For three years, a counterfeiting bug sat live inside Zcash’s shielded pool, and no one noticed. Then Taylor Hornby pointed a custom Claude Opus 4.8 agent at the code, and it surfaced the flaw in Orchard that had gone undetected since 2022.

Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins debate what that means for privacy protocols, the rotation away from dead-protocol alts, and why Bitcoin’s simplicity may be its strongest security argument yet.

The conversation closes on quantum risk and whether the Lindy effect holds up under the new threat environment.

With:

• • Austin Campbell, Founder, Zero Knowledge Consulting; Adjunct Professor, NYU Stern
  • Ram Ahluwalia, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida
  • Chris Perkins, Co-Host, CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management

This clip is from a longer conversation on AI, security, and the Zcash counterfeiting bug. Full episode here: https://www.youtube.com/live/oSUVTmC3wZo?si=zTopwWKi3ETPD5Rz

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