Is crypto still cypherpunk? With Miden co-founder Azeem Khan

In episode 59 of The Crypto Beat, Miden Co-Founder Azeem Khan discusses how most crypto users don’t realize how exposed their on-chain activity really is, drawing parallels to the 1990s encryption wars. He makes the case for “compliant privacy” as the path to institutional adoption, explains why the cypherpunk ethos needs a pragmatic update, and shares what he’s learned from pitching privacy tech to JP Morgan, the SEC, and central banks from Abu Dhabi to Uzbekistan.

OUTLINE
00:00 – Introduction
02:30 – The Illusion of Anonymity
06:25 – The Privacy Rorschach Test
09:01 – Scaling Privacy UX
11:01 – The Regulatory Bottleneck
15:45 – Cypherpunk Ethos in 2026
18:44 – Institutional Adoption Playbook
24:04 – Where Privacy Captures Value
27:49 – The Privacy Token Pump
32:41 – Three Lessons on Privacy

Guest links:
Azeem Khan – ⁠https://x.com/azeemk⁠
Miden – ⁠https://x.com/0xMiden⁠
Tim Copeland – ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/timccopeland⁠⁠⁠⁠
Kelvin Sparks -⁠⁠ https://x.com/imyoungsparks⁠⁠
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