. So um if you want to read deeper into those slides with small writing and double click then I hope that you will check those out. We would love to see you guys at some of the events uh that are happening through this week. I know that a lot of folks from Ethereum and PC are al also here and um how can people get in touch with you if they want to keep talking about these things?

Uh yeah, they can get in touch of the PSC team. I think you can find out about them from this. Yeah. And then also go to these events this week and then you get to meet those.

Yes.

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. We are so excited about building the future of privacy into next year. So,

thank you [applause]